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An Attitude of Gratitude: Older Japanese in the Hopeful Present
09 October 2019, 11:00 am–1:00 pm
This event is part of the Social Anthropology Seminar Series.
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Open to
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Organiser
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Social Anthropology Seminar Series
Location
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Daryll Forde Seminar RoomUCL Anthropology14 Taviton StreetLondonWC1H 0BWUnited Kingdom
In this paper I explore ideas of the good and meaningful life in older age, based on ethnographic research with older Japanese in the city of Osaka. Some of my interlocutors and friends in the field spoke about the approaching end of their life. When speaking about the time remaining, many expressed their sense that the future ‘will somehow turn out [all right]’ (nantonaku). This statement of quiet hope acknowledged change and encapsulated a desire to support others; it also shifted emphasis away from the future. This is not to say that the experience was for my interlocutors primarily marked by an orientation towards the past: by reminiscing and recollection. Inhabiting the moment was equally important.
While reminiscing and narrating past events clearly relate to meaning-making, then, what is the role of dwelling in the moment for maintaining a meaningful existence? I will argue that dwelling in the moment allows for the cultivation of an attitude of gratitude, which lends meaning to a life. This attitude of gratitude binds together both reflection on the past and attention to the present moment in its fullness. It also, I suggest, opens up space for a particular kind of hope, grounded in the moment. Thus, the sense of the good and meaningful life that my older friends conveyed encapsulates an attitude of gratitude as a way of inhabiting the present, rather than dwelling in the past or leaping towards the future.
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About the Speaker
Dr Iza Kavedžija
Lecturer in Anthropology at University of Exeter
Her research interests include meaning in life, motivation, life choices, wellbeing, aging and the life course. She specializes in the anthropology of Japan, and her doctoral research, at the University of Oxford, examined the construction of meaning in life and the experience of aging among older people in Osaka. Highlighting the capacity of narrative to shape everyday understandings and create coherence from seemingly unconnected events, this work sought to reveal how people come to envisage a good life for themselves while making sense of their life choices and decisions in relation to wider social or cultural expectations, such as balancing obligations to others and cultivating a sense of personal autonomy. A monograph based on this work, entitled 'Making Meaningful Lives: Tales from an Aging Japan', is forthcoming in July 2019 with University of Pennsylvania Press.
An ongoing research project, begun in 2013, examines practices of contemporary art production among a community of young avant-garde artists in the city of Osaka, focusing on the relationship between personal experiences of the creative process and wider issues of freedom and responsibility, motivation and uncertainty, ethics, and life purpose. Related current projects deal with hope and hopelessness in contemporary Japan, and anthropological approaches to happiness.
More about Dr Iza Kavedžija