Fishing is one of the most challenging human activities. Its aim is to catch fish, which are invisible in the vast ocean. Fishermen must acquire and utilize the "knowledge of reading the sea", to analyze fish behavior, determine fishing spots, interpret the tide and current, and read the wind. In this study, I examine the knowledge of reading the sea, as it has been cultivated by a skillful fisherman, Mr. Yukyo Uehara, of Itoman, Okinawa. "The Knowledge" which is possessed by those people who live in a deep relationship with their natural environment, has been called "traditional ecological knowledge (TEK)" or "ethno-science". In studies of TEK and ethno-science, this type of knowledge (here, I call it "people's knowledge") has been compared with scientific knowledge. In such a dualistic way of viewing knowledge, people's knowledge has been represented as if it were isolated from science and technology (which is one of the products of science). And, in many studies, this knowledge has been idealized as if the people who possessed it represented the way to live in harmony with nature. However, in these times, societies that maintain no relation whatsoever to science and technology are few, and it is difficult to imagine people' s knowledge that has not been influenced by them. Moreover, people' s knowledge should not be idealized without examining how the holders of such knowledge perceive the natural environment. In this study, I discuss the knowledge of reading the sea in the context of the everyday life of Mr. Uehara as an example of those who possess such knowledge. The first purpose of this study is to examine how the knowledge of the fisherman has been cultivated, and how this knowledge is influenced by science and technology. These analyses aim to provide a vision for people' s knowledge beyond the scientific-traditional dualism. Secondly, by examining how the fisherman cognizes his environment, I consider the relationship between the sea and the fisherman who reads the sea, in comparison with those of the younger generation who fish without attempting to read the sea. In Section 2, the history of fishing methods and fishing technology in Itoman is reviewed. Here I attempt to clarify that the fishing method called soko-haenawa (bottom long-line fishing), which is the main method discussed in this study, requires a wealth of experience and knowledge, while the fishing methods used by many younger fishermen today rely mainly on technology. I also point out that the soko-haenawa catch includes a wide variety of species which are distributed in local markets and valued in the local culture; on the contrary, the catch from high-tech fishing methods is limited to only a few species which are distributed in more global markets and detached from the local culture. In Section 3, I describe the knowledge of reading the sea from the viewpoint of the following elements: knowledge of reading the fishing points, the wind, and the current and tides. In focusing on the process of cultivating this knowledge, I analyze how the knowledge of reading the sea is influenced by scientific knowledge, including weather forecasting and fishing technology such as "fish-finder" and GPS (Global Positioning System). In Section 4, I analyze how the knowledge of reading the sea is utilized in practical fishing activities, based on the fisherman' s diary, the documents of the fishing co-operative, and my firsthand observation of fishing activitiy. Also, an explanation is given on how the knowledge of reading the sea enables the fisherman to act appropriately in a changeable environment, and how this knowledge is used to catch the more valuable fish selectively from a wide variety of fish. Based on these examinations, in Section 5, I first try to show that science and technology have a considerable influence on

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In this paper, I study the epistemological problem of dealing with the contemporary phenomena of exchange from the viewpoint of anthropology. J-L. Nancy pointed out that our basic modern thoughts, for example "from community to society", and "from gemeinschaft to gesellschaft" or "from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity", are constructed from our contemporary thoughts. "Lost community", he said, is an especially idealistic "fantasme (illusion)" constructed by modern attitudes and mentality. This interesting opinion can also be shifted to the frame of exchange theory in anthropology. We consider the dichotomy of "traditional economy" vs. "market economy" an old one. However, at the same time, we need to ask ourselves why this dichotomy was so influential, and what was the imagination behind its constructs. Why did it have such an effect on cultural and economic anthropology? First, to clarify theoretical problems, we need to resume the studies about "reciprocity" developed by M. Sahlins, and the studies about "system theory" developed by K. Maegawa. The diagram of "reciprocity" by Sahlins treats the relationship between "action" and "social distance". Sahlins tried to connect the dimension of action to the dimension of mentality, but this did not fit his diagram. It is necessary to observe and describe the phenomena from other viewpoints. The frame in which "system theory" is applied to anthropology is too broad for the ethnography facing a "global / local" situation. However, system theory is too difficult to describe directly, solely from a viewpoint of general fieldwork. All anthropologists must feel this difficulty. We can propose that we should capture both sides of an idea and material for a solution of this difficulty. Sahlins also recognized this problem. Therefore, he used the cconcept "practical reason". From this theoritical work, we see that in past studies the dimensions, "norm", "practice" and "explanation", were described in a confusing and complicated manner. It is important to unite the world of ideas and the world of materials systematically. Second, I present and analyze data of "L.E.T.S." (Local Exchange and Trading System) activity in Catalunya. This paper is an anthropological