Anthropological Studies of Mobilities and Materialities

Keywords

Body,Infrastructure,Materiality　

Objectives

With the advancement of globalization, the migration of people has increased in terms of both scale and diversity. The objective of this research project is to gather findings on how people in the modern world migrate on Earth—from livelihood activities to tourism—and conduct a comparative analysis on human migration with a particular focus on material aspects that inevitably accompany migration. First, using cases from members who have been conducting research on the movement of people as a common theme, we will examine the material aspects unique to each migration case, with body, infrastructure, materiality as key concepts. Then we will conduct a comparative analysis of the commonalities and differences between cases from three points of view: 1) region (e.g. Asia, Europe), 2) migration background (e.g. refugees, tourism), and 3) means of movement (e.g. on foot, by car). Considering the movement of people as a practice in which connections are created on an ad hoc basis between people, things, and the environment in response to the given circumstances, we will elucidate the various aspects of materialities inherent in human migration through the above-mentioned activities.

Research Results

This research project held 13 workshops, reporting on cases relating to mobility and materiality around the world. The workshops also involved comparative consideration of a variety of bodily practices associated with movement, the differing forms of infrastructure and environments that mediate them, and the meanings of different cultures of movement. Each report presented multiple discussion points of deep interest: for example, change and continuity in the practices of movement associated with “modernization,” the temporalities embedded in infrastructure, inversions of nature and infrastructure, mutual transformations of mobility technologies/materials and perceptions of the environment, entangled forms of agency not granted solely to the mobile subject, and the question of what is considered movement in the first place. The project explored movement from the standpoint of materiality in the contemporary era, when the human-centered worldview is identified as one of the causes of environmental crisis and other pressing challenges. This enabled an understanding of humans as moving, and being moved, through their interaction and mutual influence with a variety of objects and environments. We consider this one of the primary achievements of the project.
The COVID-19 pandemic coincided directly with the project period, limiting our ability to accomplish our plans for collection of ethnographic data. However, we were able to complement our consideration of the theme of movement through close observation of fundamental changes in the meaning of movement through the pandemic, capitalizing an unexpected opportunity to reconsider the actual significance of the project itself.
To date, the project team has presented joint research findings in a panel at IUAES 2020 in Croatia and a session at the 55th Annual Meeting of The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology, exchanging opinions with researchers both within Japan and internationally. We are currently preparing for the publication of a collection of papers that will mark the culmination of the project.