Arne Røkkum's Anthropology Page
Arne Røkkum is an anthropologist who explores how minority peoples in Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines use ritual life to elucidate animate and inanimate worlds. How can ritual serve as a vehicle for expressing an expanded state of being, a field of connectivity between human society, material culture, and the natural world?
Arne Røkkum's studies draw particular attention to poetically articulated shamanic insights, revealing how people can relate to each other, including the deceased, through vibrant motifs drawn from nature and crafted objects.
The Sulu seaside of southern Palawan. People with different ethnic and religious leanings live peacefully next to each other. Christian and Muslim orientations coalesce in the larger format of nature-sensitive animism while at the same time sharing an awareness of Southeast Asian adat law. In fieldwork, it was my privilege to join ritualists attentive to matters of nature and title-holders attentive to matters of adat. Please access the YouTube link for an episode from fieldwork: the Tagbanwa uyman poetic chant.
Arne Røkkum is Professor Emeritus at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. He is a former Keeper of East Asia Collections. He collaborates with local creators of ritual art for inclusion in museum exhibitions and other forms of distribution. His publications come from fieldwork in Japan’s Izu and Ryukyu islands, two enclaves of Austronesian-speaking indigenous groups of Taiwan, and currently, Palawan Island in the Philippines. He is the author of (1998) Goddesses, Priestesses, and Sisters: Mind, Gender, and Power in the Monarchic Tradition of the Ryukyus (Scandinavian University Press) and (2006) Nature, Ritual, and Society in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands (Routledge). He is in the process of completing two ethnographic monographs on the Tagbanwa (Tagbanua), an indigenous group living on Palawan Island in the Philippines.
Arne Røkkum earned his doctorate at Oslo University. His work has been funded by several institutions, including The Norwegian Research Council and The Japan Foundation. He has been a visiting professor at The National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka and at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City.
GODDESSES, PRIESTESSES,
AND SISTERS
Mind, Gender, and Power in the Monarchical
Tradition of the Ryukyus
A monarchy was abolished by Japan in the late 19th century.
In the historic instance of the Kingdom of the Ryukyus, court bureaucracy incorporated females in vital positions within its ranks as classificatory mothers, though preeminently as
classificatory sisters. What otherwise might be regarded as cultural syndromes of shamanism and siblingship, characteristic of traditional society, remain firmly embedded today in the ways of life of the South Ryukyus. Here we find formalized ritual enactments involving priestesses with their defined male
counterparts. Styles of governance may have been lost in the course of historic upheavals, but could they have become even
more pellucid in the form of signs as time passed on? Drawing on ethnographic material from field studies covering a period of
twenty years, this book advances the view that ritual activity, as practiced in the island locales, exemplifies a signification in progress. Ryukyuan sociality is seen against the background of an expressive culture rich in dualistic imagery, primarily between a this-world (sunka), exemplified by the sister's increase ritual and a that-world (nunka), exemplified by the brother's mortuary ritual. This book will appeal to all readers interested in the relationship between cognitive domains and society.
NATURE, RITUAL, AND SOCIETY
IN JAPAN'S RYUKYU ISLANDS
Despite their small area, the southern islands of Japan can be seen as
stepping stones towards a more nuanced view of cultural osmosis
between Japan and the outside world. Integral to this viewpoint is a
comprehensive understanding of the inhabitants of these islands,
including their culture, beliefs, and mores.
Nature, Ritual, and Society in Japan's Ryukyu Islands contains original
ethnography which explores the mind of the islanders, their relationship with the natural world, their social relationships, and the rituals which represent and give expression to these relationships. This book is based on extensive original research, and includes participant observation. Village priestesses in the southern Ryukyu Islands verbalize a sense of connectedness with the landscape through their prayers. Rather than interpreting this oratory as an example of symbolic or metaphoric construction, however, the author guides the reader toward a more concrete experience of the effect induced by the ornate words. This approach allows the authentic voices of the Ryukyu Island worlds to speak for themselves, and also sets the work in the wider context of anthropology, Japanese studies, and Pacific island studies. This book strings together issues of mind, society and nature and captures the exact moments when impressionistic views of nature are composed into stylized utterances. This study will be of great interest to the general anthropological
readership interested in theoretical advances through fieldwork, as well
as to Asian studies scholars.
Hard copies of Goddesses, Priestesses, and Sisters are available per postal shipment. If you would like to get in touch with Arne Røkkum, please send an email to arnero@uio.no. He will get back to you as soon as possible.
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