This session's speaker was Associate Professor Sayaka Takano from the Faculty of Policy Studies.

Sayaka Takano developed an interest in law while studying cultural anthropology at the University of Tokyo, which led her to explore a cultural anthropological approach to law. She has conducted research on the intersection of law and society, including fieldwork at local courts in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Recently, her research has focused on the theme of the anthropology of "making of law".

In a pre-event survey, many participants noted that they were unfamiliar with the term "legal anthropology." To address this, the session covered how legal anthropology is defined, and how it has developed over time.

The history of legal anthropology

It was once believed that law existed only in countries with culturally advanced systems. However, law is not exclusive to Western societies. The absence of a state-backed judicial system does not necessarily lead to a lawless, survival-of-the-fittest environment, nor does it mean that people in warm southern islands live peacefully without conflict.

In 1926, in the book Crime and Custom in Savage Society, Polish anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski argued that even in stateless societies, order is maintained through the accumulation of individual interactions. This marked the establishment of legal anthropology as an academic discipline.

By the 1980s, it became widely understood that multiple legal systems could coexist within a single society. For example, it was not feasible for France to govern its African colonies solely under French law. Recognizing that local customary law held equal power to state law was essential to avoid creating tensions. This coexistence of state law and non-state law is common even outside of colonial contexts. Furthermore, the complexity of legal pluralism has increased because a single national legal system is often insufficient to resolve international issues.

Law and emotion

From the 1980s to the 1990s, the notion that law represents reason and that emotion stands in binary opposition was challenged, leading to the emergence of a research field known as "law and emotion." This field continues to develop today.

In its early stages, legal scholars led the way in studying the role of emotion in law, and more recently, research in Japan has expanded with articles such as "Saibankan wa Kanjo ni Ugokasarete wa Naranai no ka? (Should Judges Be Unmoved by Emotions?)" by legal philosopher Yuko Hashimoto, and "Kanjo to Jodo no Bunka Jinruigaku (The Cultural Anthropology of Emotion and Affect)" by cultural anthropologist Goro Yamazaki. These studies suggest new connections between anthropology and legal studies.

The rights of nature

Just as the binary opposition between reason and emotion was re-examined, so was the dichotomy between humans and nature. Influenced by shifts in environmental consciousness in the United States, there has been a movement to reassess the human-centric worldview prevalent in Western society. Previously, it was considered natural to treat non-human entities as mere objects, but the very idea that non-human entities exist solely for human benefit is now being reconsidered. Reflecting this shift, we are seeing increasing cases worldwide where nature is granted legal personhood and can even be represented in court.

The Whanganui River in New Zealand became the first river to be granted legal personhood in 2012. Historically, the Indigenous Māori people had been claiming ownership of the riverbed, protesting against the environmental impact of gravel extraction by settlers since the 19th century, but had lost their case. However, in the 21st century, the legal argument shifted, with a ruling that respected the Māori worldview that the river should never be owned by anyone.

Other examples include Ecuador recognizing the rights of nature in its constitution, and courts in India granting legal status to the Ganges River and its tributary, the Yamuna River. In Japan, there have also been lawsuits asserting the rights of nature, such as a 1995 case where the Amami rabbit was named as a plaintiff.

The significance of legal anthropology

While some may find the idea of granting legal personhood to rivers or animals to be a fantastical notion, legal anthropology does not rush to judge the significance of such new rights.

Legal anthropology views law as something created through specific practices, and by carefully unraveling what is happening, who is involved, and what actions are being taken, it is considered possible to participate in the creation of new forms of order.

The fascinating aspects of cultural anthropology

Cultural anthropology is a field of study structured around the research method known as fieldwork. While it was once associated with studying so-called primitive societies, today, cultural anthropological fieldwork is conducted in a wide range of settings.

For instance, I conducted fieldwork at courts in Indonesia, but there are researchers studying police and judicial systems in the U.S. and Japan. Some researchers also conduct studies in hospitals, examining medical technology and its relationship with humans. This type of research is referred to as the anthropology of science and technology.

Cultural anthropology, which typically involves fieldwork over a period of two years or even longer, is sometimes called slow science, because it is not a discipline that yields immediate answers. However, as I've discussed so far, it offers a unique and captivating perspective, unlike other academic fields.

For those of you who are learning about the existence of legal anthropology for the first time today, I hope this has sparked some interest.

* Click here for the video of the eighth collaborative course with Otemachi Academia on September 26, 2024, titled "Reading Law from the Perspective of Cultural Anthropology: The Development and Prospects of Legal Anthropology."

Sayaka Takano／Associate Professor, Faculty of Policy Studies, Chuo University
Area of Specialization: Cultural anthropology and folklore studies

In 2001, she graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo.
In 2003, she completed the Master’s Program in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo.
In 2010, she completed the Doctoral Program in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo. She holds a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary academics.
She served as Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo and as a Research Fellow for Young Scientists at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science before assuming her current position in 2016.

Her current research themes include the reexamination of customary legal concepts in legal anthropology, and ethnographic studies of law and development.

Her major written works include “Indonesia: The Challenge to Democratization and Globalization” (co-authored, Junposha, 2020), “Law and Society in Post-Suharto Indonesia: An Ethnographic Approach to Judging and Not Judging” (Sangensha, 2015), and more.

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