Rezension: Bernstein, Andrew (2006): Modern Passings. Death Rites, Politics, and Social Change in Imperial Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai´i Press

In Imperial Japan, as elsewhere in the modernizing world, funerals, burials, and other mortuary rites had developed over the centuries with the aim of building continuity in the face of loss. As the Japanese coped with the economic, political, and social changes that radically remade their lives in the decades after the Meiji Restoration (1868), they clung to local customs and Buddhist rituals such as sutra readings and incense offerings that for generations had given meaning to death. Yet death, as this highly original study shows, was not impervious to nationalism, capitalism, and the other isms that constituted and still constitute modernity. As Japan changed, so did its handling of the inevitable. Following an overview of the early development of funerary rituals in Japan, Andrew Bernstein demonstrates how diverse premodern practices from different regions and social strata were homogenized with those generated by middle-class city dwellers to create the form of funerary practice dominant today. He also explores the conflict-filled process of remaking burial practices, which gave rise, in part, to the suburban soul parks now prevalent throughout Japan; the (largely failed) attempt by nativists to replace Buddhist death rites with Shinto ones; and the rise and fall of the funeral procession.

Andrew Bernstein, historien americain nous presente ici une etude portant sur une periode charniere de l’histoire des funerailles au Japon : celle qui debute avec l’ere Meiji (1868-1912) et prend fin en 1945, la periode du shinto d’Etat. Base sur un travail minutieux de depouillement de la presse nationale et locale, des archives officielles et des archives des premieres societes de pompes funebres, A. Bernstein nous montre comment, durant cette periode, les funerailles n’echappent pas au pro...

Modern Passings: Death Rites, Politics, and Social Change in Imperial Japan (review)

Acknowledgments Introduction The St. Luke Penny Savings Bank: A Change Vignette Purpose, Concepts, and Practices PART I. CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVES ON LEADING CHANGE Introduction Ch 1. Causality, Change, and Leadership by Gill Robinson Hickman and Richard A. Couto Barbara Rose Johns Analytical Elements Conclusion PART II. LEADING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE Introduction The Environment of Organizational Change Purpose of Organizational Change Change Vignette: Technology Solutions Turns Disaster Into Dividends Ch 2. Concepts of Organizational Change What Kind of Organizational Change Do We Want or Need? Conclusion Ch 3. Concepts of Leadership in Organizational Change What Type of Leadership Do We Want or Need to Accomplish Change? Conclusion Ch 4. Organizational Change Practices Which Practices Do We Employ To Implement Change? Conclusion Applications and Reflections PART III. LEADING COMMUNITIY AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE Ch 5. Community Change Context by Richard A. Couto, Sarah Hippensteel and Marti Goetz Introduction Purpose of Community Change Change Vignette: Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons Concepts of Change Concepts of Leadership Change Practices Conclusion Application and Reflection Ch 6. Crossing Organizational and Community Contexts Introduction Change Vignette: Microcredit to Rural Women Concepts of Change Across Organizational and Community Contexts Concepts of Leadership Across Organizational and Community Contexts Change Practices Across Organizational and Community Contexts Conclusion PART IV. LEADING POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE Ch 7. Political Change Context by Richard A. Couto Introduction Purpose of Political Change Change Vignette: Extraordinary Rendition Concepts of Political Change Concepts of Political Leadership Change Practices Conclusion Application and Reflection Ch 8. Social Change Context Introduction The Purpose of Social Change Change Vignette: OASIS: An Initiative in the Mental Health Consumer Movement Concepts of Social Change Concepts of Social Change Leadership Social Change Practices Conclusion Application and Reflection Ch 9. Crossing Political and Social Contexts Introduction Vignette: The Sikh Coalition Concepts of Political and Social Change Concepts of Political and Social Leadership Change Practices Across Political and Social Contexts Conclusion PART V. LEADING GLOBAL CHANGE Ch 10. Global Change Context by Rebecca Todd Peters and Gill Robinson Hickman Introduction Purpose of Global Change Change Vignette: Chad-Cameroon Pipeline Concepts of Global Change Concepts of Global Leadership Global Change Practices Conclusion Application and Reflection Ch 11. Crossing Global and Social Contexts: Virtual Activism in Transnational Dotcauses, E-Movements, and Internet Nongovernmental Organizations Introduction Change Vignette: Is Global Civil Society a Good Thing? Concepts of Virtual Change Concepts of Virtual Leadership Virtual Change Practices Conclusion Conclusion: Connecting Concepts and Practices in Multiple Contexts Epilogue: Leading Intellectual Change: The Power of Ideas by James MacGregor Burns Index About the Author About the Contributors

