The Anthropology of Support: Comparative Ethnographic Studies of Altruism in Politics, Sports, and Fan Culture

Keywords

support,altruism,ethnography

Objectives

This research aims to clarify part of the characteristics of human culture from a perspective of support while expanding the area of anthropological studies. Several studies have recently been conducted not only in anthropology but also in various academic disciplines relating to “support” including those ranging from developmental aid to welfare and care services, as well as the contemporary enthusiast culture including animations. This joint research will approach the characteristics of altruism by cross mediating with the abovementioned individual disciplines and by also including the support in politics and sports. We will study the support activities in general, but firstly focus on the subordinate category of political, sports and enthusiast cultures to conduct comparative analyses based on ethnographical data.

Research Results

This inter-university research project lasted three and a half years, and held a total of 12 workshops with 22 presentations by 20 people. The presentations covered a wide range of themes with a focus on the main research topic, that of altruism seen in politics, sports, and fan culture. Specifically, there were 10 presentations on school ouendan (“cheering squads”), four on sports, three on the performing arts, four on politics, and one on the concept of support. Several sports were covered, with an emphasis on sports that have spread globally in recent years; namely, soccer, baseball, ice hockey, and the triathlon. We accomplished the task of research project, to examine the culture of support by analyzing specific circumstances of support in sports, performing arts, and politics with a focus on organizational support in Japan.
The project’s coordinator and the inter-university project researcher published peer reviewed papers of the research results in the Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology (“Development and Current Status of Japanese Cheering Organizations: Data Analysis of Four-Year College Cheering Groups, Ouendan” by Norio Niwa and “Australia and Its Anti-whaling Attitude: How People Imagine ‘Australia’ through the Whaling Controversy” by Mayuko Maekawa). The coordinator and the inter-university project researcher also published a total of four essays in Minpaku Tsushin [Minpaku News Letter] (“ Challenges in the Anthropology of Support,” “Thinking about Support: From the Perspective of the Mobilization of People and Emotion,” and “Nori (Energy) and Modernity in Support: Focusing on High School Baseball in Okinawa” by Norio Niwa, and “Bankara Culture and Participation of Female Students in University Ouendan (Cheer Squads)” by Kayo Yoshida). Also, an oral presentation titled “From Heckling to Cheering: An Experiment in the Comparative Cultural Study of Support” was delivered at the 124th Lecture for the Minpaku Associates.