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ArcivesAbout Staff： FY2005 Division of Integrated Area StudiesNAGATSU,Kazufumi (Assist. Prof.) Cultural Anthropology
Research InterestsSince 1993， I have been studying social and cultural change among the Sama Dilaut in the Sulu-Makassar Sea， which stretches from the Sulu Archipelago in the Philippines to Sabah， Malaysia， and the eastern part of Indonesia. Since they were once boat-dwelling fisherfolk， the Sama Dilaut were represented as "sea nomads" or "sea gypsies" in colonial literatures. This somewhat romantically emphasized characteristic has created an image of the Sama Dilaut as free from any commitment to modern states or as a people without nationality. Comparative observation of Sama Dilaut histories in the Sulu-Makassar Sea， however， reveals that they have constantly reorganized their social and cultural lives against the political background of each colonial-state or nation-state. A general theme of my study is to explore the historical process of the changes in their socio-economic and religious lives by situating this process within the local and national as well as trans-national contexts. I conducted intensive ethnographic fieldwork among the Sama Dilaut in Sabah， Malaysia， from March 1997 through March 1999. My main objective is to understand Sama Dilaut Islamization and the reconstruction of their religious practices since the 1950-60s as a social and historical phenomenon taking place in relation to changes in both the national and local circumstances surrounding Islam， i.e.， the "institutionalization" of Islam by the Sabah state government and the subsequent shift of local religious authority to the state Islamic institution and its personnel and away from "traditional" religious intellectuals with origins in the Sulu Archipelago of the Philippines. Based on this fieldwork， I submitted my Ph.D. dissertation， "The Sama Dilaut and the Nation-State: Historical Dynamics of Islamization in Sabah， Malaysia，" to the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies， Kyoto University in February 2005. Current research topics: Comparative study of Sama Dilaut's social histories in the Philippines，
Malaysia， and Indonesia focusing on the interactions of their community，
local society， and nation-state. Concretely， it is concerned with such
topics as: 1) reformation of social networks through trans-national as
well as trans-local movements undertaken for purposes of migration， trading，
or marine resource exploitation; 2) reconstruction of "ethnic"
identity under ethnicized socio-political situations; 3) reorganization
of village-level social relations entangled with local development policies;
4) Islamization or Christianization and articulation of local religious
practice to Islam or Christianity in connection with the "institutionalization"
of religion by the state. The study is an attempt to reconsider the meanings
of the nation-state for marginalized societies in maritime Southeast Asia.
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