Since the 1990’s, Japan has seen its funeral practices become increasingly diverse. New forms appear which will simplify or replace traditional Buddhist practices. Less expensive, these new funeral practices stress the separation between the space of ashes and the space of worship practices, which means a dematerialization of the deceased person. The case study of computer-tomb becoming an online-tomb is a good example of this trend. After a quick overview on Japanese traditional funeral practices to illustrate the context of the computer and online-tombs, I examine in details the features of computer-tomb and online-tombs of several persons and answer to those questions. Are those practices considered as Buddhist practices? How can reality and virtuality be connected together? How is the absence of body managed by the computer-tomb and online-tomb? Does the grave-online appear as the ultimate answer to the funeral proceedings - on a physical and spiritual level - in the Japanese funeral approach?

This study sought to carry out an analysis of the effects of the social media in political mobilization. These were analyzed using the following indicators (i) the social media as a communication tool and (ii) the role of social media in political mobilization. The study was using a one-day demonstration that occurred in Zimbabwe code named #ZimShutDown2016 as a case study. In the study, a qualitative case study research design was used. Secondary data from online newspaper reports and Social Media Networks was used to analyze the effects of the social media movement in bringing real socio-economic and political change in developing countries such as Zimbabwe. In-depth interviews with five key informants from local universities helped in the analysis and they were identified using purposive sampling technique. Findings from the study revealed that social media is an effective tool of communication among citizens. Information is exchanged minute by minute among citizens, and this encourages ‘citizenry journalism.’ As such, the social media has a positive impact in mobilizing the community in bringing real social, political and economic change. The study, therefore, recommends a longer survey on the challenges of the social media movement in developing countries such as Zimbabwe.

This article discusses the role of service providers in the funeral rituals for the execution of death rituals among ethnic Chinese in Surabaya between 1967 and 1998. Business in death rituals is a business born out the necessities among the ethnic Chinese to conduct death rituals. Businesses in death rituals for ethnic Chinese in Surabaya grew in the New Order era. Aside from due to the implementation of the Presidential Instruction 14/ 1967, the growth of this business was also due the shifts in meanings given to the ethnic Chinese death rituals. The existance of the service providers in the funeral rituals eventually pushed the changes in the meanings and executions of the rituals among ethnic Chinese. The whole rituals which were voluntarily in nature before became more commercialized now. Death rituals and the business in funeral ritual behind them became events to show social and economic status of the grieving famiy. Keywords: Death ritual, Chinese ethnic, business, Surabaya

Human life is a process of growth and change. Life rituals are ceremonies for growth and change of human life as a perception for a new stage of life. From long time ago, there were traditional life rituals that are expressed in adult, marriage, death and sacrificial rites. Fang Bao proposed a particular perspective about woman rituals and infused a religious spirit into Confucius rites. There were many explanations about life rites in writing of Fang Bao. Mother makes obeisance to her son in the process of adult rite. Wedding means eternal trustiness form birth to death. Woman as a role of mother existed in clothing wore in death rite. Woman used special sacrifice and cooked food as a rite for passing through the beginning and ending of life, and for passing through beginning and succeeding of the family. From the explanation to woman status in rites, woman status, unlike the following imagination or statement, is in an oppressed and dominated status. The respect and inferior difference between man and woman should be discussed in detailed analysis from Ritual thought.

