Spirituality and Materiality among Human Remains:
Reflection on repatriation activism for the Ainu and the Ryukyu
1 Aim
This paper examines the ethical, legal, and social aspects of the debates on the repatriation of the human remains and burial materials of the Ainu and the Ryukyuan-Okinawan. From an anthropological point of view, we describe this as post-colonial condition of the indigenous collective rights after the enactment of the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UNDRIP (2007). Sociologically, it is worth discussing contesting distinction between idealistic spiritualism among indigenous people and modern scientific materialism in “rational-institution;” that may refer to “spirituality vs. materiality.” This paper discuss discursive configuration of politics between indigenous civil activists and the Japanese government-and-universities which have “owned” collections of remains and burial materials for scientific purposes.
2 Methods
For these purposes, the bibliographical work have been conducted during the period from July, 2018 to date. Interviews and meetings with activists and academics, who are both pro-indigenous and pro-official, have been conducted. Each discourse will be positioned in spectrum between so-called “plaintiffs as activists” and “defendants as officials” activities.
3 Results
The debates between scholars, lawyers, and civil activists (so-called “plaintiffs”), who requested the repatriation, and the scientists in physical anthropology and archaeology led by Japanese government (so-called “defendants”), who were supposed to negotiate with indigenous people, came to a deadlock. The plaintiffs wanted to establish the collective entitlement of indigenous rights for the repatriation of remains and materials that have not been enacted in Japan. Both the government and universities rejected activist's demands in conformity with current Japanese civil law, which indicates “successors of family rituals”. After the establishment of the third generation of genome sequencing from 2010s, remains have been playing an important role both for human genome analysis of prehistoric migration of the people of “origin of Japanese, ” or Proto-Japanese and for detecting “their” ancestral origin in the identification of their family. The activists accuse researchers of historical misconduct as they believe that researchers are stealing remains and burial materials without informed consent in their pamphlets and web-sites.
4 Conclusion
Indigenous people insist on the importance of hearkening to ancestral voices, and that their remains deserve to be treated not only spiritually but also appropriately. Financial compensation (as “material aspect”) should be considered for the damage caused. From these findings, the author proposes academic intervention by social scientists to facilitate open dialogue between “plaintiffs” and “defendants,” by reorganizing these agendas.
Theme session title: "Religion, Society, and Individuals under the
situation of reflective modernization"
Credit: Paper presented The 92nd Annual Meeting of the Japan Sociological Society, at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University, 5-6, October, 2019.
Keywords: Spirituality, Materiality, Human Remains, repatriation
activism of indigenous peoples
Links
◎Information cited, Source: genics in Japan / edited by Karen J.
Schaffner, Fukuoka : Kyushu University Press , 2014
"1924 Kiyono Kenji's study of 52 skeletons excavated from Ainu tombs in Sakhalin"
1934 Japan Society of Race Hygiene excavated 131 complete skeletons from Ainu cemetery in Yakumo City Yurabbu Beach."
Skeletal Speciamen :Suzue, wh;:i graduated from Kyoto Imperial University rv1edica1 School in 1924 and afterwards continued study in the Department of Pathology, took a positior, at the K.umamoto University School of Medicine in 1927. There he procmed the remains of patients from the National Hansen's Disease Sans.torium in Kyushu and constrncted more than fifty skeletal specime11s (Suzue IS:51, 53-54). St1zue s.ccepJ:ed the existence of a predisposition to developing Hansen's disease, thought that these characteristics would be evident in skeletal features, prepared the specimens, and conducted skull measurernents. This concept is similar to Kodama Salruzaemon's 2 attempt to prove the "inferiority" oUhe Ainu people by excavating their tombs Knd removing bones :from them-,5' concept based on eugenic thought. It should also be noted that it was Kiyono Kenji3 who encouraged Suzue to research Hansen's disease. Suzue was under Kiyono's tutelage while studying in the Pathology Department of Kyoto Imperial University. (Kiyono is also known for instructing Ishii Shiro 1 and other members of Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army. 2 *1 ) From 1921, Kiyono ,;vas a professor in the Department of Microbiology of the Kyoto Imperial University's School of 1\/1:edicine and was concurrently prnfossor of pathology from 1924. He also had interests in archaeology and anthropology and conducted excavations of shell mounds. From. measurements caniec out on bones excavated from -1:hTe sukumo sheH mounds in Okayama prefecture, Kiyono set out to prove that there was no special resemblance ofthe Ainu people and Japanes,e of the Jonmn. period. In order to do so, he traveled to Sakhalin in 1924, excavated Ainu tombs, digging up the skeletons of fifty-two bodies (Ueki 2008, 72-75). It can be surmised that Suzue's construction of skeletal specimens of Hansen's disease patients came from K.iyono's influence. Suzue thought that he would find some distinguishing features in the bones of Hansen's disease patients, but was unable to find any proof for his hypothesis. 1Nithout the support o.f the academic society, Suzue soon lost interest His skeleton specimens were abandoned and destroyed in the war.* 2 Even so, Suzue's research on the susceptibilirJ of }fansen's disease V/8.S continued off and on thereafter, In 1941, Suzue summarized the history of research of the predisposition theory, in which he stated:
In comparison to that of ten years ago, society's conventional wisdom concerning leprosy is certainly greater today. Vife will not be merely caught i.n i~1fantile groundless fe3.rs, but wiH seriously face the problem of "leprosy and physical makeup" and apply the solemn scalpel of science (Suzue 1941).
From the :.;ontext, th,e expression "infantile grnundless fears" refers to the claim that one might to refrain from discussing the relationship between Hansen's disease and a susceptible body type becaase it 1:1ight cause a misunderstanding that Hansen's disease is a genetic disease. Suzue claimed that research of the rdation betv1een Hansen's disease and predisposition should be expanded, irrespective of such opinion. However, as mentioned earlier, Suzve's attention moved away from the skdetons of patients. In 1943 Suzue reported on postmortem autopsies done in collaboration with Kikuchi Kei.fo-en3 National Hr.nsen's Disease Sanatorium director I\-1iyazaki Matsuki. 4 Their research was based on the hearts of thirty-one patients of the sanatorium (Suzue 1943). At the end of his memoirs, Suzue 1Nrote:
I had already found an allergic tissue reation resulting in rheumatoid nodules in the leprous. hear'. and in the beriberi heart The cr,nnectio11 of both of these conditions and the analysis of that connection present me a big challenge for the fature (Suzue 1951, 55).
As these comments indicate, Suzue's later research was "leprosy allergy," namely elucidating the re1ation behveen Hansen's disease and allergic predisposition.
鈴江懐（1941）癩と体質、『体質学雑誌』9(2):319.
鈴江懐（1951）跋にかえて：癩研究の思い出とこれからの構想、『癩の病理的知見補遺、その他』
Bibliography
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