Forum - View topicAn interesting commentary on Japanese culture.
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DragonSlave49
Posts: 9 |
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Alan Macfarlane is a British anthropologist who studied Japanese culture, did ethnographic work in Japan, and eventually published a book on Japanese spiritual beliefs called Japan Through The Looking Glass. He theorizes that Japan is culturally unique because they escaped from the process of "disenchantment" that was brought about by large-scale organized religions.
Incidentally, this same process is described in the Manga Berserk, a horror-themed story set in a fantasy dark ages Europe. I've been fascinated by the way Berserk portrays religion, presenting it as a path to human magical impotence. Of course in other Anime that I've seen, there are myriad weird concepts borrowed from Christianity. I think they all tend to miss the mark on what Christianity really means, in part because it is as if the Japanese don't understand that Christianity is a unified system, not a collection of separate and disjoint beliefs/objects. But, Berserk presents a much more accurate view of Christianity, in the sense that he understands its systematic nature, and I've been fascinated by it ever since I started reading the Manga. Macfarlane discusses this theory of Japanese culture as part of the lecture On Enchantment that he has shared on you-tube. This lecture is downright fascinating, and I'd recommend it for anyone interested in social theory or Japanese culture. The intellectual he's talking about at the beginning is Max Weber, probably the most influential sociologist, who wrote at great length on western religions. |
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naninanino
 Posts: 680 |
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What? I must have been missing out something. Even on a micro level christian communities are so disjointed, that it makes me believe that it is the furthest thing from an "unified" system. Not to even mention the widely scraped together christian mythology. |
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DragonSlave49
Posts: 9 |
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Well, the theory doesn't look at the communities but the idea of the religion itself. The fact that there's so much vocal and angry disagreement about Christianity is a result of its systematic nature. Otherwise if two people had different ideas of Christianity it would be like two different paintings or stories, they couldn't be a source of extensive argument. It would just be a matter of creativity, not opinion. |
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Fellistowe
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ooh, just ordered that as it sounds interesting 
Will check out the youtube link when I'm not at work. I'm interested in when you say Christianity is a 'unified system', and wouldn't mind if you elaborated on that a bit. My missus is studying Druidry & Paganism at the moment, so I can associate with how you say Christianity has disenchanted us. From what I understand Christanity basically assimilated what pagan rituals it could easily take as its own (e.g. Christmas from Yule), and then actively persecuted and discredited anything else it couldn't assimilate, such as the magical aspects and spirit worship. Since paganism and Shinto are both at base animist belief structures I find any parallels quite interesting since I'm studying Shinto myself. Thanks for the info, and I'll check out the Berserk manga when i can as I love the anime
Last edited by Fellistowe on Fri Dec 03, 2010 8:31 am; edited 1 time in total |
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HyugaHinata
 Posts: 3505 |
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Precisely. The difference within the groups are far greater than the differences between the groups. I'd rather read meticulous dissertations that specialise on either subject than a half-assed comparison on the stereotypes. |
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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I'll have to see if the local library has it -- it sounds like a must-read book! |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18202 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I am practically a history major (I have 33 undergrad/grad history credits as part of my Social Studies teaching license) and have done independent reading on this matter, so I can say with some authority that this assertion is accurate. Early Christianity placed the celebration of Jesus's birth in December specifically to co-opt pagan Yuletide celebrations (when there's a fair amount of circumstantial evidence which suggests that he was probably actually born in June), while most aspects of Easter which aren't specific to the crucifixion (bunny, eggs, bonnets, parades, candy, even the very name) are carry-overs from a similarly-named pagan spring celebration. They also partly tried to co-opt Halloween with All Saint's Day, but outside of the Spanish-speaking world that's been less successful. Of course, that's hardly anything even that new. Early Judaism was regularly partly integrating elements from early polytheistic religions in the region. The theory about how Japan not getting involved with monotheism at any point in their history, and how that had a distinct affect on their culture, is also quite interesting. Might have to read into that more. |
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zarkbot
Posts: 14 |
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Love 'em or hate 'em, the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) have a had a tremendous impact on western civilization, to the point where you cannot really study western history without at least a basic understanding of these religions. This is what makes Japan a fascinating study, the wholesale adaption of western culture and technology while simultaneously ignoring the overt religious components of that culture. This makes a large contrast with South Korea, which embraced monotheism and integrated it into their culture. The contrast between modern Japanese and Korean cultures is a good point of study, and also holds a mirror into just how much these religions influence not only our value systems, but how we perceive the world around us.
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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r3vival
 Posts: 56 |
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Ordered this as well sounds very interesting. Thanks for sharing it with us =).
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wanderlustking
 Posts: 449 Location: Bozeman, Montana |
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Now wait just a minute. I'm going to pretend I'm not Jewish for a second and take up arms in defense of Christianity. While it's certainly true that they co-opted a lot of holidays from other cultures, you can't deny that the religion itself (the part that really matters) was a drastic, and downright dangerous departure from the norm at the time of it's founding. Jesus managed to not only piss off the Polytheistic majority (the Romans who controlled the region), but also the monotheistic minority (the Hebrews who lived in the region). That the religion could not only survive, but eventually reign in Italy (where it's practitioners were once fed to lions), is an achievement worthy of notice. But I digress...One of the reasons I love Japan so much is its ability to embrace new traditions, while still holding on to its past. You can learn so much about life there. I've learned so much about being a father, and a man while living there during the various parts of my life. I also never cared for that old stereotype about Japanese women all being demure and submissive. I've met a lot of strong women in my life, and more than a few of them were Japanese. Hell, my wife (Bless her soul) was Japanese, and she was anything but submissive. Lol, one of those strong Japanese women was reading over my shoulder, and asked me why I don't marry Japan if I love it so much. I told her I plan to move here once the kids grow up, and we can talk about an engagement then. |
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