紀要No.24 守谷英一

ブックの説明

方法論としての「生活誌」　─生業研究の視点から─
“Seikatsushi” as a methodology ─ from the point of view of the subsistence research ─

This paper aims to define “Seikatsushi” and show
how it should be as a methodology, from the
viewpoint of subsistence research.
The town, Shirataka, where the author lives now
has faced the problem of population outflow.
The author is sure that this subsistence study will
be of some use to solve the outflow as the
subsistence research aims at studying how people
in the past made a living. Therefore, the main
purpose of this research is to understand what life
they lived.
A collective record of their life environments is
called “Seikatsushi”. It includes things such as
“life”, “livelihood”, “living”, “life journals”, “life history”,
“biography”, “ethnography” and so forth. The author
thinks the artifacts of the subsistence research is
also “Seikatushi”.
In order to achieve the objective of this paper,
the author examined and analyzed the two papers:
one is “Seikatushi” written in the form of
“ethnography”, and the other is a research paper
where “life history” is utilized as geographical
research method.
As a result, the author has finally defined
“Seikatsushi” as having two missions: one is to
provide life documents,” and the other to clarify
the characters of the community life.
Furthermore, in the paper, the use of
“Life History” makes it possible to vividly represent
the people’s breathing. That’s why the author
believes it is indispensable for the subsistence
research to comprehensively show the subsistence
in life itself.
The author has also presented two following
things which are essential for “Seikatsushi”
defined by himself.
The first is to find out problems from the field
in the course of the research. The second is to
interpret the survey data, to construct and describe
it with highly logical consistency, and to submit
“Seikatsushi” as a product which shows
comprehensive figure of subsistence in life.
In the subsistence research the author aims to
accomplish, “Seikatsusi” needs writing, fulfilling
the above requirements. That is why “Seikatsushi”
can be said to be a kind of act which interprets and
describes specific lifestyles of ordinary people,
and does research on their life principles as cultural
adaptation to the community through “Seikatstushi”
itself. The author believes that it is “ ‘Seikatushi’
as a methodology.”
The “Seikatushi” described in this way calls on
researchers, writers and readers to interpret it by
themselves. Therefore, the logic needed in
“Seikatushi” is considered to be a “logical integrity
of interpretation”. Such a “logical consistency of
interpretation” should also be the evaluation
of the logic of the research.

Keywords

生業研究（subsistence research）
生活誌（“life”, “livlihood”, “living”,
“life journals”, “life history”, “biography”,
“ethnography”, etc.）
民俗誌・民俗誌（ethnography）
ライフヒストリー（life history）
解釈（interpretation）