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COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATIONS AND JAPANESE VIEWS OF AFRICAN‐DESCENT POPULATIONS

Michael Charles Thornton (Human Development and Family Studies, Cornell Unviersity)

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

ISSN: 0144-333X

Article publication date: 1 January 1986

97

Abstract

In research on non‐Western populations there is a tendency to limit analysis to only gross demographic differences. This has resulted in the serious misconception of an ethnically homogenous population in countries such as Japan and thus masks a critical dimension of the diversity truly extant. This article examines Western research on Japanese views of people of African descent evident prior to 1945. The argument by Western researchers that Japanese are inherently ethnocentric/racist is examined through primary and secondary sources dealing with Japanese contact with Africans. The alternative explanation offered suggests that while the basic structure of ethnocentrism existed before Western contact, there are indications that this structure was given direction and focus (i.e. became racial) with and through that contact. It is suggested that the view acquired by the Japanese of Africans was based in large part on the collective representations presented to them by Euro‐Americans.

Citation

Thornton, M.C. (1986), "COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATIONS AND JAPANESE VIEWS OF AFRICAN‐DESCENT POPULATIONS", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 90-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb013003

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 1986, MCB UP Limited

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