William F. Vilas Professor, Ph. D.
Dept. of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Office: Dept. of Anthropology, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
5462 Social Science Bldg., 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706 USA

tel: 608-262- 2866; fax 608-265-4216; e-mail: eohnukit@wisc.edu
Website: http://www.anthropology.wisc.edu

Preferred contact (home): 608-222-4510; fax 608-222-4344

Resident, Bellagio Rockefeller Study & Conference Center, Oct. 1-31, 1998.

École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Professeur associé (April, 1992); Directeur d’ études associé (May-June, 1997; June, 1998; May, 2002).

Univ. of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies, Toyota Visiting Professor, fall semester, 1995.

Harvard University, 1993-94, Dept. of Anthropology; E. O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies; Center for the Study of World Religions (Visiting Prof./ Senior Fellow).

Univ. of Manchester, Dept. of Anthropology, Trinity term, 1990, Lord Simon Professor.

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, Fellow (1988-89).

The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Member (1986-87).

Oxford Univ., Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies (Visiting Scholar)/St Antony's College (Senior Associate Member) (Trinity term, 1986).

National Museum of Ethnology , Osaka, Associate Researcher (1979-1980); Research Consultant (1985-1990).

Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1999-present; Midwest Council member, November, 2002-present).

John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, 1985-86.

Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics. One of five finalists for the non-fiction category of the Kiriyama Prize.

Rice as Self --1993 Honorary Mention, Sociology & Anthropology, Professional & Scholarly Publishing Division, Assoc. of American Publishers.

(Japanese Concepts of Illness). Santori scholarly book award in Dec., 1986.

H.I. Romnes Faculty Award for newly tenured faculty for excellence in research. 1982.

John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities; Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (fieldwork, senior scholar and conference organization); Japan Foundation; National Sciences Foundation (twice); Fulbright.

Commodification and Modernity: November-December, 2005; March, 2006

Symbolism of cherry blossoms and the Special Attack Forces ("Kamikaze"), Tokyo & Kyoto. McDonald’s & other fast foods in Tokyo & Osaka. Aug.-Sept.,1994.

Attitudes towards brain death & organ transplantation. Tokyo, Osaka & Kobe, Aug. 1993. Gift exchange in Japan. On-going since 1992.

Symbolism of rice in Japanese culture. Kanazawa, Osaka, Kobe, Tokyo. Nov.-Dec. 1988; May-July, 1990; April, 1991.

Symbolism of monkey and monkey performance in Japanese culture. Okayama, Osaka, Tokyo, Tsukuba, and Sapporo. April, 1980; May-July, 1984; May, 1987.

Illness perception and medical pluralism in urban Japan. The Hanshinkan area. Summer, 1976; Feb.-June, 1979; April and May, 1980.

The Sakhalin Ainu resettled in Hokkaido. June, 1965-May, 1966; March-May, 1969; Sept.-Oct., 1973.

The Detroit Chinese. 1960-61; summer, 1963.

2006 Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers. University of Chicago Press. A Polish translation by Emka Klara Molnar via Graal Ltd. in progress.

2006 (Intellectual Journey of Student Soldiers). Tokyo: . Korean translation in progress by Prof. Lee Hyang-chul from Woomulhouse (Seoul).

2004 La vera storia dei kamikaze giapponesi: La militarizzazione dell ’estetica nell ’ Impero del Sol Levant . Roma: Paravia BrunoMondadori Editori. Italian translation of 2002 book from the University of Chicago Press.

2003 (The Crooked Timber of Cherry: Aesthetics and Militarization). Tokyo: . 1st printing on April 22, 2003; 5th printing in 2006. Korean translation by Moment publisher in 2004 by Prof. Lee Hyang-Chui.

2002 Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History. University of Chicago Press. One of five finalists for the non-fiction category of the Kiriyama Prize.

1995 (An Anthropology of Rice: Japanese Conception of the Self). . Korean transl. published by Hallym Academy of Sciences, Hallym University in 2001.

