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Volume 40, Issue 4
Displaying 1-6 of 6 articles from this issue
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Articles
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Charles J-H. Macdonald2003 Volume 40 Issue 4 Pages 419-443
Published: March 31, 2003
Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThis paper aims firstly at documenting a unique phenomenon that has been observed and analyzed over a period of 20 years, namely the consistently high occurrence of suicide among a small population of tribal inhabitants of Southern Palawan, Philippines. After a brief sketch of the cultural and social setting of the study, anthropological studies on suicide among tribal and nonindustrial people are reviewed and a quick overview of suicide in Southeast Asia is provided. Aggregate figures are then examined with a view of providing a general outline of voluntary death in Kulbi, Palawan. The yearly rate, one of the highest in the world (as high as 173 per 100,000) is established. Factors that are computed include age, sex, method, and motives. Indigenous concepts concerning personhood, morality, the emotional life, and eschatology are examined next and a sketch of the native conceptual framework is drawn, so as to locate the indigenous view of suicide within this framework. In conclusion, the central problem of the study is restated, namely to understand the overall rate of suicide for a population whose culture does not essentially differ from non-suicide prone neighbors. Several complementary hypotheses are suggested, combining socialization, genetically defined predisposition and “wave hypothesis.”View full abstractDownload PDF (207K) -
Ambivalence and AmbiguityNguyễn Thế Anh2003 Volume 40 Issue 4 Pages 444-458
Published: March 31, 2003
Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSFocusing on the Vietnamese attitude towards cross-cultural borrowings and cultural adaptation, this paper argues that, in spite of the age-old Sino-Vietnamese cultural alignment, the Vietnamese governing class had always been favourable to multi-centred technological transfer, contending at the same time that their own court culture would be less innovative than the Chinese Confucian tradition. In particular, the adoption of Western military technology, military strategy, and shipbuilding techniques from the very beginning of European expansion in the region belies the longstanding claims that the Vietnamese bureaucracy was blinded by Confucian dogmas to the real potential of Western technology in state-building and national defence. In fact, expressing strong interests in and understandings of Western material life in the early nineteenth century even as the Western threat was looming, the Vietnamese leadership was far from being introverted and anti-modernist, contrarily to the common belief.View full abstractDownload PDF (378K) -
Voting Strategy of the Iban in Sarawak, MalaysiaRyoji Soda2003 Volume 40 Issue 4 Pages 459-483
Published: March 31, 2003
Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSThe purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction between the development policy of the Sarawak government and the indigenous people in rural areas, by observing the mobility of ruralurban migrants. Over the last decade or so, the Sarawak government has been promoting various kinds of development schemes in rural areas, and the indigenous people, who are politically and economically marginalized, seem to act in compliance with the government policy for the purpose of securing development funds. Some scholars have criticized this kind of passive compliance as a “subsidy syndrome.” However, closer observation of the voting behavior of the indigenous people reveals that they strive to maximize their own interests, albeit within a limited range of choices. What is noteworthy is the important role played by rural-urban migrants in rural development. They frequently move back and forth between urban and rural areas, are leaders in the formation of opinion among rural residents, and help obtain development resources for their home villages. Examining the mobility of urban migrants during election periods is useful for reconsidering the dichotomy between development politics and the vulnerable agricultural community, and also urban-rural relations.View full abstractDownload PDF (227K) -
Ethnic Minorities' Networks in the Vietnamese Northeast Mountain AreaMasako Ito2003 Volume 40 Issue 4 Pages 484-501
Published: March 31, 2003
Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSUnder Doi Moi (renovation) policies, the Tay-Nung minority people have migrated from their home region in the Northeastern mountains to the Central Highlands, and their migration has resulted in forest destruction and conflicts with other native minorities. The primary cause of their migration was lack of agricultural land, but there were many other factors: First, after the Chinese-Vietnamese War in 1979, many could no longer cultivate land because of mines. Also after that war, they got back their “ancestral” lands and stopped doing collaborative work for collectives. As a result, some households ended up having no or little land. Third, during Vietnam’s war with the United States, they became familiar with the Central Highland areas where many fought as soldiers. Fourth, they have home-region networks in the Central Highlands because some relatives had moved there after the Geneva Agreement of 1954. Their experiences during the war with China made them keenly conscious of the Chinese border; as a result, they did not try to utilize their ethnic network inside China for migration. Compared with other ethnic minorities, who easily move beyond the border, the Tay-Nung people have become part of the nation, and migration is one of their strategies for becoming affluent within the nationstate of Vietnam.View full abstractDownload PDF (435K) -
A Comparative Study of British Colonial Rule in Nineteenth Century Singapore and Hong KongTakeshi Onimaru2003 Volume 40 Issue 4 Pages 502-519
Published: March 31, 2003
Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSIn the nineteenth century, Britain possessed two important bases for its “free trade policy” in Southeast and East Asia—Singapore and Hong Kong. The success of the British free trade policy in these regions hinged on their ability to make Singapore and Hong Kong flourish. To achieve this end, the colonial governments had to overcome two obstacles: the problem of raising revenue and the maintenance of public order. As both Singapore and Hong Kong were free ports, the colonial governments were prevented from collecting revenue through tariffs. Thus, somehow they had to obtain revenue from the local populace, which in both cases was mainly Chinese. With respect to public order, both administrations had to deal with crimes, riots, and strikes engaged in by the Chinese. In this paper, I try to reveal how the British colonial governments in Singapore and Hong Kong dealt with these issues of revenue raising and policing. In terms of revenue-raising, I examine the importance of the opium farming system under the two administrations; with regard to public order, I investigate how the Chinese secret societies were policed. By comparing practices in these colonies, I aim to describe the character of colonial rule in Singapore and Hong Kong and how it reflected the British “free trade policy.”View full abstractDownload PDF (387K)
Field Report
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Koichi Fujita2003 Volume 40 Issue 4 Pages 520-521
Published: March 31, 2003
Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
JOURNAL FREE ACCESSDownload PDF (201K)
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