My paper “Discovering the Meaning of Social Groups and Events through Collaborative Research with Local Communities: Case Studies of Folklores as Repertoires of Symbiosis” has been peer-reviewed and published online in The KeMCo , Vol. 2.
published by: 慶應義塾ミュージアム・コモンズ / Keio Museum Commons
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You can download the paper at the following URLs.
[entire the issue]
https://kemco.keio.ac.jp/…/2024/04/KeMCo-Review-02.pdf
[my article]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11lTwwUMYcCDSgcidVB59t1AOWdTeqTfm/view?usp=sharing
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This is my second paper written in English.
In this paper, based on the special theme ‘Public Humanities’, I have re-positioned my previous research and presented the idea of ‘Repertoires of Symbiosis’.
[abstract]
Through the introduction of two practical examples, this paper demonstrates how public humanities and public history can give new meaning to folk customs and people’s lives. First, a case involving the burning of New Year’s decorations (Sagicho), aside from being a ritual to return a deity to the sky, which is an authorized story among the local community, shows how such an event can strengthen social bonds. Second, pilgrimage groups who visit a famous shrine (Iseko) function to not only enhance religious beliefs, but also act as a basis for communal life. All of these functions were discovered through collaborative research with residents and nonprofit organizations. Public humanities enable us to work with people to uncover the functions of social groups and the events of which they are unaware. In particular, this paper demonstrates that the analysis of folk customs fundamental to community life, which can be considered a repertoire of symbiosis, can provide questions on universal themes.