response to L.E.T.S., a growing network of exchange. Generally, Catalunya is a "Comunitats Autonomes (autonomous community)" of Spain; at the same time it is also a "nation" that has its own history. Nation and history, however, are constructs of the imagination. This is also true of global phenomena. Therefore, I use "imagination" as the key concept for the analysis of "L.E.T.S." activity. The main and basic norm of "L.E.T.S." is reciprocity. That is "If you give, you can take." and "If you give more, you can take more". Therefore, it is not just reciprocity. This norm incorporates "accountability" in its practices. When we examine the practice, we see that the people of Catalunya exchange many services for their original currency. This currency is not real money. It is just an imaginary exchange. For example, when you sell a book to someone for 500 "iriz" (iriz is the monetary unit in Catalunya, like U.S. dollars), you write plus 500 on your account sheet, and the buyer writes minus 500 on his sheet. Therefore, L.E.T.S. has a norm like reciprocity and is used in practice like a market exchange, but no currency actually changes hands. Observing this exchange, one might interpretate it as "warm mutual aid". If we analyze this exchange as one "category of daily life" we can clealy see that this is a "pleasant activity". Moreover, if we note the term "contra

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This study presents concrete data concerning uxorilocal marriage in a rural area of Hubei Province, China. Its focus is on surname change, surname reversion, and lineage reversion among uxorilocal sons-in-law. It explicates the mechanisms of these phenomena, and attempts thereby to re-examine lineage norms and individual options among the Han people. For Chinese lineage norms, virilocal marriage is socially and culturally ordained as the normal and orthodox form, while uxorilocal marriage is the opposite. Uxorilocal marriages -when they are found- tend to introduce tension into the family structure. Such families depend on a contract between the father-in-law and his son-in-law, with the son-in-law even changing his surname and assuming the duties of a son. However, it is difficult for him to share the same patrilineal line identity with his father-in-law, which makes the relationship fragile. This is because, as members of the same family, the two men share interests and form one community. As members of different original patrilineal lines, however, they represent separate lineages and conflicting interests. If the balance of power shifts, or more advantageous social circumstances for the son-in-law come about, he may initiate surname reversion and return to his own birth lineage. Surname reversion and return to their own birth lineage among uxorilocal sons-in-law, as well as fathers-in-law demanding that sons-in-law change their surname are phenomena that draw attention to the patrilineal principle, a principle dealing with loyalty to the patrilineal blood line. This principle is the reason and motivation behind fathers-in-law demanding that sons-in-law change their surnames to those of their fathers-in-law, and also accounts for the power of the sons-in-law to return to their own birth lineage. In addition to the patrilineal principle, the social, economic and political power relationship between father-in-law and son-in-law or between the family and lineage of the father-in-law and that of the son-in-law, as well as the character of the son-in-law, also greatly affect surname reversion and the return to their own birth lineage among uxorilocal sons-in-law. However, in Hubei Province some uxorilocal sons-in-law still uphold the contract and have not taken up surname reversion and return to birth lineage. The failure to revert was primarily a result of such factors as social pressure to keep the contract, individual temperament, the social, political and economic circumstances of the father-in-law's family, and untimely death. There is also the preference of villagers who have no sons to contract uxorilocal unions with uxorilocal sons-in-law from different lineages over guojizi (internal adoption) from their own lineage. Such behavior in itself means that the actor has put his own interests first, and sacrifices his original identity, the ideology of his lineage, and lineage interests. Individual actors usually respond to the situation by choosing and manipulating social relations in the pursuit of their own best interests. Lineage and family are, in this case, merely one important set of social relations among others. Just as the family and the lineage cannot satisfy the demand of all men to marry, the norms of family and lineage cannot govern the total behavior of all members of society. As an expression of the difference between lineage norms and individual options, there are many different types of uxorilocal sons-in-law in uxorilocal marriages. One can arrange them on a continuous line between two poles, that is, from type A, the "nianxian (impermanent)" uxorilocal sons-in-law who don't change their surname, to type Z, the "zhongshen (permanent)" uxorilocal sons-in-law who do change their surname but eventually revert to their original surname and return to their own birth lineage. Recent developments centering on surname change,

