This paper is a call to reconceive the past as possibility for the future of anthropology to be decolonized and decentered. Following James Clifford's appeal to recuperating anthropological sensibilities as strategies for living otherwise in uncertain times, I also stress the importance of the idea of dialogue not only among the politically divided but also between the temporary separated: the past and the present. The demand of taking responsibility for the past cannot be denied, for example, as evidenced in the global spread of numerous movements spurred by Black Lives Matter. I narrate the history of anthropological responses to decolonization as continuous since the sixties to the present by reinterpreting such texts as Writing Culture as significant part of it. The idea of dialogue as articulated by M.M. Bakhtin offers a way to reconceptualize the decentered anthropological knowledge as responses to decolonization continuously reinvented.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the process by which the concept of "JIRITSU (independence/autonomy)" became an ideology in the Japanese Long-Term Care Insurance System. The concept of "JIRITSU" was born out of the collaboration among frontline care service workers, members of the expert panel who devised the system, and Ministry of Health and Welfare bureaucrats who sympathized with this idea. On the other hand, the concept of "JIRITSU" was also used in the logic of the attempt to limit the number of people eligible for care service. This paper analyzes these processes based on Annemarie Mol's discussion of the "Logic of Choice/Care," and points out that the two different meanings of "JIRITSU" were compatible because they were both based on the "Logic of Choice," which emphasized the will and choices of the elderly people receiving the care service.

The aim of this study is to investigate how things obtain agency through their interactions with other things. Recent research has shown that agency of things arose from their relationships with human. However, from the perspective of material religion theory, this paper examines how the network of things, such as the material setting surrounding the deity statues, feng shui, offerings, paper money, incense, other deity statues etc. makes the certain deity statue acquire its agency, and through which the statue becomes "lingyan" in Chinese. These ethnographic observations lead us to consider the possibility of the correlations among things themselves generating agency before any human interaction, which is referred as "potential of things acting as agents before human" in this paper.

The production and consumption of textiles rooted in traditional ways of life have undergone radical changes in terms of their materials, technologies, designs, and usage everywhere in the world. Yet those changes are not necessarily linear and common in every situation. The articles compiled under the special theme, Handwork: Authenticity of Hand-woven/Hand-embroidered Textiles "in Print," illustrate the ways in which a variety of actors are involved in the complex process of negotiations to situate traditional textiles in both local and global markets. The cases from Taiwan, China, India, and Turkey, based on long-term fieldwork in the production sites, are examined with a special emphasis on the concept of authenticity, which bears increasing importance in the face of cross-cultural consumption of locally meaningful textiles. At the same time, a concomitant tendency for further mechanization of textile production, typically printing motifs on the surface of fabrics, is analyzed from a viewpoint of its implication for the continuing production of handmade textiles.

Authenticity in the context of today's indigenous arts and crafts is becoming more about the appropriateness of the creator and less about the legitimacy of the style and form of the work. This idea, which also assumes exclusive ownership of the work, is aligned with the globally pervasive notion of intellectual property rights. In this paper, I examine how Taiwanese indigenous peoples, who have begun to participate in the creative industries, accept, enact, and transform authenticity through their weaving and clothing production. Cognizant of the material and linguistic practices through which they make authenticity persuasive, I argue that the perspective of authenticity constructed as discourse needs to be shifted to authenticity "shaped" through the production of objects. In so doing, the creative practices of the local peoples who carry out "dominant classifications" by making particular objects and who attempt to remake those classifications and create new value can be better understood.

This study explores the distinctions between handmade and machine-made embroideries among the Miao people in southwest China, comparing their perceptions of consumers and sellers who often regard the former as authentic and the latter as inferior. Specifically, the study reexamined the authenticity of Miao handicrafts by delving into the embroidery production practices of the Miao, which involve the process of Miao women learning the costume crafting techniques, as well as the evolution of various embroidery techniques at different times. In conclusion, the study proposes that while the satin stitch embroidery where a stencil is used, which gained popularity among the Miao in the 1980s, requires faithful replication of the model, a counted-thread embroidery, which was popular prior that time, requires a slight degree of originality based on the embroidery sample. Furthermore, machine-made embroidery primarily found its place in the satin stitch embroidery where a stencil is used, which was repeatedly duplicated during the handcrafting process. These observations highlight that the Miao engage in two distinct types of handcrafting, namely, replicating a model and creating from a sample. The concept of replicating a model can also be identified in the production process of machine-made embroidery, contributing to the dissemination, establishment, and maintenance of costumes as prestige goods.

This paper examines the conflicting phenomena of printing and handcrafting of skirts of the Hmong (Miao ethnic group) in Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China, as a case study, to clarify the process of acquiring cultural authenticity for ethnic minorities. In China, a multi-ethnic country, what ethnic minorities wear functions as the "ethnic dress" to differentiate ethnic groups. As a result, visual information such as differences in external shapes is emphasized; however, handwork such as dyeing, weaving, and embroidery are becoming extinct. Over the past 30 years, the use of screen prints and printed synthetic fabrics has replaced the wax-dyeing and cross-stitching used for skirts in Hmong.

In recent years, however, an "old style" incorporating handwork has reemerged in the local market. This paper clarifies that there is a process of acquiring authenticity unique to China, as the "old style" plays the role of handcraft as "tradition" and commodification as "innovation."

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the dichotomy between handmade and machine-made products through the phenomenon of "printification," which occurs in the production and consumption of so-called "traditional" textiles, through the lens of ajrakh, a dyed textile produced in the district of Kutch in Gujarat, India. This dichotomy, along with the association of craftsmanship with morality and authenticity, has persisted since 19th century industrialization. However, the boundaries are still not fixed and are expressed differently across various social and cultural contexts.

Ajrakh fabrics have traditionally been produced for local pastoralists by the Khatri artisan community. The emergence of ajrakh reproduction technology during the 1970s led to a shift toward printification in tandem with a revival of traditional techniques. This paper analyzes how producers evaluate various ajrakh products according to their status as "handmade" or "machine-made." Furthermore, in this paper, conflicts over the right to verify the authenticity of ajrakh products are clarified.

This paper illuminates the contemporary development of local hand-made crafts through the case study of patchwork rugs invented and produced in Türkiye (Turkey). Following the success of this new type of rug, digitally printed rugs made to look like patchwork rugs emerged in the 2010s, mass-produced at low prices both in Türkiye and abroad. This led to a gradual backgrounding of authenticity and questions of "whose" textiles are incorporated into each rug, to be replaced with only visual consumption and vintage atmosphere. While the impact of this trend on the existing hand-woven rug industry in Turkey is considerable, making a big splash in the global market and providing a boon to the stagnant domestic hand-woven rug industry, the producers and merchants of patchwork rugs are severely critical of them. I will examine their survival tactics showing how they work with patchwork rugs as commodities and how they deal with their dilemma.

Although twelve years have passed since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident, most former residents have decided not to return to their homeland, even after the evacuation orders were lifted. This article focuses on the lives of three newcomers in Namie town and explores what it means to live in a town that former residents consider not yet ready for ordinary life. Drawing on the concept of liminality, I argue that Namie's transitional process of recovery is not only identical to a state of liminality, but also stuck in a permanent state of liminality. This article also demonstrates how Namie's liminal situation affects the newcomers' lives, as they find meaning in living in Namie but not without contradictions and compromises.