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Title: Ruins of Identity: Ethnogenesis in the Japanese Islands by Mark J. Hudson ISBN: 0-8248-2156-4 Publisher: University of Hawaii Press Pub. Date: September, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $31.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Despite the title, not a postprocessual analysis
Comment: This book is excellent for those who want a survey of Japanese archaeological literature for the Jomon and Yayoi periods. The author reviews the development of archaeological theories in Japan, as well as among the few Western scholars specializing in Japanese prehistory. If you don't know much about Japanese archaeology, and especially if you don't read Japanese and can't go to the primary sources, this book is a great place to start.
Although the title sounds postmodern, in fact this book is cultural-historical in its emphasis. The author advocates a multidisciplinary approach to the question of Japanese ethnogenesis and supports his opinions with an extensive bibliography.
Particularly interesting to me is the way that (according to the author) Japanese archaeological theory has mirrored the nation's recent political history. Too bad archaeologists so often fail to be reflexive about the history of theory in their OWN countries.
Rating: 3
Summary: Fans of Japanese archaeology may like this book but...
Comment: Fans of Japanese archaeology and pre-history may like this book. The book covers the conflicting academic accounts of the early migrations of Yayoi and Jomon peoples in pre-historic Japan. If you are very well-versed in these subjects you may well find much to interest you. There is a great deal of commentary of the different academic interpretations of how the Japanese people have come about from different populations that may have entered Japan from the Korea, China, and from the islands to the south.
Having said that, I got completely bogged down in the middle of the book, which gets mired in excessive details and charts referring to various stone implements unearthed and their relation to Yayoi and Jomon culture. Unless you are extremely interested in these things, you can comfortably skip to the final part of the book which actually contains some of the authors own conclusions once he has surveyed dozens of other academics' theories.
This book is certainly to be recommended to the academic but should be avoided by the casual reader interested in Japan. I have yet to finish the book 6 months after purchasing it.
Rating: 2
Summary: A dull read...
Comment: I'm sorry to say, but I found this book completely boring. Initially, from reviews (other websites), I thought this book would provide an interesting and narrative approach to a subject matter which is hotly debated in Japan, in regards to their origins. But as I read, I could not keep myself from becoming easily destracted and sleepy. This book was written with it's target audience to be graduate students or professors, or something of that sort. Definitely not common folks like me who simply has a personal interest in the subject matter. Don't get me wrong, I am currently in college, and nobody's going to doubt my ability to read and understand English. But there's a difference between normal English, and English which is intended for people who understand big words and hard-to-understand grammar. This book is for the latter group of people.
I cannot judge the content of this book particularly, for I could not get myself to finish it. Or even get halfway for that matter. But academically, it probably holds up in being a book which can be useful. This book is simply not for those of us who doesn't possess an extensive vocabulary, or can tolerate overly analytical literature. Most of the content seems to be nothing but comparisons and contrasts of past and current findings in genetics, anthropology, and archeology.
While it's probably one of the rare books that discusses the origins of Japan, that is also provided in English (most books are never translated or brought outside of Japan), most of you will probably find the text too hard to read and/or follow. Therefore, while somewhat difficult, you should probably find another book which is more interesting and easier to comprehend. This book is just too boring.
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Title: Multicultural Japan : Palaeolithic to Postmodern by Donald Denoon, Gavan McCormack, Mark Hudson, Tessa Morris-Suzuki ISBN: 0521003628 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: March, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Prehistoric Japan: New Perspective on Insular East Asia by Keiji Imamura ISBN: 0824818520 Publisher: University of Hawaii Press Pub. Date: December, 1996 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: An Archaeological History of Japan, 30,000 B.C. to A.D. 700: 30,000 B.C. to A.D. 700 (Archaeology, Culture, and Society) by Koji Mizoguchi ISBN: 0812236513 Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $49.95 |
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