1995 (Japanese Culture and the Monkey). Tokyo: .

1993 Rice as Self: Japanese Identities Through Time. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 3rd printing in 1995.

1987 The Monkey as Mirror: Symbolic Transformations in Japanese History and Ritual. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.

1985 (Japanese Concepts of Illness). Tokyo: . Received Santori scholarly book award in 1986. 8th printing in 2000.

1984 Illness and Culture in Contemporary Japan: An Anthropological View. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. 7th printing in 1997.

1981 Illness and Healing among the Sakhalin Ainu: A Symbolic Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

1974 The Ainu of the Northwest Coast of Southern Sakhalin. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Reprinted in 1984 by: Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press. Russian translation by T. Pooh in Kraevedcheskii Biulleten (1996, No. 1, pp. 3-33, No. 2, pp. 57- 105, No. 3, pp. 89-127, No. 4, pp. 35-77).

1969 Sakhalin Ainu Folklore. Anthropological Studies No. 2. Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association.

1964 The Detroit Chinese: A Study of Socio-Cultural Changes in the Detroit Chinese Community from 1872 through 1963. Hard-cover book of a type-written ms. 119 pp. Housed at Detroit Public Library, UCLA Library, etc.

1979 (Native Peoples of Sakhalin). . Tokyo : .

1990 Culture Through Time: Anthropological Approaches. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press.

1982 Symbolism and Cognition II . Special Issue of American Ethnologist 9(4). With J.W.D. Dougherty, J.W. Fernandez and N. E. Whitten, Jr.

2006 Against "Hybridity": Culture as Historical Process. In, Dismantling the East-West Dichotomy: Views from Japanese Anthropology, Joy Hendry and Dixon Wong, eds. London: Routledge. Pp. 11-16.

2006 (The future of Japanese Studies: "Region." "Nation," "World" as Axes and the Historicization of Culture Concept). In, (How to Understand the "Local" -- Continuity and Re-Creation of the Local Culture). March, 2006.. Pp. 20-29.

2005 Japanese Monarchy in Historical and Comparative Perspective. In, The Character of Kingship, Declan Quigley, ed. Oxford: Berg Publishers. Pp. 209-232. [PDF]

2004 Always Discontinuous/Continuous and Hybrid by Its Very Nature: The Culture Concept Historicized. Ethnohistory 52 (1): 179-95. [PDF]

2004 Betrayal by Idealism and Aesthetics: Special Attack Force (Kamikaze) Pilots and their Intellectual Trajectories (Part 1). Anthropology Today 20(2): 15-21. [PDF]

2003 Special Attack Forces: Thoughts on Death/Life of Student Soldiers). Dialogue with historian Irokawa Daikichi . No. 718 (Sept. 2003): 157-165.

2002 (The Imperial Accession Ritual and the Kingship). In, (The Emperor and the Kingship), Vol. 5, (The Kingship and Ritual). Amino Yoshihiko et al, eds. Pp. 41-67. Tokyo: .

2001 Culture, Society, Japan. In, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Edited by N. J. Smelser and P. B. Baltes. Pp. 7956-60. Oxford: Pergamon.

2001 East Asian Studies: Culture. In, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences . N. J. Smelter and P. B. Baltes, eds. Pp. 3954-57. Oxford: Pergamon.

2001 Historicization of the Culture Concept. History and Anthropology 12(3): 213-54. [PDF]

1999 We Eat Each Other's Food to Nourish our Body: The Global and the Local as Mutually Constituent Forces. In, Food in Global History, Raymond Grew, ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Pp. 240-272. [PDF]

1999 Ainu Sociality. In, Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People, W.W. Fitzhugh & C. O. Dubreuil, eds. National Museum of Natural History. Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 240-245. [PDF]

1998 A Conceptual Model for the Historical Relationship between the Self, and the Internal and External Others: The Agrarian Japanese, the Ainu, and the Special Status People. In, Making Majorities. D. Gladney, ed. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press. Pp. 31-51 (text), 287-294(notes), 309-313 (references). [PDF]

