anthropology-adventures

[anthropology-adventures]

Introducing Imposter Syndrome...

I´ve been studying in my graduate program since about half a year now and I am really starting to feel that imposter syndrome. It is so strange how that creeps up on you, but the courses in the gradschool are so much more advanced than on the undergrad level and sometimes I sit in class and cannot follow the argument at all. I also realized that i missed quite a lot during my undergrad degree, because while I know I am quite goo at fieldwork I fail massively with Theory, I absolutely struggle to link findings to theory and honestly never really know where I´m standing in that regard. But I also struggle to learn this, how do I manage to read up on so many things but also how can I learn the skill of linking my observations to the fitting theory? If any advanced anthropologists have tips here, please let me know because I really am struggling. I think because I don´t really understand or because it´s so uncler to me which theory states what and how to critically apply them I really dislike this part of research - but I mean that´s a huge part of it and I am sometimes unsure if I am right in academia if I do not like this part of the process. I love the methodological part of it, the fieldwork, the interviews - but whn I have to turn fieldnotes into a paper I hate that because I never really know what I am doing. Soooo, does anyone have similar struggles or is that normal? I will obviously continue my studies I just need to figure out how to deal with this issue.

[anthropology-adventures]

Finished my Bachelor Thesis

I finally turned in my Bachelor Thesis yesterday - now I just have to wait for the official results. But that means I officially finished my bachelors degree and I am already in my masters study. This is not just to boast - even through thats totally viable too bc damn that was a lot of work - but I wanted to update what I actually wrote on.

You may remember that I stated at the beginning of this year that I wanted to write about "Politics of Memory" and the so-called "Comfort Women" but as it happens with Cultural Anthropology, while being in Japan I realized that this was not as easy as I thought and the paper would have been very historical which I honestly did not want one bit. I wanted to tie the topic to contemporary Issues -but the 60 pages of a bachelors thesis just are not enough to do this. So while being in Japan I wondered how sex-work, sex and consent in general are seen in Japan? Are those reasons why the "comfort women" issue was not seen as serious by japanese people? Could it be that sexual violence in general was disregarded in public discourse?

So I switched my topic to instead discuss the Construction of Consent in Japan. How do people in relationships understand consent and what is seen as sexual violence, what does the law state in Japan? I found myself digging deeper and deeper into NHK Surveys, Court rulings and Interviews as well as femnist movements within Japan. Well and this paper is what turned up. Now I just hope my advisors appreciate it as much as I do and when I have it back I might tell you more about it - unless they hate it which would ruin my self esteem...

[anthropology-adventures]

Introducing comfort women.

The „Comfort Women Issue“ is what brought me to the research into sexual violence and abuse against women. Throughout my studies I remember I read an article about the few comfort women that are still alive and was staggered that I had never heard about it. Therefore - as this is what motivated me to go into this area of studies - I want to write a little bit about the comfort women.

The word itself is already a euphemism because these women were forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army in World War 2. During the war, the Japanese government set up the system of „comfort stations“ were the women were forced to work. Their reasoning was that during the sino-japanese war a lot of rapes of civilians by the japanese army were reported and those shed „a bad light“ on the army as an institution. Documents have been recovered that proof the involvement of the government through signatures of fundings for the construction of „comfort stations“. This will be of importance later on.

Most of the women were underage and either abducted from active warzones or tricked into the work as a „comfort woman“ by being promised work as a nurse. They were forced to „work“ in the comfort stations which where often located close to the active war zones. A lot of the women died because of STDs, failed abortions, pregnancies or suicide. When Japan realised it would lose the war many of the comfort women where killed by the Japanese imperial army.

Until this day Japan has not issued an official apology or reparation payments to the surviving comfort women. The first comfort woman to speak out was Kim Hal-soon, a Korean woman who encouraged other survivors to share their stories. Since then many movements have formed - especially in South Korea - that call upon Japan for an official Apology. However the narrative of the Japanese government remains that the comfort women where willing sex workers and have not been mistreated by the Japanese imperial army. Within Japan the comfort women are rarely spoken about, they are mostly excluded from history lessons in school and are not represented in Japans war museums. There is one very small museum that shows the comfort women, the WAM Museum in Tokyo.

[anthropology-adventures]

Hello there.

[anthropology-adventures]

Introducing myself…

If you found this blog that means you mostly found me through my instagram, so hello! You already know quite a bit about me - or at least what I have wanted to share. But during the course of my last weeks I have found that Instagram does not work as well, because I want to share some more texts. Work I have already done and updates on current work - as well as finding my way in Anthropology, something I am certain many people struggle with.

I am currently writing my bachelor thesis and feel myself slipping into a slightly dark place. My thesis is about the construction of consent within japan - an extremely interesting topic. However I didn’t come to it simply out of curiosity - I myself had experiences with sexual harassment and assault. Which is partly a reason I want to raise more awareness and chose this topic as my focus. But reading about accounts of sexual violence almost everyday is exhausting and tiring. Plus I am unsure how to keep the distance between personal experiences and the scientific work.

Apart from that I face the challenge of finishing my bachelors and being somewhat (or totally) unsure of what comes after. I had the plan of continuing with a master in cultural anthropology, but I am not sure anymore. if I imagine the future I feel like there is somewhat of a blank space where a plan should be? I have dabbled in forensic anthropology and am considering pursuing that - but I am just not sure. I know that I want to get away from the „just theory“ part of anthropology. I also know that I love to write, but not scientific papers, I want to make research more accessible for everyone - to me that’s the most efficient way of raising awareness. But how I’m going to do that is absolutely unclear to me.

So maybe just follow along on this journey, if you are curious.