大久保 彩（OKUBO, Aya）

ステイタス Status

博士課程1年

Doctor, 1st

連絡先 Contact

aokubo1207 [at] gmail.com

研究題目 Research Theme

カリフォルニア日系農園におけるオルタナティブ食運動の人類学的研究：「種（species/race）」を越える共生実験としての農業

Anthropological Research on Alternative Food Movements in Japanese American Farms in California

: Experiments in Farming toward “Multispecies/multirace flourishing”

研究関心領域 Research Areas (Keywords)

オルタナティブ食運動（食の社会運動）、オルタナティブな農業実践、日系アメリカ人、移住農業労働者

食、身体、情動、倫理、「生」の人類学、マルチスピーシーズ人類学

Alternative food movements, Alternative farming practices, Japanese Americans, Migratory farmworkers,

Food, Body, Affect, Ethics, Multispecies anthropology

対象地域 Subject Area of Research

アメリカ・カリフォルニア州

California, USA

研究内容 Research Projects

〈これまでの研究〉

    • ヴィーガニズムの人類学（学部）

    • 日本におけるオルタナティブ食運動の人類学的研究（修士課程）

〈現在・これからの研究〉

博士課程の研究では、カリフォルニア日系農園におけるオルタナティブ食運動を主題としている。焦点を当てるのは、近代的食システムに付随する搾取の構造を批判し、農園における他の生物種・他人種との関わりを経済的な利害関係にとどまらない独自の共生関係に作り変えていく日系農場主らの実践である。より具体的に言えば、農園に棲まう雑草や虫を農薬で排除せずそれらを活かす道を探る、メキシコ系の労働者らとともに腰を下ろして働き、身体・情動的な関係性を築くといった彼らの取り組みを、「種（species/race）」の境を越えて共生の方途を探る日常的かつ実験的な営みとして分析していく。

このような日系農園における取り組みは、彼らが「競合的友愛」と呼ぶような独特の共生観によって特徴付けられる。様々な生物種・人種が移入する中で数多くの出会いや衝突、混淆を生んできたカリフォルニアという土地の歴史、その只中に農場労働力として組み込まれ、差別を経験してきた「日系」の歴史を背景として培われてきたこの視座は、他の生物種・他人種との関わりをめぐって、⑴潜在的な対立関係、⑵相互変容関係の中の友愛の可能性の２点を前景化する。これは食システムをめぐる従来の研究が近代農業へのアンチテーゼとして提示してきた調和と正義の論理——ローカルな生態系の保持を訴える調和のパラダイム、あらゆる種・人種の自律性および公正な扱いを重視する正義のパラダイム——とは一線を画するものである。

この「競合的友愛」という共生観がいかなる実践の中で培われ、どのようにオルタナティブな社会生態関係を生み出すのかを明らかにする本研究は、複数種間関係と人種間関係の問題を包括的に考察するための新たな視座をもたらすことが期待できる。

〈Past Researches〉

  • Anthropology of Veganism (in Undergraduate Course)

  • Anthropology of Alternative Food Movements in Japan (in Master Course)

〈Present and Future Research Projects〉

  • Anthropological Research on Alternative Food Movements in Japanese American Farms in California: Experiments in Farming toward "Multispecies/multirace flourishing"*

In California, USA, social movements that seek alternative food systems —alternative food movements— have had major developments since they began to take root in the 1960s. These movements have been stimulated by the environmental destruction and social exploitation (especially of racialized migratory farmworkers) that are integral parts of the modern food system.

In this research, I will conduct interviews and fieldwork in Japanese American farms in California, which engage in these alternative food movements. The goal of this research is to reveal how in these farms, mutual relationships between different species/racial groups are being formed. In other words, this research aims to describe their alternative farming practices as experimental trials in finding ways to realize "multispecies/multirace flourishing" and discusses the challenge and potentiality of these projects.

Some of the farming practices this research focuses on are:

  • organic/natural farming (seeking ways to live together with weeds or worms in the field, rather than displacing them with agrochemicals)

  • fair and sustainable labor practices (efforts to change the agricultural system that relies on deportable and replaceable workforce)

  • farmers' working ethics that put emphasis on working together with workers of other racial groups (respecting physical and affective relationships with each other, not just for economic ones)

  • projects to distribute off-specification foods (redefining of beauty standards in the current food system)

The significance of Japanese American farmers, when we think about the history of California agriculture, lies in their unique past experiences such as migrating to the US as farmworkers, converting to tenant farmers or landed farmers, wartime internment and land loss, reconstruction of farms after the war and confronting labor movements as employers. Ruminating about their historical paths can give us a meaningful reference point for reconsidering the relationships with marginalized beings in the present day.

This research will provide a new perspective to alternative food movements studies by bringing out how environmental problems and racial problems —two major themes that tend to be discussed separately— are deeply entangled in actual farming practices.

