大学共同利用機関法人 人間文化研究機構　国立民族学博物館

Major Objectives (Application 3: Extract of Research Objectives)

This research will take as its object of study the entire process in which human beings use plants as materials to make things, or for storage, exchange or consumption purposes. At the same time, the research will examine the ways in which their forms as “things” undergo physical transformation, the uses and objectives for things, as well as how value judgments regarding them have undergone change. We will also look at how plants are selected as targets from within ecosystems, and when the process for their becoming materials commences. We will also see how the ethnic groups serving as subjects undertake processing and intervention regarding these materials during the processes, and what kinds of things can be given form. We also will address the question of who assigns value and of what kind, as well as what kinds of mutual recognition and division of labor there is between the subjects found in the background to the processing of things.

The objectives of this research are to adopt a double approach regarding the various kinds of materials made from vegetation (plant materials) for studying external changes and transformation of meaning. By approaching things as the result of a mutual interaction between object and subject on the borders or their struggle, we hope to elucidate how value-assigning behavior undergoes change within broadening of space and time as well as the relationships among independent subjects.