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is how do we approximate the life of people who are diverse individuals and
with whom the anthropologist enters into an inter-cultural discourse that
seeks a more in-depth understanding of their social reality and tendency for
social behaviour? The anthropologist
is analysis is seen as drawing on an
amalgamation of a polyphonic (Bahktin) social reality where her own posi-
tion is recognised as having an in
'
uence but, unless stated so, is also far from
being an autobiographical account. On the other hand, the anthropologist
cannot avoid some of the problems inherent in abstracti
cation and general-
isation, even if conclusions are made from a thoroughly grounded and
inductive approach.
Who I am as a researcher will a
ect the way interlocutors interact with me;
my concern here is with the anthropologist as
, something that
furthermore highlights the epistemological tensions between observed/obser-
ver, tensions that do not here map easily onto the insider/outsider distinction,
or onto the secular/religious division of modern social science disciplines (see
Rabinow 1986). My concern is also with how people interacted with me dif-
ferently not only because I was an SGI member, a relative insider, but also
because I was not Japanese, because I was in my thirties, because I was
female. These facts highlight
'
half-native
'
'
the inescapable ambivalence and ambiguity of
subject-positions
(Battaglia 1999: 123).
As a political scientist, I see myself as describing facts, but tend not to
account for the historicity of my interpretation; as an anthropologist, it is
central to the creation of knowledge. The way in which I understand young
people
'
'
s motivation and political action in this topic has partly to do with
insider knowledge that guides my methodology. As someone who has prac-
tised Nichiren Buddhism as expounded in Soka Gakkai for the past 20 years,
mostly in Hong Kong and the UK, but also for three years in Japan, I
nd
personal agreement with the philosophy and social objectives of the organi-
sation. I take these objectives for more than mere rhetoric; at the same time, I
recognise the intricate di
erent way of life that this
life-philosophy expounds. I am aware that the kind of meaning structures
the philosophy provides have restructured my worldview in subtle but also
profound ways, which has a
culties of achieving a di
ected the way I see my life, my habits, my culture
and my vision. This does not mean that everyone sees the practice and
philosophy in this way, which is something I am reminded of especially when
contrary practices become apparent. I am easily reminded that I am not
Japanese, and built up report based on that fact and on my status as a
woman.
Yet I can relate to the way my informants engage with the challenging
process of actively attempting to take action for broader social issues and from
an ethical position of mutuality; at the same time, it is within a Japanese
context that is clearly di
erent to the British or Hong Kong one. Evans-Prichard
made the point, highlighted by Burton (1983: 176), that,
If one disregards the
local questions, nothing is explained or understood other than the premise of
the particular theory adhered to
'
'
. While we may question the extent to which
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