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"Japan is arguably the first postindustrial society to embrace the prospect of human-robot coexistence. Over the past decade, Japanese humanoid robots designed for use in homes, hospitals, offices, and schools have become celebrated in the mass media and social media throughout the world. In Robo sapiens japanicus, Jennifer Robertson casts a critical eye on press releases and public relations videos that misrepresent actual robots as being as versatile and agile as their science fiction counterparts. An ethnography and sociocultural history of governmental and academic discourses of human-robot relations in Japan, this book explores how actual robots--humanoids, androids, animaloids--are "imagineered" in ways that reinforce the conventional sex/gender system and political-economic status quo. In addition, Robertson interrogates the notion of human exceptionalism as she considers whether "civil rights" should be granted to robots. Similarly, she juxtaposes how robots and robotic exoskeletons reinforce a conception of the "normal" body with a deconstruction of the much-invoked Theory of the Uncanny Valley"--Provided by publisher.

Sexualizing anthropology's fields / Jennifer Robertson -- Anthropology rediscovers sexuality: a theoretical comment / Carole S. Vance -- Biological determinism and homosexuality / Bonnie Spanier -- Feminisms, queer theories, and the archaeological study of past sexualities / Barbara L. Voss -- No / Don Kulick -- Resources for lesbian ethnographic research in the Lavender Archives / Alisa Klinger -- Erotic anthropology: 'ritualized homosexuality' in Melanesia and beyond / Deborah A. Elliston -- Gender, genetics, and generation: reformulating biology in lesbian kinship / Corinne P. Hayden -- Transsexualism: reflections on the persistence of gender and the mutability of sex / Judith Shapiro -- Problems encountered in writing the history of sexuality: sources, theory, and interpretation / Estelle B. Freedman and John D'Emilio -- Choosing the sexual orientation of children / Edward Stein -- Yoshiya Nobuko: out and outspoken in practice and prose / Jennifer Robertson -- Outing as performance, outing as resistance: a queer reading of Austrian (homo)sexualities / Matti Bunzel -- Tombois in West Sumatra: constructing masculinity and erotic desire / Evelyn Blackwood -- Freeing South Africa: the 'modernization' of male-male sexuality in Soweto / Donald L. Donham -- Gay organizations, NGOs, and the globalization of sexual identity: the case of Bolivia / Timothy Wright

A Companion to the Anthropology of Japan is an unprecedented collection of original essays by some of the field's most distinguished scholars of Japan which, taken together, offer a comprehensive overview of the field. Aiming to retire stale and misleading stereotypes, the authors present new perspectives on Japanese culture and society - past and present - in accessible language. A Companion to the Anthropology of Japan covers a broad range of issues, controversies, and everyday practices, including the unacknowledged colonial roots of anthropology in the Japanese academy; legacies of nationalist research; eugenics and nation-building; majority and minority cultures; class and status; genders and sexualities; urban spectacle and rural "undevelopment"; domestic, corporate, and educational ideologies and practices; the mass media, leisure, and "infotainment" industries; women's and men's sports; fashion and food cultures; ideas of nature, life, and death; new and folk religions; and science and biotechnology.; Collectively, these chapters not only demonstrate Japan's significance for anthropological research but also help make Japanese society accessible to readers unfamiliar with the country. A Companion to the Anthropology of Japan is a reference volume for scholars, but is also designed to serve as a primary text for courses in anthropology and sociology, history, and Japan and East Asian Studies