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Prospectus
Comparative Study Group
(May 28, 1999)

The Comparative Study Group conducts cross comparison of various phenomena in the Middle East and Central Asia, South-East Asia and China from a fundamental level.

Purpose
While it is obvious that phenomena belonging to the various regions of Asia possess their own characteristic contexts, it is also self-evident that a procedure of gcomparisonh is necessary when investigating their particularities. However, until now, comparisons between these regions have largely been made based on western and European phenomena and models. As a result there has been a tendency to fall into a kind of binomial opposition, for example, modern vs traditional, solid institutions vs flexible structure, government and religion. There has also been an inclination to discover similarities and differences among phenomena in the regions under study (seeking for what is the same and what is different), and then use them to do no more than emphasize the regionfs uniqueness. In this group, we are seeking to discover new analytical concepts and models by making the three above-mentioned regions the objects of comparison and by considering the origins of similarities and differences among their various phenomena from a more fundamental level (cultural and social systems).

We also hope that, by adding Japan as an object of comparison when suitable, to be conscious of Japanfs place in the world, so as not to end up with an abstract comparative theory. (March 20, 1999)

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Activities

(1) Seminars (three times a year in June, September and December)

Seminar 1: gTowards a comparison of ownership.h Saturday June 26, 1999
Seminar 2: gContracts, as a legal and social system.h September 1999
Seminar 3: gMarkets, as an economic model.h December 1999

(2) Themes to follow

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Organizers

MIURA Toru (Ochanomizu University, Faculty of Letters and Education; Arab and Islamic History)

SEKIMOTO Teruo (The University of Tokyo, Institute of Oriental Culture; South-East Asian cultural anthropology)

KISHIMOTO Mio (The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology; History of Ming and Qing Period China)

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