This paper is an analysis of the interrelationships of the disciplines of Folklore, Volkskunde, and Ethnology, with particular emphasis on Volkskunde, in Eurdpe and America, with a comparison of the developments of the same sciences in Japan. 1. Terminology : Words which have been used to denote the science of Folklore include such terms as: Folklore ; Traditions populaires; Folklife research ; Volkskunde : Demology ; Laographia ; Ethnology ; Ethnography ; and many others. The present trend is to limit terminology to such words as : Folklore ; Volkskunde ; Ethnology ; Ethnography ; Cultural Anthropology ; and Social Anthropology. 2. Folklore : This word is used to denote both (1), the materials of folklore, and (2) , the science of Folklore. The former concept, in Japan, is generally taken to mean the orally transmitted, spiritual tradition of the folk, and includes such items as : survivals in a modern urban milieu ; the traditional part of folk culture ; the comprehensive term for a class of traditional phenomena ; degenerated religion ; folktales ; orally transmitted popular literature ; oral tradition ; folk culture, and so forth. The character of Folklore science varies with the differing elements included in the individual interpretations of the term folklore. 3. Folk (Volk) : In Folklore, Volkskunde, and Ethnology, the term folk is an inportant concept. Japanese folklorists usually use the word folk to mean "the common people," and it is understood to embody such concepts as : nation ; lower stratum; old fashioned segments within a complex civilization ; basic culture carrying social stratum ; mental and emotional communion, etc. 4. Volkskunde : The word Volkskunde, just as is the case with the term Folklore science, is taken to denote a number of related concepts, such as : folk culture ; survivals in folk culture : peasantry and their tradition ; people (Volk) ; soul of the people ; folklife ; man (science of man). 5. Methods : There are four basic approaches to research : Historical, geographical, sociological, and psychological. Many combinations of these methods are in use. When Folklore science in Japan was founded, it was greatly influenced by the folklore studies of mid-ninteenth century England, and it continues to be based on the principals of historical reconstruction. However, as the disciplines of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology develop, the scope of research broadens and today, as in Europe, the tendancy toward regional Ethnology is becoming stronger.

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The purpose of this study is to analyse and interpret the view of the world held by Micronesians. The author has analysed the meaning and the basic idea of the afterworld view, the concept of the soul, cosmology, the concept of deities and other cultural phenomena among the Micronesians. As a result of the analysis we can summarize following principles : 1. The use of a canoe at the funeral ritual represents directly the idea that the soul of the dead goes to the other world by canoe. Since this custom is spread over almost all the islands of Micronesia, we can assume that this belief is a basic idea among the Micronesians. This idea of a "ship of soul" is connected with burial in the sea floating the corpse out to sea in a canoe. 2. This idea also shows itself in the following manifestations : The land of the dead is beyond the sea (generally in the west), which was the original home of their ancestors, and the soul of the dead makes its journey to the next world along the route their ancestors taken from their original home. Such beliefs are especially strong in the Gilbert and Marshall islands in the east of Micronesia. The basic idea is that the soul of the dead returns to the original home of its ancestors (Urheimate). According to VROKLAGE, this idea is related to the latter megalithculture in Southeast Asia and Oceania which runs parallel to Donson culture. The idea of "the island of the dead" is also held on Palau and Yap in west Micronesia. In their myth, the island is place where human beings originated in the ancient past. 3. Along with those ideas there is a kind of eschatological world view which is manifested in the following expressions : The bridge between this world and other world, the dreadful watchman (woman) of the other world, the two great stones which crush souls, the second or the third death in the other world. According to HEINE-GELDERN, this eschatological world view is often connected with Megalithentum's world view. The above mentioned three principles are integrated in a complex concept which, we can guess, is generally connected with the ideology of Megalithentum. 4. Apart from this above-mentioned type, there is another idea of an afterworld in heaven, which is also the abode of the gods. This idea is held all over the Caroline Islands in the middle of Micronesia. There, sky-gods play prominent roles in a mythological world. Along with this idea, there are the following ideas: A stratified heaven, a contrapositioning of heaven and the underworld, and a world-tree which extends from the underworld to the earth and on to heaven. This integrated complex concept is related to the cosmology of Shamanism and higher cultures. As mentioned above, we can reach the following hypothesis : The primary idea that the dead go to the land of souls in a small boat is spread over almost all Micronesia. Especially in eastern Micronesia the idea of an afterworld over the sea or of a paradise under the sea is expressed in elaborate form. This idea is connected with the current of the latter Megalith culture. A little later, the new idea of an afterworld in heaven with high gods penetrated into the middle of Micronesia. Then the idea of the soul's ascendance to heaven in a canoe was developed. Thus there is enough evidence to suppose a relationship to similar manifestations in Shamanism.

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FORTES (1949) has mentioned the correlation between the survival of a dead man's social personality and the prohibition on his widows' sexual intercourse until the end of the final funeral of the husband. He argues that up to the time of the final funeral, widows continue to belong sexually to their dead husband and so they should refrain from remarrying during the period. A correlation of this sort seems to deserve further consideration, for it raises the following questions : (1) Why does the social personality have to be kept existing for a considerable length of time, even after the man's death? (2) Why should a man's social personality be symbolized in the prohibition of his former wives' sexual acts? (3) Why is control over the widow's behavior exercised not by legal sanctions but by means of supernatural ones, particularly in the form of taboo? First of all in a unilineal society in which the control over political, economic, religious and domestic affairs is vested only in a senior member of a kin group, an elder's death results in considerable confusion. Since the occupant of one position in the social network must be replaced by a new person, and since the successor to the dead man may have performed many different roles, this confusion may be due. Thus it would seem better to transfer the complex of roles after a considerable length of time since the death. Meanwhile such roles may be fulfilled by a proxy under the dead man's name. In this way the social personality, which means the complex of roles vested in one person, should survive until the succession is completed. The dead man's social personality is said to be symbolized in two things : his property and his wife, or wives. In a corporate society being characterized by joint ownership of main properties, i. e., land and cattle, and by mutual responsibility in legal matters, a man is not an owner but a caretaker of these properties. They do not belong to him but are in his charge. On the other hand he can exercise his full authority exclusively over his wife's sexual acts. A wife, then, seems to characterize her husband's individuality in full. This might be the reason why one's social personality is symbolized in his wife or wives. A husband, however, should never severely punish his wife, for in such a corporate society. the right to give a legal sanction to a person belongs solely to one's descent group. The husband's kin secure such a right over children if they have completed paying the bride wealth to wife's group. But the former achieves no right from the latter to exercise any legal authority over the married-in women. Thus after a husband's death nobody out of his kin can rightfully force his widows to refrain from having sexual intercourse with other men. The widows, meanwhile, need to be sexually faithful to their dead husbands for a period of time for the reason indicated above. The sanction over the widows' sexual acts should, then, be enforced not by legal punishments but by supernatural ones. Among African peoples, ancestor worship and witchcraft beliefs are both very active. Ancestors, however, influence only their direct descendants and so wives are not under the power of their husband's ancestors. On the other hand witchcraft accusations are often found in marital relations, between affinal relatives and between cowives, though, it is always associated with definite reasons such as the troubles accompanying property inheritance, competition for a status of high privilege, or refunding of bride wealth.

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