Anthropology 254

PART FOUR:

Further Dimensions of Metropolitan Modernity

11/6 W Faith in a rational world: Ways of healing in contemporary Japan

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]

Readings:

Ian Reader, "Unifying Traditions, Cosmological Perspectives and the Vitalistic Universe," in his Religion in Contemporary Japan, pp. 194-233 (University of Hawaii Press, 1991) BL2209/R42/1991

Winston Davis, "A Lady in White Comes to the Door," chapter 2 of his Dojo: Magic and Exorcism in Modern Japan, pp. 17-29 (Stanford University Press, 1980) BL65/M2/D38

11/8 F VIDEO DOCUMENTARY: "The Yamaguchi Story"

Reading:

Murray Sayle, "Nerve Gas and the Four Noble Truths," The New Yorker, pp. 56-71, April 1, 1996

11/11 M Multi-ethnic Japan: Beyond "the modern myth of homogeneity"

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]

Readings:

Sonia Ryang, "Diaspora and Beyond: There is No Home for Koreans in Japan," Review of Korean Studies 4 (2): 55-86 (2001)

11/13 W The pleasures and profits of mass culture

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]

Readings:

Sharon Kinsella, "Cuties in Japan," in Lise Skov and Brian Moeran (eds.), Women, Media, and Consumption in Japan, pp. 220-254 (U Hawaii P, 1995). P94.5/W652/J38X/1995

Mark Schilling, "Doraemon" and "Downtown," entries in his The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture, pp. 39-52 (Weatherhill, 1997) DS822.5/S3/1997

11/15 F VIDEO DOCUMENTARY: "Baseball in Japan"

Readings:

William W. Kelly, " Summer Koshien Tournament: Field of Dreams and Drama" Asahi Evening News,September 7, 1997

Robert Whiting, "A Philosophy," chapter 3 in his You Gotta Have Wa: When Two Cultures Collide on the Baseball Diamond, pp. 52-77 (Macmillan, 1989) GV863.77/A1/W47/1989

11/18 M Japanese sportscapes (1): professional baseball

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]

Readings:

William Kelly, "Blood and Guts in Japanese Professional Baseball," in Sepp Linhart and Sabine Frühstück (eds.), The Culture of Japan as Seen Through Its Leisure, pp. 95-112 (SUNY Press, 1998)

William Kelly, "An Anthropologist in the Bleachers: Cheering a Japanese Baseball Team," Japan Quarterly, October-December, pp. 66-79 [1997].

11/20 W Japanese sportscapes (2): women's professional wrestling

11/22 F VIDEO DOCUMENTARY: Gaea Girls

Reminder: The final draft of the course essay (Assignment 2) wil be due on Monday, December 9, by 4:30 p.m.