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On the basis of my continuing fieldwork in the Henoko district in Nago City, Okinawa, since the summer of 1997, I will ethnographically examine in this article why and how the anti-base movements in Okinawa, arisen and expanded in response to the 1995 rape of an Okinawan schoolgirl by U.S. servicemen, are now on the decline. I will accomplish this task through critically engaging in the theory/discourse of new social movements in general, and that of "appropriation" in particular. Since the 1970s, scholars have addressed a shift in the nature of social movements from the "old", unified revolutionary insurrections of the "people" to the "new", less organized, diverse, smaller-scale resistance of "citizens". In the process, merging with the problems of post-colonial criticism, the idea of appropriation has made its appearance in scholarly discourses as a common term in anthropology, cultural studies and other related fields to describe contemporary social protest and resistance. The concept of appropriation helps articulate the agency of the oppressed people by showing that they do not simply accept power, but also actively use, redefine, and even manipulate power in their social context for their own sake. Yet, a simplistic celebration of appropriation as the sign of progressive social movements leads to the danger of obscuring different kinds of appropriations. In fact, the notion of appropriation often reduces diverse movements into intimate "games" of deconstruction and subversion between "us" (the subjects) and "them" (the power), and in doing so, it not only helps proliferate "our" resistance but also helps multiply "their" power within a closed, homogeneous space of communal action and discourse. I analyze the pro-base movement in Nago to illustrate this danger. At the same time, in order to take advantage of the potentialities of the idea and practice of appropriation, I introduce the perspective of the "third person", namely Okinawan citizens, who, by appropriating power in a different way, constructed (and eventually destroyed) the open and heterogeneous public-sphere. To this end, I first discuss the changing historical and political context of the post-cold-war world within which Okinawa came to be situated, and show that in the 1990s, Okinawa was built up as the linchpin of the Asia-Pacific security system by global and national powers (the U.S. and Japanese governments). The 1995 rape incident took place precisely in this changing context of international security, from which the idea of reduction and reorganization of U.S. bases surfaced as the general will of the Okinawans. The U.S. and Japanese governments proposed, in order to pacify the anger of Okinawans, the return of Futenma Marine Corps Air Station to Okinawa (which is located in a congested residential area of central Okinawa). However, the return of the base was conditional upon the construction of a new base in Okinawa. Eventually, a site offshore of Henoko, a district of Nago City, was selected as the location for the new base. Henoko is a sparsely populated northeastern coastal community on the northern part of the island of Okinawa and has been the home of U.S. Marine Corps Camp Schwab since the late 1950s. The anti-base voices soon surfaced within and beyond that region, but pro-base voices were also strong for economic reasons. The tension between anti-base and pro-base voices, in fact, reflects and embodies broader fissures in contemporary Okinawa itself. More specifically, since the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan, public funds under the banner of hondonami (catching up with the mainland) have been massively transferred from Tokyo to Okinawa as political compensation for local discontent with the continuous U.S. military presence. As a consequence, Okinawa' s overall living

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What process do people go through when selecting a method of childbirth? This paper aims to provide a useful framework to analyze this process. Childbirth is a vital and eternal component of the human race and its continuity. However, since childbirth was not studied from within until the advent of female anthropologists, no systematic methodology has yet been established to study the phenomena up to the present. With this in mind, further effort and research are required to explore the appropriate framework for the study of childbirth in the future. In this paper, after considering previous research, I examine three problematic issues regarding previous studies in this field. The preceding research: l) was based on a dichotomy between two conceptual frameworks such as "modern medicine" vs. "traditional medicine" or "medical care" vs. "nature", 2) lacked a thorough analysis of the individual's process of selection of a means of childbirth, and 3) related the criteria for selection to social ideologies. To be more specific, previous research conducted by feminists covering the developed countries concluded that those who choose "a natural birth" are spontaneous and the remainder, opting for "a hospital birth", are entrenched in patriarchal ideology and display characteristics that reflect the supremacy of technology. On the other hand, research covering developing countries describes a heartwarming system of traditional birth that has been lost in developed countries and encourages the adoption of these traditional methods to those who would normally favour modern birth methods. At the same time, they also reveal the reality of women who have no voice under the system of patriarchy and, against their will, are left unable to utilise modern medicine; these are miserable uneducated figures who have no ability to make decisions and are resigned in the end to accept male decisions. The researchers, hence, note the need for improvement in women' s social status and refer to their need for education, which would cultivate independent minds. As described above, the problem of selecting a method of birth was always arbitrarily connected with the ideology of the relevant society on the basis of a dichotomy between "modern medicine" vs. "traditional medicine" or "medical care" vs. "nature" in preceding studies. Contrary to this, in my paper, I present a new framework to examine and analyse the question of how the value of various actors and women interact to finally result in a decision in the selection of a childbirth method. For the moment, I will refer to the situation in which related actors feel the need to implement special procedures for childbirth as an "incident". Every actor has his or her own understanding and method for controlling the incident based on individual cultural values. My paper therefore attempts to clarify the structure of this selection system by examining how every actor perceives the incident, seeks a means to counter it and finally makes a decision on a childbirth method.