1998 Cherry Blossoms and Their Viewing. In, The Culture of Japan as Seen Through its Leisure. Sepp Linhard and Sabine Frühstück, eds. State University of New York Press. Pp. 213-236. [PDF]

1997 McDonald's in Japan: Changing Manners and Etiquette. In, Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia, James Watson, ed. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press. Pp.161-82; 230-34 (notes). [PDF]

1997 The Reduction of Personhood to Brain and Rationality? Japanese Contestation of Medical High Technology." In, Western Medicine as Contested Knowledge, A. Cunningham and B. Andrews, eds. Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press. Pp. 212- 40. [PDF]

1997 The Ainu Colonization and the Development of "Agrarian Japan" -- A Symbolic Interpretation. In, New Directions in the Study of Meiji Japan, H. Hardacre, ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill. Pp. 656-675. [PDF]

1996 The Anthropology of the Other in the Age of Supermodernity. Current Anthropology 37 (3): 578-80. Review article.

1996 Selves and Others in Japanese Culture in Historical Perspective. In, Narratives of Agency: Self-Making in Indian, Chinese and Japanese Cultures. W. Dissanayake, ed. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press. Pp. 151-77.

1995 Representations of the Monkey (Saru) in Japanese Culture. In Ape, Man, Apeman: Changing Views Since 1600, Raymond Corbey and Bert Theunissen, eds. Leiden: Dept. of Philosophy, Leiden University. Pp. 297-308.

1995 Structure, Event and Historical Metaphor: Rice and Identities in Japanese History. Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute 30(2) (June, 1995): 1-27. [PDF]

1995 (Cherry Blossoms in Japanese Culture). In, (The World of Plants). Tokyo: .

1994 Rice as Metaphor of the Japanese Self. In, Paths Toward the Past , R. Harms, J. Miller, D. Newbury, & M. Wagner, eds. Atlanta, GA: African Studies Assoc. Press. Pp. 455-72. [PDF]

1994 Two Observations of Japanese Religiosity and Rationality. In , The 4th International Congress on Traditional Asian Medicine, Proceedings, Part I: pp. 13-74. [PDF]

1994 The Power of Absence: Zero Signifiers and Their Transgressions. l'Homme 130 (avriljuin), XXXIV (2):59-76. [PDF]

1994 Brain Death and Organ Transplantation: Cultural Bases of Medical Technology. Current Anthropology 35 (3): 233-254.

1993 Nature, pureté et soi primordial: La nature japonaise dans une perspective comparative. Géographie et Cultures 7:75-92. [PDF]

1993 Ainu. In, Encyclopedia of World Cultures , Vol. V. P. Hockings, ed. Human Relations Area Files. Boston: G.K. Hall. Pp. 7-10. [PDF]

1993 Presence of the Absence: Zero Signifiers and Zero Meanings. Semiotica 96 (3/4):301-08.

1992 Vitality on the Rebound: Ritual's Core? Anthropology Today 8(5):17-20. Review article.

1991 The Emperor of Japan as Deity (Kami): An Anthropology of the Imperial System in Historical Perspective. Ethnology XXX (3): 1-17. [PDF]

1991 Embedding and Transforming Polytrope: The Monkey as Self in Japanese Culture. Beyond Metaphor: Trope Theory in Anthropology , J. W. Fernandez, ed. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press. Pp. 159-189.

1991 (The Consciousness of the Self of the Japanese as Portrayed in the Film, Tampopo). No. 4: 108-18.

