This essay examines the changes in regulatory control of gambling, especially illegal lotteries, in the Philippines. There, as in other modern states, the government has regarded gambling as problematic immoral behavior since the colonial era and has operated legal forms of gambling while prohibiting other forms. However, once democratic politics was introduced during the American colonial era, illegal lotteries expanded as a source of campaign funds, protected by corrupt politicians and polices. Since then, illegal lotteries have gained nationwide popularity, and illegal gambling syndicates have grown to be important political financers. Although the central government has resisted corruption by creating and promoting state-run gambling, all attempts to eliminate illegal activities have failed; even presidents have been corrupted and have benefited from the illegal market. To overcome a hotbed of corruption and reduce illegal activities, the current Philippine government led by President Duterte is strongly seeking to secure a monopoly over all forms of gambling in the country. Duterte’s policy of legalizing illegal lotteries is intended to monopolize a huge source of political funds generated by the gambling market.

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In a previous paper on indigenous polities and their origin myths in the Lionese-speaking area of central Flores, eastern Indonesia [Sugishima 2017], I explored the Austronesian context in which an “unmarried” sister of the supreme chief assumes the status of female chief in Lise Tana Telu, the largest Lionese chiefdom. Although not all chiefdoms have such a female chief, it is widely recognized that the primordial cross-sex sibling bond in mythical, ritual and other forms is the source of life at the level of indigenous polity. Such siblingship at the polity level takes various forms in the Lionese-speaking area. As a sequel to the previous paper, this article examines on the basis of my recent field research in central Flores the hypotheses and typologies of the diversities previously presented. It then expands the scope of comparative research to the Rajadom of Sikka, which extends to the east of the Lionese-speaking area. In the concluding remarks, phenomena that may be the subject of the comparative research are listed from central part of insular Southeast Asia and Polynesia, and the directions in which future research should be developed are envisioned. One of them is a critical reconsideration of Sahlins’ theory of stranger-king [e.g. Sahlins 1981, 2008], which does not take into account the fundamental importance of the primordial cross-sex sibling bond in indigenous Austronesian polities.

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Myanmar has a large number of rural landless households, even in the Central Dry Zone (CDZ) which does not have extensive rice cultivation. A hypothesis which explains it is that the palm sugar (jaggery) production industry has historically absorbed the labor in this zone. Although the industry has been in decline in recent years due to the sluggish demand growth for jaggery and a lack of palm climbers, in some areas the industry is still active. This study, based on the data from a village in the CDZ, shows the high labor absorptive power of the jaggery industry and how the landless palm climbers make a living by renting palm trees from farmers and selling jaggery to traders. Our focus is on the special credit relations between the climbers and jaggery traders. Their interlinked transactions as sellers and buyers of jaggery and as debtors and creditors has continued for generations. The credit is mainly extended during the lean season for consumption purposes and repaid throughout the next production season of jaggery. Money for purchasing foodstuff and other necessities by the climbers is given priority before repayment. The whole system functions to ensure minimum subsistence of the climbers. The estimated implicit interest rate of 3.4% per month is lower than the normal rates charged by local moneylenders. This credit relation has persisted even though there is a microfinance program operated by an international NGO, which covers nearly half of the landless households.

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West Nile Sub-region in northwestern Uganda shares borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and South Sudan. This region has been marginalized politically and economically by its physical distance from central government in southern Uganda. This is related partly to social and economic disparity during the colonial period, and partly to the delay of developmental investment in the region due to the destabilization caused by violent incidents and administrative changes, which continued for several decades after Ugandan independence.

This article focuses on two issues. Firstly, it looks into what kind of violence people in West Nile faced after Idi Amin’s regime fell in 1979 until the current government seized power in 1986. Secondly, it examines peoples’ experiences during their exile and after repatriation. According to archival data obtained from Arua District in West Nile and a literature review, the violence of this period can be categorized into the following three types: ‘revenge’ by the UNLF government against former soldiers of Amin’s army; disturbance of political rivals and their supporters during the general election of late 1980; and the massacre and widespread damage in northern, eastern and central West Nile. This resulted in a tremendous number of killings, including those of ordinary people. However, it is complex and difficult to identify killers and victims.