Reviewed by: Placing Empire: Travel and the Social Imagination in Imperial Japan by Kate McDonald Takashi Yoshida (bio) Kate McDonald. Placing Empire: Travel and the Social Imagination in Imperial Japan. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017. xvii, 254 pp. Paperback $34.95, isbn 978-0-520-29391-5. McDonald’s study examines the discourse of tourism in the Japanese empire from the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth century in order to understand the spatial politics of Japanese imperialism in the context of world history. In particular, the author focuses on the imperial tourism from the Japanese mainland to Korea, Manchuria, and Taiwan. This book is divided into two parts, the first of which comprises two chapters, while the second consists of three chapters. There are also a separate introduction and a conclusion. Part 1, titled “The Geography of Civilization,” focuses on the period when Japan became an empire and acquired its colonies, roughly from the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 to the 1910s, during which the tourism materials separated civilized Japan from uncivilized new territories. In contrast, part 2, “The [End Page 176] Geography of Cultural Pluralism,” revolves around the tourism discourse from the 1910s to the 1930s, during which the empire stressed unification among the peoples within. Chapter 1, titled “Seeing Like the Nation” details how imperial travelers and colonial promoters tried to build a space for the imperial Japanese subjects through the lens of the Japanese national people, the term defined extralegally and inconsistently. As its territory was expanded due to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, the imperial Japanese government tried to promote emotional ties between its people and its newly acquired territories such as Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria. In order to produce patriotic national subjects, the government utilized expensive state-sponsored tours to and from its colonies so that the participants—Japanese and colonial social and political elites—were able to experience its new territories or metropole firsthand so that they could disseminate their experiences to the other subjects of the empire. For example, between 1897 and 1929, the government arranged eight tours to Tokyo and other places in Japan for Taiwanese elites, including indigenous Taiwanese leaders (p. 42). In July 1906, the Army and the Ministry of Education organized the first “observation travel” (shisatsu ryokō) to Manchuria in which approximately 600 teachers and students (middle school students and older) participated. In chapter 2, titled “The New Territories,” McDonald analyzes various Japanese tourist guidebooks to Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria including those published by the Government General of Taiwan in 1908, the South Manchuria Railway Company in 1909, and the Government General of Korea in 1915. These tourist guidebooks, as well as itineraries provided by the Japan Tourist Bureau (JTB), a public-private organization, featured three modes—namely economic, historical, and nationalistic—and highlighted the success of Japanese rule over the colonized territories while at the same time disconnecting the pasts and futures of colonial subjects from their lands. For example, all these guidebooks praised the role of the Japanese empire in modernizing colonial port cities such as Pusan, Keelung, and Dairen, while disregarding any contributions by the colonial residents. These guidebooks promoted an imaginary Japanese society as Japan proper consisted of not only modernized cities but also undeveloped rural areas that are much less industrialized than port cities in Korea, Manchuria, or Taiwan. Chapter 3, titled “Boundary Narratives,” discusses the new boundaries within the empire that emerged after World War I and restricted the mobilization of the colonized people. In order to deal with the threatening notion of self-determination, empires around the globe endorsed cultural pluralism in theory, and the Japanese empire was no exception. While on [End Page 177] the one hand the empire promoted the assimilation ideal and unity among different ethnic groups, it on the other hand limited the movement of colonial people, during which time commercial tourism became very popular and the Japanese people were allowed to travel freely. The chapter examines various narratives in association with tourism and underscores official and unofficial discrimination that colonial subjects endured. In chapter 4, titled “Local Color,” the author details the process through...

