Profile

Yuichi Asai

Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Division of Language and Culture Studies

Areas of Expertise

Cultural Anthropology, Oceanic Studies

Linguistic Anthropology, Semiotics, Ethnopoetics

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Recent Updates

2020. 7    Paper @ UK-CLC 2020 "TIME IS MOTION metaphors in Fijian"

2019. 8　 Paper @ ICLC 2019 "Onomatopoeia as Signs of Naturalness: Semiotics on the Language and Environment Nexus" 

2019. 6    Paper @IPrA 2019 "The Fijian Chiefly Discourse as a Constellation of Signs of/in History"

2019. 3    Discourse on the Last Descendant: The Chief as a Constellation of Signs in Contemporary Fiji. People and Culture in Oceania 34

2019. 1    Paper @CALA 2019 "Multilingualism and Ritual Communication in the Contemporary Fiji"

2018. 7    News Letter No.121 (Japanese Society of Oceanic Studies)

2018. 6    Paper @Sociolinguistics Symposium 22 "Mana, or the ethnopoetics of magical formula in contemporary Melanesia"

2018. 6    Paper @Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology 2018

2017. 11  Paper @American Anthropological Association 2017

2017. 3    Publishing a book: Semiotics of Ritual: Linguistic Anthropological Study on Myths / Poetic Texts in Melanesia, Fiji

Selected Publications

Books ：Semiotics of Ritual: Linguistic Anthropological Study on Myths / Poetic Texts in Melanesia, Fiji. Tokyo: Sangensha. (2017)

Papers：Discourse on the Last Descendant: The Chief as a Constellation of Signs in Contemporary Fiji. People and Culture in Oceania 34  (2019)

            Environmentalism and its Ritualized Fakeness: A Semiotic Analysis of Onomatopoeic Discourse on Nature. RASK 42 (2015)

            Intercultural Learning for Sustainability. Intergenerational Learning and Transformative Leadership for Sustainable Futures (2014)

Others：

Research Interests

Fiji, Melanesia, Oceania

Ritual, Poetry, Myth, Stranger-king

Nature & Culture, Environmental Discourse

Researcher's Projects

I am engaging in research which reveals how human sociocultural time-space is created through speech event or language use from cultural & linguistic anthropological perspectives. My main research derives from fieldwork conducted in the Fiji Islands and examines unique characteristics of Fijian ritual and mythical cosmology, through linguistic analysis of Fijian language.

Research Grants

• 2018- present【Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists】Ritual and Environmental Discourse in Melanesia, Fiji

• 2018- present【Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research​ (C)】Social Indexicality of Robots in Human Community

• 2016-2017【Grant-in-Aid for Publication of Scientific Research Results】Semiotics of Ritual: Linguistic Anthropological Study on Myths in Melanesia, Fiji

• 2014-2018【Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)】Anthropological Study of Myth and Environmental Discourse in Dawasamu, Fiji

• 2013-2014【Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows PD】Anthropological Study on Environmental Preservation Program and Discourse of Tradition in Contemporary Fiji

• 2012-2013【Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows DC2】Anthropological Study on Environmental Preservation Program and Discourse of Tradition in Contemporary Fiji

• 2011-2012【Sompo Japan Environment Foundation Grant Program】Environmental Anthropological Study on the Community-based Marine Resource Protection in Fiji