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Professor
Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney is a William F. Vilas Research
Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
An expert in the social, cultural, and symbolic anthropology
of Japan, she earned her Ph.D. from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of 12 books in
English and Japanese, including “Illness and Culture
in Contemporary Japan: An Anthropological View”
(1984), “The Monkey as Mirror: Symbolic Transformations
in Japanese History and Ritual” (1987), “Rice
as Self: Japanese Identities Through Time” (1993),
and “Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms:
the Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History”
(2002). Professor Ohnuki-Tierney has been awarded the
Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Humanities, and
Japan Foundation fellowships, and is a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
1.
Background
2.
Significance of Rice and other Foods in Japan
3.
Concept of Nature and what is Natural in Japanese Foods
4.
Food Safety in Japan
5.
McDonald’s and Changing Table Manners in Japan
6.
Globalism and the Japan/United States Food Market
7. Concluding
Thoughts
Globalism
and the Japan/United States Food Market
L: In consideration of globalism and transnationalism
in relation to foods—in various studies such as
in anthropology—
OT: Globalism is actually only one side of
the phenomenon. You see ethnic revivalism and cultural
revivalism—yet at the same time you see all this
bloodshed for nationalism or ethnicity as in Sri Lanka
or in the former Yugoslavia—so I don’t think
we can just consider globalism. After celebrating globalism,
then 9-11 came and suddenly the "we" versus
"they" distinction became loud and clear.
Also, anthropologists haven’t come up
with a term to distinguish the current globalism from
earlier globalism, for example at the time of colonialism,
and how the colonization of the New World changed the
eating habits of the old country. Like the use of sugar
and all of that.
What is the spread of capitalism, what is the
spread of imperalism?--versus current globalism with
it origin in the United States. The United States is
the epicenter of globalism. There are different kinds
of globalization. I think we have to come to terms with
the time old phenomenon of globalism and what is new
about the current situation.
Also, we should never forget there is the other
side--which is the enormous tension over the demarcations
among different ethnic and national groups.
L: Perhaps the term translocal might be a more accurate
term to describe such things as the McDonald’s
phenomenon in Japan and other countries? As you mentioned
in your chapter on McDonald’s, the focus should
be more on studying, “how new commodities become
embedded in culture” and how culture, whatever
that may be, is always changing and constantly in motion.
OT: I published an article called, “Historicization
of the Culture Concept” [2001]. I think what really
derailed us was to look at culture in a synchronic perspective.
And so if we realize there has never been a pure culture—that
culture is always in motion—and deny the notion
of hybridity because it presupposes pure cultures--if
you look at it that way, McDonald’s is not a new
phenomenon.
L: Globalism now is seen as something new—
OT: Which is wrong.
L: In consideration of what we have discussed, do you
envision changes in the global food market and the impact
on the “culture” of contemporary Japan and
the United States?
OT: There is hardly what we may call Japanese
food in the first place. Now, Japanese restaurants feature
16-course Japanese menus—but we have absolutely
no idea where these came from—probably from the
tea ceremony in Kyoto. But it’s never the same.
For example, my colleague treated me to a very fancy
Japanese restaurant in the Ginza, and I ate some sea
bream fish—there was a writing about the origin
of the fish. A feudal lord, impressed by Portuguese
food, came up with this dish. Also, the Chinese ramen,
as seen in the film Tampopo, is considered Japanese
food. So if you see food historically, it is going to
be changing all the time.
L: And as you said, it’s a reflection of self.
OT: Yes, that’s right.
Next: Concluding
Thoughts
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