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The Concept of Pollution Kegare in Japan at the Turn of 16th and 17th Century
Mornsteinová, Lucie ; Labus, David (advisor) ; Sýkora, Jan (referee)
The major objective of this master thesis, is to describe the process of forming and development of the social groups connected with the concept of ritual pollution kegare in Japan at the turn of 16th century. The main questions are: In which direction did the development of these groups tend to go from the outset of the Japanese Middle Ages? Did the policies of the unifiers of Japan cause any disruptions to this development, and if so, what was the new direction? Was creation of the Edo outcaste order also motivated by an effort to restrict access to strategical commodities, or was it only a side effect of individual edicts and restrictions? To answer these questions I used two approaches. At first I diachronically described the development of groups connected with the concept of ritual pollution from the ancient times, and to this data I applied Mary Douglas's grid and group theory. Results of this show that during the time period in question development of groups of eta tanners was significantly accelerated, while the status of the non-persons groups of hinin was stagnating, or regressing. This thesis hopefully offers a brief insight into the overlooked aspects of Japanese history, and sheds some light on the reason for the discrimination of descendants of the burakumin group which in Japan...
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