Japanese Journal of Cultural Anthropology
Online ISSN : 2424-0516
Print ISSN : 1349-0648
ISSN-L : 1349-0648
Volume 84, Issue 1
Displaying 1-27 of 27 articles from this issue
front matter
Special Theme: The Anthropology of the State and Governance
  • Makoto Nishi
    2019 Volume 84 Issue 1 Pages 005-018
    Published: 2019
    Released on J-STAGE: September 04, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • Traffic Order Making and Motorbike Taxies in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone
    Hideyuki Okano
    2019 Volume 84 Issue 1 Pages 019-038
    Published: 2019
    Released on J-STAGE: September 04, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    In the study of African states, especially in political anthropology and political science, analysis of patronclient relations in the logic of rule and governance is one of important topics. These arguments assume that societies in Africa are ruled through the interpersonal relations between patrons and clients which are highly personal characteristics. International aid organizations and developed countries demanded implementations of fair elections and introduction of bureaucratic system in the assumption that the representative democracy and bureaucratic operations can dispel interpersonal rules. However, fair elections and bureaucratic system cannot dispel patron-client relations. This paper argues that these two different logics existing hand by hand in the daily operations of the Sierra Leone Commercial Bike Riders Union (SLCBRU). The SLCBRU is one of actors of traffic governance, which was established in 2011. It can be interpreted that the riders and the executive members establish positive relations in-between spaces of bureaucracy and patron-client relations through the morality of the later. The interpersonal relations between the executive members and riders work for implementation of the bureaucratic works of SLCBRU smoothly.

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  • Rotation System and Traditional Authorities in the Igbo Society of Nigeria
    Hisashi Matsumoto
    2019 Volume 84 Issue 1 Pages 039-057
    Published: 2019
    Released on J-STAGE: September 04, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    This paper discusses the influence of national politics on local practice among the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria. I examine the rotation system and its application to the selection of local leaders. The rotation system is an electoral arrangement acquired popularity after the 1999 democratization. Based on a series of events related to the selection of traditional authority in an Igbo community, I analyze the ways people interpret their experience regarding national politics and appropriate it into their local practice to shape the fairness of political participation.

    The Igbos regard the rotation system as their traditional method instead of the new system created for national elections. This helps the rotation system merge with the communities' moral intent and gives it plausibility as a system to ensure political fairness. However, as the basis for their understanding, the Igbos not only cite their tradition within the community, but also their political experience with national affairs. The people expect the rotation system to stand outside of their tradition and ensure political fairness as a system of state governance, which operates of its own accord.

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  • Rwandan Citizenship Prescribed by the State and People's Morality
    Yukiko Kondo
    2019 Volume 84 Issue 1 Pages 058-077
    Published: 2019
    Released on J-STAGE: September 04, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    This study examined how people tried to rebuild their morality after the 1994 Rwandan genocide through systems established by the Rwandan state, such as genocide commemoration forums and the Survivors' Fund. Although these systems have been expected to subsume those divided by the genocide and those who should be classified as "Rwandan," the nation's history has recognized Tutsi as a "survivor," namely, "full citizen," and Hutu as a "perpetrator," or "second-class citizen." However, most people in villages were threatened during the genocide and caught in the "gray zone" in which one was unable to distinguish right from wrong. People could receive others' pain by observing their affect, which was brought about by memories that cannot be controlled or spoken of. The affect can cause the development of the imagination around these personal memories and the accompanying suffering. By apprehending the pain of others, it is possible to overcome the system based on politics of recognition that produces the divide between citizens.

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  • Hybrid Political Orders among the Nuer of Post-independence South Sudan
    Eri Hashimoto
    2019 Volume 84 Issue 1 Pages 078-093
    Published: 2019
    Released on J-STAGE: September 04, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    The Nuer of Southern Sudan are known as a society of "ordered anarchy," which was once described by Evans-Pritchard. Since the British colonial era, Nuer society has experienced multiple powers, leaderships, and institutions, and has lived in hybrid political orders coping with different actors, such as government troops, government chiefs, and anti-government rebels. The aim of this article is to describe how the Nuer people imagine and deal with their state in multiple forms of "orders" in post-independence South Sudan. By focusing on several practices and ideas in terms of "papers," which are used as a medium to experience their state or the government, this article elucidates the process of how several forms of orders––modern administrative systems and Nuer notions of leadership or their authenticity––negotiate and create an acceptable style of governance that can be shared with many Nuer people who are in different situations, such as soldiers in anti-government troops, refugees, and literate elites in the town.

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