Giving People “History”: The Epistemology of Comparative Linguistics in Fuyu Ifa

Abstract

This paper examines the ways in which the human sciences of modern Japan during the Meiji period gave “history” to people. By the end of the 19th century, there was no clear consensus that people had a history. The historical narratives that traced the origins of people, existed only in the form of myths about the Tennō (the Japanese Emperor). However, the fields of comparative linguistics and physical anthropology began to consider history without relying on mythological explanations. Comparative linguistics discovered the “history of language itself” through the process of regular changes in speech sounds, and furthermore, it severed the connection between the concepts of language and race. Comparative linguists attempted to bridge this separation by turning to physical anthropology, which argued for a “history of the body itself” through the anthropometry. This reconnection made it possible to consider the “history” of people without relying on mythical narratives or the subjective authority of figures like monarchs. Michel Foucaults concepts of “dehistoricization” and “historicization” in The Order of Things, as well as Étienne Balibars analysis of how a racial community closed off an essentially open linguistic community, support these analyses. To clarify the relationship between language, race, and history, this paper analyzes the discourses of Meiji period comparative linguists, including Basil Hall Chamberlain1), Kazutoshi Ueda2), and Izuru Shinmura3). It also clarifies how Fuyu Ifa4) gave “history” to the Ryukyuan (Okinawan) people as historical subjects.