Waiting for Wolves in Japan: An Anthropological Study of People-Wildlife Relations

Abstract

Waiting for Wolves in Japan: An Anthropological Study of People-Wildlife Relations JOHN KNIGHT OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, OXFORD, UK, 2003. 296 PP. $99.00 HARDCOVER REVIEWED BY JOHN M. MARZLUFF The Japanese people have shared their land with a diverse community of wildlife for millennia. They have revered, battled, hunted, and celebrated wildlife as a people with deep and close ties to nature. Some species, like the wolf, have been exterminated. Such loss brings relief to some, but challenges others to restore what has been lost. John Knight explores such complex and often opposed relationships between Japanese and wildlife in Waiting for Wolves in Japan. He sets out to explore wolf reintroduction and its possible role as a force to unify rural and urban Japan. Along his journey, he tells us about more than just wolves. We learn about the language and culture of rural Japan, notably those people who live in the mountain villages of the Kii Peninsula, and about a host of iconic wildlife with whom they share life. Knight opens his book with a discussion of human and wildlife interactions, then takes a detailed look at the Japanese actors so that we quickly understand the current and historical perspectives of farmers, foresters and hunters, and come to know the animals they live among. The bulk of the book is a systematic, chapter-by-chapter discussion of human interactions with six wildlife species (wild boar, Japanese macaque, deer, serow, bear and wolf). Each species is introduced biologically first, with appropriate detail on taxonomy, ecology, behavior and references to the primary literature. Then the role of the species in human culture is described and discussed. We learn how the animal has influenced human iconic imagery, pets, recreation, mythology and the like. Finally, the current interaction of the species with groups of people (farmers, foresters, hunters, village residents) is discussed, often in their own words, so that the reader comes to know each species from a variety of perspectives. The book concludes with a synthetic treatment of wildlife-human interactions focused on the wolf's role in reweaving the rural Japanese social and ecological fabric. I am an ecologist with a keen interest in the cultural connections between humans and wildlife. As such, I read Waiting for Wolves through only one of the lenses relied upon by Knight. Knight's primary view of the human-wildlife connection is anthropological. But the presentation of wildlife ecology by Knight, although brief, was excellent and replete with ample citations of current literature. The social perspectives introduced throughout the book were also excellent in their presentation of historical and modern views. Through the encounters between people and animals in Japan, we learn about opposing views of wildlife from actual accounts. For example, the dual nature of interactions with bears is seen by contrasting the stories of human mothers nursing orphaned bears in villages to reports of fear-stricken bus riders taunting their driver to run over a bear crossing the road. Likewise, the wolf is both a benign protector-limiting harmful agricultural pests like deer and boar-and a threatening predator. The ebb and flow of human values given to wildlife are evident in these and other stories. Increasingly, humans in Japan (and elsewhere) see wildlife as pests that threaten their agricultural livelihood or even their physical life. In the recent past, losses to wildlife were less dramatic and relationships with animals more positive. Both sorts of relationships have affected human culture, as Knight amply demonstrates. They also affect animal ecology, evolution and culture (Marzluff and Angell 2005a), a side of the relationship that is not developed by Knight. In exploring the generality of his findings, Knight touches on several important concepts shared by the natural and social sciences. The influence of place on human valuation of wildlife is illustrated in comparisons of rural and urban perception of wildlife pestilence. …