Arne Røkkum's Anthropology Page
Arne Røkkum is an anthropologist who explores how minority peoples in Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines utilize ritual life to elucidate the boundaries between animate and inanimate worlds.
Arne Røkkum's studies draw particular attention to poetically articulated shamanic insights.
​​​​The Sulu seaside of southern Palawan. People from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds coexist in harmony. Christian and Muslim orientations coalesce in the larger format of nature-sensitive animism while at the same time sharing an awareness of Southeast Asian adat law. In fieldwork, it was my privilege to join ritualists who were attentive to matters of nature and title-holders who were attentive to matters of adat.​ How can ritual serve as a vehicle for expressing an expanded state of being, a field of connectivity between human society, material culture, and the natural world? How do people relate to each other, including the deceased, through vibrant motifs drawn from nature and crafted objects?
Arne Røkkum is Professor Emeritus at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. He is a former Keeper of East Asia Collections. He earned his doctorate at the University of Oslo and has been a visiting professor at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka and at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City. He collaborates with local creators of ritual art to include their work in museum exhibitions and other forms of distribution. His publications come from fieldwork in Japan’s Izu and Ryukyu islands, two enclaves of Austronesian-speaking indigenous groups of Taiwan, and currently, Palawan Island in the Philippines. He is the author of (1998) Goddesses, Priestesses, and Sisters: Mind, Gender, and Power in the Monarchic Tradition of the Ryukyus (Scandinavian University Press) and (2006) Nature, Ritual, and Society in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands (Routledge). He has just (2025) published a monograph on the Tagbanwa (Tagbanua), an indigenous group living on Palawan Island in the Philippines. The title: Shamanic Crossovers in the Southern Philippines: Vocal Worlds (Routledge).
The publisher's description:
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This book offers a close-up study of annual cycle rituals among the southern Tagbanwa of Palawan Island in the Philippines, with a particular focus on shamanic oratory and vocalized performance. Drawing on rich ethnography and extensive fieldwork, it reflects on the interconnectedness of humans, nature, and the spirit world. The chapters shed light on the role of female (babalyan) and male (manlalambay) protagonists and how people, including the deceased, relate to each other through vibrant natural and crafted motifs. The study transports readers into a world of shifting cultivators and invites us to delve into animist dialogue in vivo. Offering a valuable contribution to debates on new animism and perspectivism, Shamanic Crossovers in the Southern Philippines will be of particular interest to scholars of anthropology, religion, Southeast Asia, and Indigenous studies.
#Anthropology #Shamanism #Animism #SoutheastAsia #MaterialCulture #NewBook #AcademicPublishing #Routledge​​
GODDESSES, PRIESTESSES,
AND SISTERS
Mind, Gender, and Power in the Monarchical
Tradition of the Ryukyus
A monarchy was abolished by Japan in the late 19th century. In the historic instance of the Kingdom of the Ryukyus, court bureaucracy incorporated females in vital positions within its ranks as classificatory mothers, though preeminently as classificatory sisters. What might otherwise be regarded as cultural syndromes of shamanism and siblingship, characteristic of traditional society, remain firmly embedded in the ways of life of the South Ryukyus today. Here we find formalized ritual enactments involving priestesses with their defined male counterparts. Styles of governance may have been lost in the course of historic upheavals, but could they have become even more pellucid in the form of signs as time passed on? Drawing on ethnographic material from field studies spanning a twenty-year period, this book advances the view that ritual activity, as practiced in island locales, exemplifies a process of signification in progress. Ryukyuan sociality is seen against the background of an expressive culture rich in dualistic imagery, primarily between a this-world (sunka), exemplified by the sister's increase ritual and a that-world (nunka), exemplified by the brother's mortuary ritual. This book will appeal to all readers interested in the relationship between cognitive domains and society.
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NATURE, RITUAL, AND SOCIETY
IN JAPAN'S RYUKYU ISLANDS
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Despite their small area, the southern islands of Japan can be seen as stepping stones towards a more nuanced view of cultural osmosis between Japan and the outside world. Integral to this viewpoint is a comprehensive understanding of the inhabitants of these islands, including their culture, beliefs, and mores. Nature, Ritual, and Society in Japan's Ryukyu Islands contains original ethnography that explores the minds of the islanders, their relationship with the natural world, their social relationships, and the rituals that represent and give expression to these relationships. This book is based on extensive original research and includes participant observation. Village priestesses in the southern Ryukyu Islands convey a sense of connection to the landscape through their prayers. Rather than interpreting this oratory as an example of symbolic or metaphoric construction, however, the author guides the reader toward a more concrete experience of the effect induced by the ornate words. This approach allows the authentic voices of the Ryukyu Island worlds to speak for themselves, and also sets the work in the wider context of anthropology, Japanese studies, and Pacific island studies. This book strings together issues of mind, society, and nature and captures the exact moments when impressionistic views of nature are composed into stylized utterances. This study will be of great interest to the general anthropological readership interested in theoretical advances through fieldwork, as well as to Asian studies scholars.
Hard copies of Goddesses, Priestesses, and Sisters are available per postal shipment. If you would like to get in touch with Arne Røkkum, please send an email to arnero[at]uio.no. He will get back to you as soon as possible.