Onisaburo Deguchi, one of the founders of Omotokyo, is a great thinker in the field of Japanese new religions. I would like to analyze the “Universal Love and Brotherhood” movement through its fine arts, martial arts, agriculture, and Esperanto activities. Few scholars have taken notice of the book, “Stories from the Spiritual World” written by Onisaburo. I want to elucidate the essence of this book, namely, its post-modern theory of human freedom. In addition to this, I give accounts of the suppression of Omotokyo and the relationship between new religions and Modern Japan.

Key Words: new religion, Omotokyo, Universal Love and Brotherhood, post-modern, Stories from the Spiritual World

The purpose of this paper is to review previous studies concerning the traditional knowledge and worldview of the Inuit in Arctic anthropology in order to reveal the theoretical problems with these studies, and to look for a way to solve them, based on certain theories, such as the ‘theory of practice’, which propound to solve the problem of ‘essentialism’. First, I shall review the studies on the traditional knowledge and worldview of the Inuit in Arctic anthropology since the latter half of 19th century. In this section, it is shown that the studies on Inuit ‘Traditional Ecological Knowledge’ since the 1970’s, which rectified the ethnocentric viewpoint of ‘ethnoscience’ studies before the 1970’s, presenting a ‘relativistic’ perspective and describing the knowledge and worldview of the Inuit from the Inuit view point, can nevertheless be criticized as ‘essentialistic’. These studies failed to grasp the effect of the Inuit individual on ‘traditional ecological knowledge’ and froze Inuit ‘traditional ecological knowledge’ as an unchanging knowledge system. Then, I try to find a way to rectify the ‘essentialistic’ perspective of Inuit ‘traditional ecological knowledge’ studies, based on the methodology proposed by Jean Lave (1995), a ‘theory of practice’ theorist. Furthermore, based on my examination of Lave’s methodology, I redefine ‘traditional ecological knowledge’ as a dynamic process of dialectical interaction between culture and the individual. Finally, based on this definition, I propound a method to revitalize the ethnography of ‘traditional ecological knowledge’ as a crossroads of cultures.

Key Words: Inuit, traditional ecological knowledge, ethnoscience, essentialism, theory of practice, ethnography

The Soninke people have featured in international migration studies since the great movement to France from their “home ground” in West Africa during the latter half of the twentieth century. Their migration was always considered to be the labor migration. That approach overlooked the whole dynamism of Soninke migration.
The Soninke have always had a tradition of migration in their ethnic culture. The migrants still belong to the “home ground” even when they are outside. Migration is an act recommended by family and society in order to make a name in society. It is a cultural activity and also a source of economic vitality.
Soninke migration has extended to Asia since the 1980s. This paper reports on their migration tendency. The main source of information is narrative data collected in field researches. Here, I describe the itineraries of their migration and their economic activities in order to compare with the concept of “diaspora”.

Key Words: Africa, Soninke, international migration, diaspora, economic activity, Asia

The investigation of social relations amongst prehistoric Thule Eskimo bowhead whaling societies in the eastern Canadian Arctic has traditionally been based upon ethnographic analogies drawn from historic Eskimo societies in this region. However, these historic Eskimo societies engaged in comparatively little bowhead whaling, and were generally much smaller, more mobile, and less logistically and institutionally organized than we can expect Thule whaling societies to have been. Accordingly, it is suggested that the North Alaskan Eskimo umialiit-kariyit whaling complex provides a far more appropriate analogy. This paper describes the umialiit-kariyit whaling complex as ethnographically documented in northern Alaska, defines its associated archaeological correlates, and applies these correlates to three Thule whaling sites on Somerset Island in the eastern Canadian Arctic.

*Department of Anthropology, McGill University, Canada
  Visiting Scholar, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka

Key Words: Thule Eskimo Culture, social relations, Umialiit-Kariyit, prehistoric whaling

A stone tidal weir is a traditional kind of fishing gear that is constructed on seaward or lagoonward slopes. It takes advantage of the fluctuations of tidal movement. Many types of stone weir are found in East Asia, Southeast Asia and the South Pacific areas. However, during the past few decades most of them have gone out use with the introduction of more effective and modernized fishing gear. It is, therefore, an urgent task for researchers to study the state of stone weirs in local fisheries and the process of their disappearance. The aim of this essay is to provide basic and general illustrations of stone weir fishing by referring to ethnographic and other writings on fisheries around the world. In the course of discussion the structure and forms of ownership of stone weirs will also be examined from an ecological viewpoint. The most important contributions of this essay are given as follows. (1) The construction of stone tidal weirs has a close relationship to tidal range and (2) a variety of forms of ownership and utilization patterns of stone tidal weirs are found in various parts of the world.

Key Words: stone tidal weir, tide, tidal flat, coral reef, ownership, utilization pattern, Asia and the Pacific regions