Popular and Organized Religion in Modern and Contemporary Mexico Martin Nesvig (bio) The Maya and Catholicism: An Encounter of Worldviews. By John D. Early. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006. Pp. 311. $59.95 cloth. Contemporary Maya Spirituality: The Ancient Ways Are Not Lost. By Jean Molesky-Poz. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006. Pp. 201. $25.00 paper. Days of Death, Days of Life: Ritual in the Popular Culture of Oaxaca. By Kristin Norget. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. Pp. 319. $35.00 paper. Death and Dying in New Mexico. By Martina Will de Chaparro. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007. Pp. 261. $32.50 cloth. The books under review here represent the continued dynamic study of religion from the view of historical sociology. While only one of these books is strictly speaking a historical monograph (Death and Dying in New Mexico) and the other three anthropological studies, all four share an abiding interest in the longue durée of Mesoamerican religion and spirituality. Simultaneously, as a whole, they place religious mentality, spirituality, or religious ritual at the center of their analyses, although none is a throwback to studies of pure ideas stripped of social context. Although ideas—about death, death rituals, cosmology, ancestor worship, spiritual phenomenology—take center stage, the authors place them within the social contexts in which they developed and in turn discuss how structural, political, and economic developments shaped these belief systems, or how these spiritualities outlasted and endured political and social change. As a group, these studies reject stripped-down epistemological assessments of religious values and of functionalist religious anthropology. Death is the explicit theme of two of these books, which therefore take part in a venerable historiographical tradition in early modern European studies, and certainly Mexican studies—one thinks of the works of Octavio Paz, Juan Rulfo, and Carlos Fuentes. Will de Chaparro's focus is consonant with those of the other three authors: ancestor worship and the [End Page 225] line between the worlds of the living and the dead, which Oaxacans, New Mexicans, and Mayas all viewed as tenuous or nonexistent. Likewise, her book fits closely with that by Norget, as both discuss death rituals and ceremonies. The other two books are linked by their examination of Maya religion. But whereas Molesky-Poz principally offers a participant-observer study, Early employs both his own fieldwork and a broad historical sociology to explain the seeming discontinuity between the persistence of Mayan forms of cosmology and religious epistemology, and the importance that Mayas place on the performance of the mass by ordained priests. Overall, these works contribute to a growing literature that questions assumptions about the spiritual conquest of Mesoamerica. They demonstrate the deep continuities with very old Mesoamerican religious forms and their adaptation to new historical circumstances. At the same time, they show that, while some practices seem constant—ancestor worship or veneration, for example—their form varies considerably. There are relatively few studies of death ritual and dying in colonial Latin America—Pamela Voekel's Alone before God (2002) is one—yet this is a veritable cottage industry among early modern Europeanists. Will de Chaparro's book is therefore a welcome addition to classics such as John McManner's Death and the Enlightenment (1981), Gaby and Michel Vovelle's still-untranslated Vision de la mort et de l'au-delà en Provence (1970), Phillipe Ariès's Hour of Our Death (1981), and Carlos Eire's From Madrid to Purgatory (1995). Will de Chaparro also adds to the vibrant literature on colonial New Mexico from practitioners such as Ramón Gutiérrez, Fray Angélico Chávez, and Marc Simmons. Nevertheless, as studies of pre-1821 (or for that matter pre-1848) New Mexico are fairly few and far between, her book offers a fine compliment to Chávez's classic My Penitente Land (1974), as well as to the more recent study by Michael P. Carroll, The Penitente Brotherhood (2002).1 Death and Dying in New Mexico is a study of religious and social attitudes toward death, death rituals and practices, and baroque sensibilities on the northern frontier of New Spain. Like most historical studies concerning death and...

The purpose this study is to examine the establishment process of Daejeong- Gwonbeon in the Imperial Japan's forced occupation period and Gwonbeon's Sijo based on Daejeong-Gwonbeon, and analyze its content and meaning. First, by exploring the change process of the Gisaeng (female entertainers) system, this study attempted to examine the characteristics of the Gisaeng system and changes in perception of Gisaeng in the Imperial Japan's forced occupation period. Next, this study tried to understand the process of Daejeong- Gwonbeon's establishment and its meaning through Sijo works based on Daejeong-Gwonbeon.
 In the Imperial Japan's forced occupation period, Gisaeng's role and perception changed after the abolition of the government-gisaeng system. Gisaeng, who was recognized as an artist with expertise, participating in Joseon dynasty national events and various banquets, was perceived as a professional woman who made her living from the craft since the Imperial Japan's forced occupation period. In this way, the change in the Gisaeng system and perception of Gisaeng was due to social changes at the time and had a great impact on Gisaeng themselves.
 In this situation of the times, Daejeong-Gwonbeon's Gisaeng tried to prove their own value as artists. Daejeong-Gwonbeon's Gisaengs tried to emphasize their aspect as artists through dance and song within the changed system. Especially as well as traditional dancing and singing, they tried to differentiate themselves from other Gwonbeons by showing their own unique performances by utilizing their various fortes.
 These characteristics of Daejeong-Gwonbeon are also clearly visible in the Sijo works included in the 『Joseon Beauty Bogam』. Sijo, created in the form of a question-and-answer dialogue, expresses the characteristics and prosperity of Daejeong-Gwonbeon through chrysanthemums and nature. The metaphors and symbols that appear in the works, as well as the question-and-answer form in parallel form, are a typical feature of Sijo, which was often used in the Joseon dynasty, which confirms that the Sijo works created based on Daejeong- Gwonbeon follow the traditional Sijo style.

Santa Cruz County California has one of the oldest community indicator projects in the country, with the first year of the Community Assessment Project (CAP) starting in 1994 and continuing through 2006 and beyond. The CAP accomplishes four major goals: (1) to assess the quality of life in the county; (2) to educate community members about the economy, education, health, public safety, natural environment and social environment of the region; (3) to act as a catalyst for social and political change; and (4) to help evaluate the impact of social and political change in the county. This chapter will outline the history of the CAP, how the CAP reveals the quality of life in the county and educates community members, the successes of the CAP in acting as a catalyst for change in the community, challenges for the CAP, and recommendations for how the Santa Cruz County CAP, and other community indicator projects, might increase their ability to make political and social change.