1990 Monkey as Metaphor?: Transformations of A Polytropic Symbol in Japanese Culture. Man (N.S.) 25(1990): 399-416. [PDF]

1990 The Ambivalent Self of the Contemporary Japanese. Cultural Anthropology 5:196-215. [PDF]

1990 Introduction: The Historicization of Anthropology. In, Culture Through Time , E. Ohnuki-Tierney, ed. Stanford Univ. Press. Pp. 1-25. [PDF]

1990 The Monkey as Self in Japanese Culture. In, Culture Through Time , E. Ohnuki-Tierney, ed. Stanford Univ. Press. Pp. 128-153. [PDF]

1989 Health Care in Contemporary Japanese Religions. In, Caring and Curing: Health and Medicine in the Eastern Religious Traditions , ed. by L.E. Sullivan. New York: Macmillan. Pp. 59-87. [PDF]

1987 (Health and Illness in Daily Life). (Asahi Encyclopedia--Japanese History) 97:9/276-9/279.

1987 Ainu religion; Inao; Iresu-Huchi; Kamuy. The Encyclopedia of Religions, Mircea Eliade, ed. New York: Macmillan. Vol. 1:159-61; Vol. 7: 147; Vol. 7:283-84; Vol. 8:245-46.

1986 Cultural Transformations of Biomedicine in Japan--Hospitalization in contemporary Japan. International Journal of Technological Assessment in Health Care 2(2): 231-241.

1986 Socio-Cultural Dimensions of Renal Transplants in Japan. Health Policy 6:279-282.

1984 Monkey Performances -- A Multiple Structure of Meaning and Reflexivity in Japanese Culture. In, Text, Play and Story , E. Bruner, ed. Washington, D.C.: American Ethnological Society. Pp. 278-314. [PDF]

1984 Native Anthropologists. American Ethnologist 11(3): 584-86.

1982 When Paradigms Collide: Introduction to Symbolism and Cognition II. With Norman E. Whitten, Jr. American Ethnologist 9(4):635-643.

1981 Phases in Human Perception/Conception/Symbolization Process -- Cognitive Anthropology and Symbolic Classification. American Ethnologist 8(3): 451-467. [PDF]

1980 Ainu Illness and Healing--A Symbolic Interpretation. American Ethnologist 7(1): 132-151.

1980 (Culture and Classification -- With Ainu Spatial Concepts as an Example). (No. 676, October, 1980): 26-45.

1980 Shamans and Imu: Among Two Ainu Groups--Toward a Cross-Cultural Model of Interpretation. Ethos 8(3): 204-228. Reprinted in, Culture Bound Syndromes, R. C. Simons and C. C. Hughes, eds. Dordecht, Holland: Reidel. Pp. 91-110. [PDF]

1977 An Octopus Headache? A Lamprey Boil? Multisensory Perception of 'Habitual Illnesses' and World View of the Ainu. Journal of Anthropological Research 33(3): 245-257. [PDF]

1977 The Classification of the 'Habitual Illnesses' of the Sakhalin Ainu. Arctic Anthropology XIV(2): 9-34.

1976 Regional Variations in Ainu Culture. American Ethnologist 3(2): 297-329. [PDF]

1976 Shamanism and World View--Case of the Ainu of the Northwest Coast of Southern Sakhalin. In, The Realm of the Extra-Humans: Ideas and Actions, A. Bharati, ed. Paris: Mouton. Pp. 175-200. [PDF]

1974 Another Look at the Ainu. Arctic Anthropology XI: 189-95.

1973 The Shamanism of the Ainu of the Northwest Coast of Southern Sakhalin. Ethnology XII (1):15-29. Abstracted in Human Behavior (June, 1973): 54-55. [PDF]

1973 Mashio Chiri--Ainu Scholar of Ainu Culture and Professor of Linguistics. American Anthropologist 75: 868-876. With Hideo Fujimoto.

1973 Sakhalin Ainu Time Reckoning. Man 8(2): 285-299. [PDF]

1972 Spatial Concepts of the Ainu of the Northwest Coast of Southern Sakhalin. American Anthropologist 74(3): 426-457. [PDF]

1969 Concepts of Time among the Ainu of the Northwest Coast of Sakhalin. American Anthropologist 71:488-492. [PDF]

NPR/WAMU Kojo Nnamdi Show. On my book, Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers.

