Anthropology 149B

A newspaper released the results of an unscientific poll that suggest Japanese teenage girls aspire to be "nursery school teachers or housewives". Because it confirms our biases, I'll link to it anyway.

Thursday the 15th, 8pm

1150 Hart (the same room as the first discussion session)



We'll cover the review sheet. Bring questions (and answers).

Here's today's discussion questions

The Jidai Matsuri festival , which takes place every year in Kyoto, is documented over at Japundit . There are some nice pictures of the parade and a good and brief discussion of imperial history.

I ran across this ... Not exactly related to this course, but we saw ikebana in the movie we just saw. There some good questions at the bottom of the post.

Ikebana schools are amazingly profitable and long lived enterprises. (Their revenue comes from selling classes in flower arranging.) The highest ranking member of the school is not the winner of a tournament but the familial heir of the previous headmaster.

For example: the current headmaster of a leading school is a member of the 45th generation of the same family: http://www.ikenobo.jp/english/ikenobo/iemoto/index.html

And another major school, founded in 1927, now has the fourth master from the same family: http://www.sogetsu.or.jp/english/ie_history/index.html

Questions: What if there are no dynastic heirs or heiresses that are artistic geniuses? Wouldn't making them masters then be inefficient? Why are ikebana schools run as family dynasties to begin with?

Comments and testable hypotheses are welcome.

Here's the exercise sheet (pdf file) we went through yesterday.

Here is the transcript of a speech that President Bush gave today (Wednesday) in Kyoto.



How do you think the Japanese audience reacted to the following aspects of the speech?

• The President describes Prime Minister Koizumi's father as having been a "Japanese Official" during WWII. To me, this insinuates that Senior Koizumi was a bureaucrat, something I wouldn't take to be a complement.
• "Japan is a good example of how a free society can reflect a country's unique culture and history while guaranteeing the universal freedoms that are the foundation of all genuine democracies."
• "By founding the new Japan [after WWII] ... you have changed the face of Asia. " Generally, the President tends to describe Japan as a (or the) leader in Asia.
• "By embracing political and economic liberty, you have improved the lives of all your citizens and you have shown others that freedom is the surest path to prosperity and stability." How might "political and economic liberty" be translated into Japanese? Think about the discussion in Rosenberger (pg. 33) regarding the writing of the Constitution after the war. How about these phrases: "freedom is an Asian value because it is a universal value" and "nations grow in wealth and stature when they trust in the wisdom and talents of their people?"
• The President spends a lot of time on 'foreign aid' that Japan provides to the rest of the world.
• Mr. Bush also spends some time talking about South Korea, Taiwan and China.
  
  

Just figuring the content of this one speech, the particular phrases used, what do you think the chances are that someone on the president's speech writing staff has taken a class like ANT 149B?! :-)