This concluding chapter reassesses the book's diverse contributions and concludes that the subtext of hope and positive change is embedded in the larger story of the "Arab Spring." From a historical perspective, the odds of new media and communication technologies' contribution to massive public mobilization for political and social change have never been greater given the proliferation and sophistication of these technologies. From a practical perspective, social and political change cannot but remain contingent upon human action, and ICTs can further human action for social justice and political change.

The first Tartu Student Days owe a lot to the sports complex in Kaariku and the KVN show Toomas Alatalu Feodor Klement, Rector of the University of Tartu, and the university lecturers and students were all audaciously eager to use the “thaw” period in the Soviet regime’s policies following the revelations about Stalin’s personality cult and so they used the World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow in 1957 as a pretext to organise in Tartu the Baltic Students’ Song Festival in the same year. As the political “thaw” peaked for the second time, the students became more politically minded and active and this development was called the “Tartu spirit”, denoting opposition to official politics and submission of proposals aimed at reforming the system. On the students’ initiative a circle on international relations and a sociology circle were established in 1963-64. The humour/skits competition format borrowed from the highly popular Soviet Central Television show called KVN (this Russian abbreviation stands for the “Club of the Merry and the Inventive”) and the public political debates allowed the students to discover a feeling of empowerment. Thus the idea took shape of organising special days for all students. The first such student days took place in October 1965 and the key motif of the event was removal of all the bad things from the university and from the city itself: thousands of students participated in the mock funeral of the “boring professor” and the “lazy student”. The university’s Young Communist League leaders, including Karl Adamson, Toomas Alatalu, Priit Jarve, Jaak Kaarma and Mikk Titma, displayed a daring approach that engaged youth leaders in most cities and districts of Estonia. As a result, in February 1966 the XIII Congress of the Estonian Leninist Young Communist League approved the alternative action plan drawn up in Tartu for the purpose of enhancing youth rights and voted against the Central Committee Secretary sent from Moscow. At the university’s Young Communist League Conference in April 1966 a proposal was put forward to reduce to a minimum the volume of teaching of the doctrine of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The demand was made and met to increase tenfold the allocation of trips abroad to the students. These were the highest achievements of the Estonian student members of the Young Communist League who were oriented towards the stance taken by young people in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Moscow then implemented direct party control over Young Communist League activities, culminating in the relegation of the Tartu Student Days to the level of an official ideology tool in 1970.

According to this research, the writer researched about the analytical concept of the funeral execution on Sabbath day based on Luke 23:56 in the church of Rangalau Lama Kiulu Sabah, Malaysia. The research is based on four indicators which are Sabbath theology, the funeral’s concept in the Bible, the funeral’s concept of Jews and the implication of funeral ceremony by doing on Sabbath day. This research divided into two parts mainly theoretical research and field research. The results of the theoretical research are, the funeral ceremony can be done on Sabbath day if the dead body suffered from contagious disease that causes the body to be biodegradable of it other disease of a woman who died during childbirth. That is the reason why the funeral should be done immediately in avoiding from spread out the bacteria disease into people around. Based on the cause of death, then surely the principle of prompt attention can be used to answer this research which questions as whether the body can be buried on the Sabbath day or otherwise. However, should the body be in good condition then the burial should be postponed and buried the next day to ensure that the Sabbath is keep holy. In the field research, the writer divided into three parts. Which are Sabbath theology, the funeral concept in the Bible and the implication of funeral ceremony by doing on Sabbath day. The results of field research will be done by handing out questionnaires among 30 members of Rangalau Lama church who have baptized under the Seventh Day Adventist’s church membership. The data which collected showed that all the respondents had a clear understanding of the Sabbath theology. This can be prove according to the mean that is 4, 60. However, according to the mean from statement 14-17 that is 3, 19, there are some respondents who doubtful of the funeral concept conveyed in the Bible. The views of respondents on the issue of burial or funeral on a Sabbath day was downsized into two views mainly those who agree on Sabbath burial under certain circumstances and those who strongly disapprove of the burial ceremony being held on a Sabbath day even though the condition of the death body is deteriorated. This proved according to the mean average that is 3, 03. Nevertheless, each problem that have by the result of field research was overcome by detailed explanations of the burial concept and its principle indeed until the concept of funeral implementation on Sabbath day consist into all membership pilgrim in Rangalau Lama Kiulu Sabah, Malaysia.