What is news? Marking the 50th issue of Minpaku Anthropology Newsletter

摘要

“News” by definition refers to something “new” but what is new for one person can be old for another, and vice versa. News reports from a century ago, may speak not just of their own time, but of events and things and human relationships that are surprising and “new” for later generations. Our newsletter, first published in December 1995, is merely 24 years and 50 issues old, but it already records the transition from a first generation of Minpaku staff and their research, to a new generation of staff who have mostly arrived within the last several years. The newsletter thus serves as a biographical history of the Museum, a history of research themes, topics, conferences, and exhibitions, and a history of change and reorientation as the world around us changes. Since 1995, there have been two constants: the Museum remains a research institute focused on human life in all its facets, through the approaches of anthropology, museology, and related disciplines, and the primary audience of the Newsletter includes former visiting scholars, research collaborators, and staff. In his inaugural message for the first issue in 1995, the second Director General of the Museum, SASAKI Komei introduced the Newsletter as follows:“We are proud that the Museum has accommodated about 350 overseas researchers from a total of 49 different nations around the world from its foundation [1974] to the present... The initiative to launch the Newsletter is aimed at creating a forum of personal exchange between the Museum faculty in Japan and researchers abroad, by sharing information and deepening mutual understanding... we are going to make every effort to expand a human network through its medium, to promote exchanges of views in the international community of anthropology and the study of museums. This should help us to deepen our understanding of the many issues of diversity that we are trying to resolve. It is also our sincere hope that this contribution to the global network will enhance international understanding among nations as we move towards the 21st century.