The Way to Live with ‘Bethel’ (People with Mental Disabilities) in the Context of Business : A Case Study of Inhabitants in Urakawa Town in Hokkaido on Ethnographic Approach
アイテムタイプ
紀要論文 / Departmental Bulletin Paper
言語
日本語
キーワード
民族誌的手法, 差異, 文化的装置, 常連化, 適度な距離
キーワード(英)
ethnographic approach, difference, cultural apparatus, clientelization, good distance
This paper aims to examine a relationship between inhabitants in Urakawa town in Hokkaido and the members of the House of Bethel, an organization for people with mental disabilities. It focuses on the way the inhabitants cut across a categorical boundary between ‘the sick’ and ‘none sick’ by referring to their business partnership with the members of Bethel, which is suggested by their common phrase, “As for business, no problem with them (Bethel)”.
Psychiatric care in Japan has a bad reputation for a large number of hospital beds and overwhelmingly long duration of hospitalization in comparison with psychiatric cares in North America and Western Europe. To overcome this situation, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and other welfare organizations have launched slogans such as ‘Education for Co-existence’ and ‘Society of Co-existence’ and recommend the enlightenment of people in local communities and participation of volunteer workers for the care of people with mental disabilities. The trend is fueled by critical ethno-methodological studies on this subject. Disclosing the structure of subtle discriminations, the studies point the importance of reflexive attitude on the part of those who discriminate. This is attributable to voluntarism of the above approaches which takes the intention and reflexivity of human action for granted. However, few detailed examinations have ever been made about interaction between people with mental disabilities and people in local communities in the context of their everyday life.
In this ethnographic case study, I propose a point of view different from that of voluntarism. The works of Masao Yamaguchi, Clifford Geertz and Denise Jodelet are particularly relevant here. Yamaguchi has explored the significance of “cultural apparatus” by which interlocutors communicate each other while assuming their differences including mental disabilities. One of such apparatuses could be market transaction. Hence corollary to “cultural apparatus” is Geertz’s notion of “bargaining” and “clientelization” which he developed in his study of bazaar in Moroccan society. Jodelet’s work on foster relationship of local people with people with mental disabilities in Ainay-le-Château in France provides me with the idea of “good distance”. I employ these ideas to understand the manner in which people in Urakawa interact with the members of Bethel.
In Urakawa, difference between non sick, the inhabitants, and the sick, the members of Bethel, can easily be translated into difference between normal and abnormal. However, the phrase, “As for business, no problem with them”, indicates that people in Urakawa have established business partnership with Bethel, that is, relationship between sellers and buyers, which contributes to the development of the town, and that differences between them and Bethel never come to the fore in this relationship.
In their everyday interaction, people in Urakawa have a disposition to re-identify the members of Bethel without ignoring their differences; inscrutable others now become approachable others. They establish and stick to the code of conduct with Bethel, as they say, “For Bethel to communicate with us, they must come to us from them”. They learn to use an idiom, “Bethel way”, in order to avoid conflicts that might easily result from the heightened awareness of their differences. In short, the members of Bethel as others are rendered to a part of their world and life, and as it were, others inside themselves.
The case suggests that one of the tactics to live with people with mental disabilities is to keep adjusting “good distance” from “others” according to the situations and contexts in which differences present them.
雑誌名
国立歴史民俗博物館研究報告
雑誌名(英)
Bulletin of the National Museum of Japanese History
「商売」を軸とした〈べてる〉との付き合いの技法 : 北海道浦河町4丁目住民の精神障害者とともに暮らす事例から
kenkyuhokoku_145_01.pdf
(1.56MB)
