Transmutation of Traditions in the West Circum-Indian Ocean

1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 07041008
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for international Scientific Research
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: Field Research
• Research Field: 文化人類学(含民族学・民俗学)
• Research Institution: Hitotsubachi University
• Principal Investigator: NAGASHIMA Nobuhiro Hitotsubashi U., Social Sciences, Prof., 社会学部, 教授 (60008646)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 杉本 星子 京都文教大学, 人間学部, 助教授 (70298743) ; ASHIWA Yoshiko Hitotsubashi U., Social Sciences, Associate prof., 社会学部, 助教授 (30231111) ; FUKAZAWA Hideo Tokyo U.of Foreign Studies, ILCAA,Associate Prof., アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所, 助教授 (10183922) ; HAMAMOTO Mitsuru Hitotsubashi U., Social Sciences, Prof., 社会学部, 教授 (40156419) ; UCHIBORI Motomitsu Hitotsubashi U., Social Sciences, Prof., 社会学部, 教授 (30126726)
• Project Period (FY): 1995 – 1997
• Keywords: Tanzania / Comoros / Madagascar / circum-Indian Ocean / trade network / tradition / South East Asia / Arab and Islam

Research Abstract

The objective of the proposed research is to describe and analyze the multi-cultural situations characteristic of the western part of the circum-Indian Ocean area, consisting of Madagascar, the Comoros, and the islands and coastal regions of Kenya and Tanzania. It is the area where traditions of different origins such as Asian, African, Arabic and European have been brought into constant mutual interactions, and where complicated heterogeneous institutions and cultural practices have been made and remade continuously.
Each reseacher was allocated to the particular region of this area, and conducted intensive field research among the respective population group. Every researcher has confirmed the existence, in his respective field area, of the long established wide networks of trade and human and informational movements. In spite of the limitation of time, and enormous scope of the object of research, our research project has successfully established the foundation for more intensive and productive study of transtribal and transregional cultural phenomena peculiar of the area. For the purpose of elucidating the historical and geographical connectivities of the respective population group studied, each researcher chose and has concentrated on a few particular field of cultural practices which seemed to be most appropriate to measure the extent of the each group's interaction with the network in which they are a part ; innovations in agricultural methods, narratives of people's past, spirit possession cults, confrontations of Christianity and Islamic religion, socio-linguistic practices of code switching, etc.
In Malagasy and Tanzania, considerable parts of research have been conducted in collaboration with schokars of each country, and this has led to the establishment of mutual agreement on the future research cooperation with the respective country's research institution.