Antropologicheskij forum, 2017, no. 34

MATERIAL CULTURE AND BRICOLAGE: RUSSIAN-SPEAKING MIGRANTS IN JAPAN WHO MAKE AND PROCURE OBJECTS

Ksenia Golovina

The University of Tokyo, Center for Global Communication Strategies
3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan
ksenia.golovina@gmail.com

Abstract: This paper draws on data obtained through fieldwork with first-generation Russian female migrants and an online survey of male and female Russian-speaking migrants who reside in Japan. The research focuses on the migrants’ material culture, in particular the objects that result from their “do-it-yourself” (DIY) practices. I expand the traditional definition of DIY: for example, I extend the definition to include items modified to meet their owners’ needs, thereby retaining the features of co-making, as well as items obtained outside the conventional consumer experience. Uprooted from their familiar socio-cultural environment characterized by specific forms of material expression, migrants use DIY as a tool to restore this materiality in their new location, while having to rely on limited materials and specific consumption channels. In the study, these practices are approached through the concept of bricolage, which originates from Levi-Strauss’s discourse, to reveal the meanings enacted through the objects that the migrants possess.

Keywords: material culture, Russian-speaking migrants, bricolage, DIY.

To cite: Golovina K., ‘Materialnaya kultura i brikolazh: kak russkoyazychnye migranty v Yaponii sozdayut i priobretayut veshchi’ [Material Culture and Bricolage: Russian-speaking Migrants in Japan Who Make and Procure Objects], Antropologicheskij forum, 2017, no. 34, pp. 179–210.

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/034/golovina.pdf