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On salt que le Benin (ex-Dahomey) correspond au pays appel6 Cote des esclaves a l'epoque de la colonisation. C'est aussi un pays connu pour sa religion traditionnelle, le Vodun. Le Vodun, esprit des ancetres qui se sont transformes en dieu, tout en etant presente comme le mediateur spirituel qui possede les paroles de l'oracle, est egalement transforme en objet (dieu-objet). Les gens pratiquent les rituels du sacrifice ou de l'invocation sur une base quotidienne. Les Aja fabriquent une grande variete d'objets appeles Bo, qu'ils portent en permanence. Us les emploient pour attirer la chance dans le domaine des affaires ou du mariage, ou pour assurer leur protection personnelle. Les Bo et Vodun ont etc qualifies, en general, d'objets fetiches. Le Vodun s'obtient par heritage patrilineaire, tandis que le Bo, fabrique par les personnes elles-memes, ne se transmet pas par heritage . Dans cet article nous analysons le rite Cijun (remede rouge), un exemple de melange complexe de ces deux modeles (Bo et Vodun) pour tirer une nouvelle interpretation. Les Aja expliquent que le Cijun est une sorte de rite agricole qui consiste en offrandes de premices de l'igname. Dans la zone de l'igname, on fait la fete pour offrir les nouvelles ignames aux ancetres qui apportent 1'unite sociale et la fertilite. En comparaison de ces offrandes d' ignames, le Cijun comporte certaines particularites marquees, dont les principales sont les suivantes: 1) Le rite est pratique uniquement par les hommes, excluant les femmes et les enfants. Il s'agit donc d'un rite de societe secrete, pratique dans les buissons loin du village. 2) La consommation d' ignames avant que ne s'acheve le rite est taboue. 3) Les participants preparent le Cijun et se l'appliquent reciproquement sur le corps. Dans cet article, nous decrivons le processus rituel, le materiel utilise, les relations humaines sousjacentes au rite, ainsi que les paroles des chansons que les participants chantent au cours du rite. Jusqu'ici les chercheurs ont analyse ce rite dans une perspective agricole, en tant qu'offrande de premices aux ancetres en signe d'adoration, mais d'autres interpretations sont egalement possibles du point de vue sociohistorique. D'abord, on peut remarquer l'importance du role que joue le Vodun-Dan, qui est un dieu traditionnel depuis le 18^e siecle. Il est represente sous forme de serpent ou d'arc-en-ciel. Le Vodun-Dan a un caractere ambigu concernant la fecondite et la sorcellerie (aze). Par ailleurs, plusieurs types de medicaments et d'objets Vodun ont etc developpes depuis les annees 1930 pour proteger contre la sorcellerie. La modification des moyens de transport et l'amenagement de chemins ont entraine le developpement des activites commerciales, avec pour consequences la hausse du niveau financier des femmes et l'apparition de conflits sociaux. La pratique du Cijun a egalement permis d'apporter un soutien aux jeunes membres tourmentes par la difficile conciliation entre les travaux champetres et les etudes scolaires. Il se degage de notre analyse que les gens pratiquent le rite du Cijun pour regler des problems structurels de la societe Aja et surmonter les difficultes de la vie quotidienne dans le contexte de la modernisation. Par la pratique du Cijun, les gens esperent regler des problems aussi bien personnels que collectifs. En conclusion, nous critiquons la premisse anthropologique selon laquelle le fetiche est un habitacle d'esprits ou un symbole qui represente autre chose.

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