John Traphagan

John W. Traphagan is a professor of Religious Studies, Japanese Studies, and Anthropology and former Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to becoming a professor at the University of Texas, Traphagan taught at California State University, Fullerton and was a National Institute on Aging postdoctoral fellow at the Population Studies Center of the University of Michigan. His research has focused on rural Japan, primarily having been conducted in Iwate Prefecture. The majority of his writing has dealt with aging, health, and ritual in rural Japan, but he has also written on both globalization and internal migration.

He is past president of the Association for Anthropology and Gerontology and past editor-in-chief of the "Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology". In 1995-96, he was a Fulbright Scholar to Japan.

Traphagan was born on December 27, 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in the Boston area, attending public schools in Framingham and Chelmsford, where he graduated from Chelmsford High School. His father, Willis Traphagan, is Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and his mother, Jeanne Elizabeth Long Traphagan (d. 2004), was a professional French Horn player and business woman.

Traphagan received a BA in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 1983, an MAR in Social Ethics from Yale University in 1986, and a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1997.

Publications

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Books and Edited Journal Issues

Hashimoto, A. and J. W. Traphagan (eds.). In press. Imagined Families, Lived Families: Culture and Kinship in Contemporary Japan. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Traphagan, J. W. (ed.). In press. Aging in Asia: Special Issue of the Journal of Long Term Home Health Care.

Thompson, C. S. and J. W. Traphagan (eds.). 2006. Wearing Cultural Styles in Japan: Concepts of Tradition and Modernity in Practice. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Traphagan, J. W. 2004. The Practice of Concern: Ritual, Well-Being, and Aging in Rural Japan. Durham: Carolina Academic Press.

Traphagan, J. W. and John Knight (eds.) 2003. Demographic Change and the Family in Japan's Aging Society. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Traphagan, J. W. 2000. Taming Oblivion: Aging Bodies and the Fear of Senility in Japan. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Aoyagi, K., P. J. M. Nas, and J. W. Traphagan (eds.) 1998. Toward Sustainable Cities: Readings in the Anthropology of Urban Environments. Leiden: Institute of Cultural and Social Studies, University of Leiden.

Journal Articles

Traphagan, J. W. In press. Aging in Asian Societies: Perspectives from Recent Qualitative Research. Journal of Long Term Home Health Care.

Traphagan, J. W. In press. Power, Family and Filial Responsibility in Japan. Care Management Journals.

Traphagan, J. W. 2005. Interpreting Senility: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Care Management Journals 6(3):145-150.

Traphagan, J. W. 2005. Heroes of the Antimodern: “Respect for the Elderly Day” and Writing the Narrative of the Elder Generation in Japan. Journal of Ritual Studies 19(2):99-114.

Henderson, J. Neil and J. W. Traphagan. 2005. Cultural Factors in Dementia: Perspectives from the Anthropology of Aging. Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders 19(4):272-274.

Traphagan, J. W. 2005. Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/ Spirituality for Use in Health Research in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Research on Aging 27(4):387-419.

Traphagan, J. W. 2005. Interpretations of Elder Suicide, Stress and Dependency among Rural Japanese. Ethnology 43(4):315-329.

Traphagan, J. W. 2004. Culture and Long Term Care: The Bath as Social Service in Japan. Care Management Journals 5(1): 53-60.

Traphagan, J. W. 2003. Independence, Security, and the Intergenerational Social Contract: Home-Helper Services and Elder Care in Rural Japan. Care Management Journals 4(4):216-222.

Traphagan, J. W. 2003. Older Women as Caregivers and Ancestral Protection in Rural Japan. Ethnology 42(2): 127 - 139.

Traphagan, J. W. and L. K. Brown. 2002. Fast Food and Intergenerational Commensality in Japan: New Styles and Old Patterns. Ethnology 41(2): 119-134.

Traphagan, J. W. 2002. Senility as Disintegrated Person in Japan. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 17: 253-267.

Traphagan, J. W. 2000. The Liminal Family: Return Migration and Intergenerational Conflict in Japan. Journal of Anthropological Research 56: 365-385.

Traphagan, J. W. 2000. Reproducing Elder Male Power through Ritual Performance in Japan. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 15: 81-97.

Musick, Marc, John W. Traphagan, Harold Koenig, David Larson. 2000. Spirituality and Physical Health in Aging. Journal of Adult Development 7(2): 73-86.

Traphagan, J. W. 1998. Reasons for Gateball Participation among Older Japanese. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 13: 159-175.

Traphagan, J. W. 1998. Localizing Senility: Illness and Agency among Older Japanese. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 13: 81-98.

Traphagan, J. W. 1998. Contesting the Transition to Old Age in Japan. Ethnology 37(4): 333-50.

Traphagan, J. W. 1994. Beyond Relativism and Foundationalism: A Prolegomenon to Future Research in Ethics. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 29(2): 153-172.

Traphagan, J. W. and Willis Traphagan. 1987. Music, Meaning, History. Phenomenological Inquiry 11: 60-71.

Traphagan, J. W. and Willis Traphagan. 1986. The Nature of Meaning in Music. ReVision 9(1): 99-104.

Book Chapters

Traphagan, J. W. and Christopher S. Thompson. 2006. The Practice of Tradition and Modernity in Contemporary Japan. In Christopher S. Thompson and John W. Traphagan (eds.) Wearing Cultural Styles in Japan: Concepts of Tradition and Modernity in Practice. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Traphagan, J. W. 2006. Being a Good Rôjin: Senility, Power, and Self-Actualization in Japan. In Lawrence Cohen and Annette Leibing (eds.) Thinking about Dementia: Culture, Loss, and the Anthropology of Senility. Rutgers University Press.

Traphagan, J. W. 2004. Curse of the Successor: Filial Piety vs. Marriage among Rural Japanese. In Charlotte Ikels (ed.) Filial Piety: Practice and Discourse in Contemporary East Asia. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Traphagan, J. W. 2003. Contesting Co-Residence: Women, In-Laws, and Health Care in Rural Japan. In J. W. Traphagan and J. Knight (eds.) Demographic Change and the Family in Japan's Aging Society. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Knight, John and J. W. Traphagan. 2003. The Study of the Family in Japan: Integrating Anthropological and Demographic Approaches. In J. W. Traphagan and J. Knight (eds.) Demographic Change and the Family in Japan's Aging Society. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Traphagan, J. W. 2002. Japanese Social Relations. In Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

Aoyagi, K. and J. W. Traphagan. 1998. Epilogue. In K. Aoyagi, et al. (eds.) Toward Sustainable Cities: Readings in the Anthropology of Urban Environments. Leiden: Institute of Cultural and Social Studies, University of Leiden, pp. 157-162.

Traphagan, J. W. 1998. Emic Weeds or Etic Wild Flowers? Structuring the Environment in a Japanese Town. In K. Aoyagi, et al. (eds.) Toward Sustainable Cities: Readings in the Anthropology of Urban Environments. Leiden: Institute of Cultural and Social Studies, University of Leiden, pp. 37-52.