The Sad Marriage of Anthropology, Neo-Colonialism and Feminism

Or Why Japanese Sexual Behavior Is Always Intriguing

Bibliographic Data

ID2969218
AuthorsEtsuko Kato (0000-0002-7444-2747, International Christian University, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume6
Issue1
Pages81-103
Publication date2007-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsian Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1683-478X • E-ISSN: 2168-4227
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1683478x.2007.10552570
OpenAlexW2032801481
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited33

This article aims to answer the question of why Japanese sexual behavior is a well-accepted topic in American anthropology even today, while the eroticizing gaze towards non-Westerners has been refrained from since the advent of postcolonial studies in the 1970s. My discussion is twofold: first, the more American anthropologists refrain from seeking for exotic- erotic Others in the so-called developing world, the more their eyes are directed toward Others in the industrialized world—the Japanese as a foremost example. Secondly, especially from the 1970s, it is more female researchers, rather than their male colleagues, who are both active consumers and producers of the representations of “seemingly modest but actually oversexed” Japanese (women), and who receive professional benefit by so doing. Through a critical examination of the genealogy and the intertextuality of texts on Japanese sexual behavior published by American women ethnographers, I elucidate this idiosyncrasy of American anthropology

Colonialism · Feminism · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · History · Japanese History and Culture · Psychology

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