*I coined the term “multispecies/multirace flourishing” as an extended version of “multispecies flourishing,” one of the keywords in Donna Haraway’s rich discussion on how we can live and die well in this devastating age.1 “Multispecies/multirace flourishing” refers to the situation in which various human and nonhuman actors cultivate the capacities to respond (“response-abilities”) and render each other capable, without being preoccupied with pre-existing oppressive relationships based on essentialized concepts of “species” or “race.”

My thoughts outlined here are also largely inspired by recent works in multispecies anthropology.2 These works radically challenge the concept of “human” by paying attention to the entanglements among various species, including human and nonhuman, without essentializing the boundary between different species.

The reason why I added “race” to the term is that I felt a need to make it clear that when we think about multispecies relationships, we should not overlook the plurality of “human.” In other words, we should take a closer look not only at human-nonhuman relationships but also at human-human relationships, especially at the unjust power relationship among racialized groups of people. This is because these two kinds of relationships shape each other, as the cases in farms clearly indicate: cultivation methods, labor practices, and environmental conditions are indivisibly entangled, therefore if one of these factors changes, it necessarily accompanies the changes in others.

      1. Haraway, Donna J. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016.

      2. Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt, Heather Anne Swanson, Elaine Gan, and Nils Bubandt, eds. Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

研究業績 Works

学会・口頭発表 Presentations

・2019年3月 「つながりを味わい、養う：日本のスローフード運動における知と共同性」日本文化人類学会2018年度関東地区博士論文・修士論文発表会、於東京大学

2019.3 "Savoring and Cultivating the Social: Visceral Knowledge and Community of Slow Food Movement in Japan." The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology's Kanto District Conference, Presentation of Doctoral and Master Theses, at the University of Tokyo.

・2019年4月 「『食べることの政治』へ向けて：日本のスローフード運動における味わい・知・共同性」仙人の会、於法政大学

2019.4 "Toward ‘Politics of Eating’: Visceral Knowledge and Community of Slow Food Movement in Japan" Sennin no Kai, at Hosei University.

論文 Articles

（査読有り）

（査読無し）

書評 Book Reviews

2018 「書評 Hayes-Conroy, Jessica. “Savoring Alternative Food: School Gardens, Healthy Eating and Visceral Difference”」『文化人類学』、日本文化人類学会、82巻４号、pp592-595

2018 "Book Review: Hayes-Conroy, Jessica. “Savoring Alternative Food: School Gardens, Healthy Eating and Visceral Difference" Bunkajinruigaku, The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology, 82(4): 592-595. (in Japanese)

報告書 Reports

学位論文 Theses

2016 「ヴィーガニズムの人類学」2016年度東京大学教養学部提出卒業論文。

2016 Anthropology of Veganism. (Graduation thesis submitted to College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo) (in Japanese)

2018 「つながりを味わい、養う：日本のスローフード運動における知と共同性」2018年度東京大学大学院総合文化研究科提出 修士学位論文。

2018 Savoring and Cultivating the Social: Visceral Knowledge and Community of Slow Food Movement in Japan. (Master thesis submitted to Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo) (in Japanese)

その他 Other Publications

調査歴 Fieldwork

2017年3月〜2018年9月 スローフード運動関連諸団体にて断続的なフィールド調査

2017.3~2018.9 Short-term fieldwork at several organizations of Slow Food Movement in Japan

教育歴 Teaching Experiences

2017年4～8月 東京大学教養学部初年次ゼミナール文科 TA（文化人類学）

2018年4〜8月 東京大学教養学部初年次ゼミナール文科 TA（文化人類学）

2017.4~8 Teaching Assistant (College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo)

2018.4~8 Teaching Assistant (College of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo)

経歴 Education

2017年3月 東京大学教養学部 教養学科 超域文化科学分科 文化人類学コース 卒業

2017年4月 東京大学大学院 総合文化研究科 超域文化科学専攻 文化人類学コース 修士課程 入学

2019年3月 東京大学大学院 総合文化研究科 超域文化科学専攻 文化人類学コース 修士課程 修了

2019年4月 東京大学大学院 総合文化研究科 超域文化科学専攻 文化人類学コース 博士課程 進学

2017.3 B.A. the University of Tokyo (Cultural Anthropology Course, Department of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, College of Arts and Sciences)

2019.3 M.A. the University of Tokyo (Cultural Anthropology Course, Department of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences)

2019.4~ Doctoral Course, the University of Tokyo (Cultural Anthropology Course, Department of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences)

研究助成／その他 Research Grants/Others

・2019年4月〜 「東京大学英語教育プログラム」採用

University of Tokyo English Education Program (UTEEP) (2019.4~)

・味の素食の文化センター「食の文化研究助成」（2020年度）

Research grants from Ajinomoto Foundation for Dietary Culture (2020.4~2021.3)

備考

2019年12月現在。

As of December 2019.