Dualistic modes of thought that polarize society and individual are deeply rooted in social science. Is there any way to go beyond these oppositions convincingly? Here I examine the concept of agency as a step towards answering this question. The discussion initially covers the body of theory on ritual stimulated by the central concept of performativity in J. L. AUSTIN'S theory of speech acts as developed by TAMBIAH, AHERN, and BLOCH. Then, on the way to conceptualizing the subject/agent, I discuss ALTHUSSER'S concept of the subject and BUTLER'S arguments on "interpellation" or performativity in every day life. Finally, after clarifying problems arising from the concept of "community of practice," I advocate the alternative idea of "community of performativity."

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Will "truth" help "peace"? Inspired by this question, this article examines from an anthropological perspective an accountability institution in Sierra Leone, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The institution was established in a country just emerging from the atrocities of an eleven-year war. While such a mechanism for dealing with the past becomes increasingly popular in the international community, this article attempts to address the gap between the anticipated outcomes of the TRC and the actual impact which the TRC has had upon people and society. The methodology is a conceptual and contextual analysis of the institution, with reference not only to academic literature but also to findings from fieldwork. It scrutinizes the problematic links between truth-telling and healing, and between truth-finding and reconciliation. As a whole, this article aims to be an innovative anthropological study by addressing complex issues that have often been neglected in preceding literature on accountability institutions.

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This paper discusses briefly the contours of the transformations in Chinese family structure and Confucianism's role during the past century by taking the case of Lijiawan village in Hubei Province. I will make three points. First, I will analyze how the structure of the joint family functioned during traditional times before Liberation and during the period after Liberation. I will argue that, contrary to the theories of YANG (1959), FREEDMAN (1966) and others, the joint family has survived among the poor, and that the survival of the joint family rests on the Confucian values and social influence of the patriarch. Second, I will argue that in order to understand the changes and continuities in family structure during the time after Liberation, it is necessary to differentiate the family structure in the people's commune period from the family structure seen since economic reforms. I will use this useful differentiation to analyze family structure. Third, I will argue that although Confucianism's moral code weakened during the period after the people's communes, the religious aspects of Confucianism that valued patrilineal ideology remained relatively strong. The intense traditional ambition to propagate the male line has not changed despite significant changes in the forms of the traditional family.

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This article offers a critical overview of research conducted by Japanese anthropologists on North East Africa over the past decade. Having faced internally postmodern criticism on writing ethnography and power relations between the researchers and the being researched on the one hand, and having observed the great transformation of society and massive predicaments of the people in the region on the other, each of them was obliged to reconsider the issue of "subject" and "object." This inevitably expanded their scope of study both in time and space, while firmly setting both legs in a specific locality or keeping our focus on a specific people. In this way, during the last decade, we have had a flow of new ethnographic studies, which has contributed to the development of anthropology in Japan and beyond.

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