BBC, "The World." On my book, Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers. Adeline Sire, producer. July 18, 2006.

Australian Broadcasting Co./BBC. "Rice and Identity in Japan." July 13, 2006.

BBC, "The World Today", July 11, 2006." On my book, Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers, Karen Chan, Producer. Broadcast in several languages.

BBC, Radio 4, "Thinking Allowed." On my new book, Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers, June 7, 2006. Torquill MacLeod, producer; Laurie Taylor, presenter.

NPR (KCUR-FM) On my book, Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History. 11:00-11:45 am. March 10, 2004.

NHK Television in Japan. On my book, Nejimagerareta Sakura (The Crooked Timber of Cherry). Filmed interviews and my teaching scene (Anthropology 940). Televised on March 30, 2004.

WSUI - University of Iowa. Broadcast on October 14, 2002. Dialogue with Professor S. Vlastos on my book, Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History.

BBC (Horizon) special on "Rice." April 16, 2001. 30 minutes.

"A Short, Tragic Bloom: Diaries reveal a different side of Japan’s kamikaze attack force." On Wisconsin Spring, 2005), pp. 14-15. By Michael Penn. On, Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms and Nationalisms.

"Rice as Self: Japanese Identities Through Time." Education About Asia 9(3): 4-9.

Commentary for Current Anthropology (February, 2004) on Masamichi S.Inoue: New/Old Social Movements and the U.S. Military in Okinawa.

" (Medical Anthropology)." In, (Thirty Themes in Life Ethics), pp. 86-87. Tokyo: 2004.

"McDonald’s dans l’empire du Soleil-Levant." Sciences Humaines No. 135 (Fébrier, 2003):28-29.

"The Call for A New Asian Identity: An Examination of the Cultural Arguments and their Implications." Japan Programs Occasional Papers No. 5: 8-9. Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs. March 31, 1994.

Forward. To Celebration of Identity: Multiple Voices in American Ritual Performance. Pamela R. Frese, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Pub.

Guest Editorial. In, Cultural Anthropology: Perspectives on the Human Condition. R. Lavenda and E. Schultz. West Publishing. 1987.

"Ainu." In, The World Book Encyclopedia . Vol. A-I, p. 153. Chicago: Field Enterprises Educational Corporation.

U. of Chicago (Anthropology [2]; Human Development [2]); U. of Michigan (Center for Japanese Studies, etc. [6]); U. of California, Berkeley (Anthropology; Center for Japanese Studies, [3]; U. of California, Los Angeles (Center for Japanese Studies [2]; Folklore Program, [1]); Harvard U. (Anthropology; Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies; Center for World Religions [7]); Stanford U. (Anthropology); U. of Pennsylvania (Sociology; Asch Center for Political and Ethnic Conflicts); Princeton U.(Anthropology, etc. [3]); Yale U.(Law School; Center for East Asian Studies); New York U.(Anthropology); CUNY Graduate Center (Anthropology); Columbia (Medical School); U of Minnesota (Anthropology); U. of Iowa (Anthropology; Center for Asian & Pacific Studies [2]); U. of Rochester (Anthropology); Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences; Institute for Advanced Study; American Museum of Natural History; American Museum of Natural History; Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.

Japanese Academy of Science (Gakushi ’ in); U. of Tokyo; U of Kyoto; U. of Osaka; Keiō U.; International House of Japan; Sōgōkenkyu Daigaku.

Oxford (Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology, St. Antony’s College, St. Catherine, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, [4].); Cambridge U. (Dept. of Social Anthropology, King’s College; Robinson College, [3]); London School of Economics (Anthropology [2]); University College, London (Anthropology); U. of Manchester (Anthropology); Durham (Anthropology); St. Andrews.

Sorbonne/École Pratique des Hautes Études; École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

U. of Venice; Rockefeller Study and Conference Center, Bellagio.

U. of Vienna; Leiden U.; University of Hong Kong.

Japanese (native language); Ainu; Chinese (reading ability); French (reading ability)