Paper short abstract:

In this paper we analyze the evolution of modern archaeology in Japan, with a special emphasis on the formation of concepts related to the unwritten past. In this process, we can observe that the recognition of a "prehistoric past" did not involve finally the adoption of the term "Prehistory".

Paper long abstract:

Since the publication of Prehistoric Japan (1908) by the Scottish anthropologist N. G. Munro (1863-1942), the use of the terms "Prehistory" and "Prehistoric" in the West to refer to the oldest cultures discovered in the Japanese archipelago has been a widespread custom up to the present day (Gerard J. Groot, The Prehistory of Japan, 1951; J. Edward Kidder Jr., Prehistoric Japanese Arts: Jōmon Pottery, 1968; C. Melvin Aikens and Takayasu Higuchi, Prehistory of Japan, 1982; Imamura Keiji, Prehistoric Japan: New perspectives on insular East Asia, 1996; etc.). However, at the same time, Japanese archaeologists have been traditionally reluctant to use the equivalent terms in Japanese (senshi / senshi-jidai), using instead the specific names of archaeological periods and cultures (Kyūsekki jidai -Paleolithic Period-, Jōmon jidai -Jōmon Period-, etc.). This divergence is not only a purely or mainly terminological question, but is deeply related to the construction of archaeological periodization schemes in Japan since the 19th century. In this talk, we analyze the establishment and evolution of archaeological studies in Modern Japan, with a special emphasis on the formation of concepts related to the unwritten past, from the 1870s through to the 1940s. The history of Japanese archaeology shows how the introduction of this discipline in a very different context (Japan) from that in which it was developed originally (Europe and America) did not entail the uncritical acceptance and diffusion of Western ideas. Although Western archaeological thought provided the initial categories by means of which material remains were classified, the recognition of archaeology as a scientific discipline in Japan was followed by a considerable intellectual and conceptual adjustment. In particular, we can observe that the recognition of a past that preceded historical records did not involve finally the adoption of the term "Prehistory".