The Japanese Self in Cultural Logic. Takie Sugiyama Lebra. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. 2004. xxiv + 303 pp.
Reviewed by: Robey Callahan, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Drawing on decades of experience and research, Lebra here offers us a compelling account of the Japanese self and a model the broader utility of which will be appreciated by many Ethos readers whose interests lie in other parts of the world. At the core of her argument is the distinction between what she terms "opposition logic" and "contingency logic." The former, more characteristic of Western thinking, emphasizes either-or and cause-and-effect relations cast within discursive and social milieus in which generalizations and decontextualized knowledge hold sway. The latter, more prominent among the Japanese, works ever to blur boundaries, often to the point at which contradictions and causal links are linguistically and practically elided in favor of context-dependent harmony. As Lebra rightly notes, both of these logics are, of course, to be found in both societies broadly conceived. The key then becomes a matter of determining which is taken as more implicitly sensible in a given situation, which would call for special justification, and which, when both arise as plausible alternatives, would be more likely to rule the day.
Lebra's central ethnographic concern is how these logics and the sub-species she identifies underwrite Japanese conceptions of self. To give analytical focus to the play of these logics as they relate particularly to the self, she devises a "'map' of sociality" composed of two dimensions, roughly public vs. private and positive vs. negative–neutral. These dimensions in turn plot out four zones, each of "which describes how self perceives, evaluates, and acts on other – and vice versa" (Lebra 2004:39). Although tailored to the Japanese case, these four zones can with little difficulty be used as a tool for thinking about Western notions of self, and the Western reader will no doubt be repeatedly tempted to do so over and above Lebra's own examples. Although at times this reader felt the urge to qualify many of her claims about the Western self generally conceived, I have to admit that Lebra's large brushstrokes are nonetheless proportionally executed. Again, however, her main ethnographic focus is the Japanese self, and here her attention to detail is matched only by the broad sweep of her canvas. She draws upon a wealth of data taken from a wide range of sources: everyday discursive practices, etiquette, manners of treating mental illness, attitudes toward hierarchy within families and organizations, aesthetic productions, religion, and so forth. Although in instance after instance we witness the decentering of agency so appealing to postmodernists, we are also presented with evidence of the centered, private self managing the organized flux of social interactions – a core sense of self strikingly manifest in, among other places, the meaningful silences of everyday life and in various artistic media.
By clarifying these issues with regard to the Japanese case, she provides us with a more nuanced manner of characterizing other selves, including the Western. Indeed, her work strongly complements a Meadian view of the self and will also be of interest to many cognitive anthropologists, for its attention to patterned interactions across a host of domains mirrors many such theorists' concerns with cultural schemas. Her analysis of the Japanese penchant for communicative surrogates and other roundabout means of expression will contribute to sociolinguistic understandings of such phenomena. For those interested in long-standing debates on rationality, Lebra's model offers a means to sensitize the investigator further to the relevance of contingency logic in understanding the domains of religion and art and culture more generally – even (perhaps especially) in the "rational" West. Finally, for those dealing with the ethnography of complex societies, hers presents a helpful illustration – one in which useful abstractions are made with due regard for intracultural variation and change. Indeed, some of her data highlight points of stress on the patterns she identifies while elsewhere she demonstrates more or less successful cultural adjustments to those stresses and the maintenance in new forms of those patterns.
However, as Mead before her, Lebra here pays relatively little attention to emotions. Throughout the book we are presented with Japanese terms whose exegeses, in association with well chosen concrete examples, provide much of the justification for the generalizations she makes. She does, of course, refer at times to the emotional colorings of self-other interactions, but she makes only a few explicit attempts to integrate Japanese ideas about emotions into her model. This may appear odd given, for instance, that Lebra (1971, 1983) has in fact addressed in detail the subject of how the Japanese experience those very social emotions, guilt and shame. Such a comment, however, seems somewhat ungracious, for the table Lebra has here so generously laid provides a veritable feast for thought. Like any exemplary ethnography, hers will reward re-reading, and its insights, for those who take them to heart, will provide ongoing sustenance as both guide and foil for future work on Japan and beyond.
Although clearly and engagingly written, the ideas expressed are complex and probably better appreciated by advanced undergraduates, graduate students, professional academics, and knowledgeable lay people with interests in Japanese studies or anthropological concerns with self and society, both areas for which it is an erudite and welcome contribution.
Lebra, Taki Sugiyama
1971 The Social Mechanism of Guilt and Shame: The Japanese Case.
Anthropological Quarterly 44(4):241-255.
1983 Shame and Guilt: A Psychocultural View of the Japanese Self.
Ethos 11(3):192-209.