Empirical data obtained by fieldwork among the Lugbara people in a rural village bordering with DRC shows that, even in this situation, some factors enabled people to evacuate and repatriate easily and strategically compared to other parts of West Nile. This article explores how kinship ties extending beyond the national border worked to help residents make their lives secure, and it concludes that it is important to pay attention to the complexity of triggers which prompted people to take refuge, and to the diversity of ways people escaped to the neighboring states.

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This paper focusses on the heads and munshis (native language teachers) of the Hindustani Department at Fort William College (FWC), who undertook several educational and translation activities. Further, this paper attempts to organise information on their careers and activities at the college. FWC was established in Calcutta in 1800 with the aim of educating junior officers of the British East India Company who were to be assigned to administrative posts in India. Although the college was abolished in 1854, it succeeded in producing many competent individuals. The FWC Faculty Division was divided into the European Establishment and the Native Establishment. Western teachers belonged to the European Establishment, and teachers from the East belonged to the Native Establishment. One of the characteristics of FWC was that munshis worked under the instruction of European teachers. The language teachers at FWC mainly taught one or more Indian languages such as Hindustani, Arabic, Persian, and Bengali. Heads of the Hindustani Department who followed John Borthwick Gilchrist produced no noteworthy achievements, but they did work to promote FWC’s educational activities and the status of teachers. In addition, FWC hired munshis in a way that was recognised by FWC officials, and the munshis were invited to the college. It is noteworthy that Lallulāl was a munshi at FWC for an extended period and emphatically promoted FWC’s publication activities. Such activities by the munshis prolonged the continuation of FWC.

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Kajimaru Gaku
Eisuke Yanagisawa. Gongs Resonate in the Land of Vietnam. Kyoto: Tokosha, 2019, 331 p.

Kusaka Wataru
Ayako Masuhara, Ayame Suzuki, Tatsuki Kataoka, Satoshi Miyawaki and Hiroko Furuya. Introduction to Southeast Asian Politics. Tokyo:Yuhikaku Publishing Co., Ltd., 2018, 303 p.

Ubukata Fumikazu
Jin Sato. Inversion of Environmental States: Beyond the Trap of “Sustainability.” Nagoya: The University of Nagoya Press, 2019, 366 p.

Nakano Makibi
Rintaro Ono, Kazufumi Nagatsu and Michiko Intoh, eds. Maritime People in Western Pacific: Archaeological and Ethnographic Studies. Kyoto: Showado Press, 2018, 400 p.

Kondo Yukiko
Aya Tsuruta. Reexamining the Genocide : The Historical Trajectory of Rwanda. Nagoya: The University of Nagoya Press, 2018, vi + 352 p.

Kabasawa Asami
Takanori Oishi, Shiaki Kondo and Mitsuho Ikeda, eds. Human History from Dog’s Perspective. Tokyo: Bensei Publishing, 2019, 499 p.

Watanabe Ayaka
Hiroyuki Seto and Yasuyuki Kono, eds. Local Societies and their Struggles for Survival during and after Wars in Mainland Southeast Asia: Experiences of Refugees, Women, Ethnic Minorities and Surrenderers. Tokyo: Akashishoten, 2020, 328 p.

Kimura Daiji
Takashi Sugishima. Anthropology of Communicative Ontology. Kyoto: Rinsen Book Co., 2019, 360 p.

Oishi Takanori
Ippei Ebihara, Haruo Saito and Fumikazu Ubukata, eds. Forest and Human Culture: The Future of Folk Knowledge in Changing Human-forest Interactions. Forest Science Series vol.12. Tokyo: Kyoritsu Shuppan Co., Ltd., 2019, 288 p.

Fujikura Tatsuro
Eijiro Hazama. Gandhi’s Sexuality and Nationalism: The Independence Movement as “Experiments with Truth.” Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 2019, 390 p.

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[in Japanese]

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