“Matters” of Importance: Contaminated Materiality in the Aftermath of the Fukushima Disaster

Abstract

Contamination has been viewed as a form of invasion—an intrusion perpetrated by a group, a pernicious substance, or an unwanted agent. It is ‘the Other’ that has fascinated anthropologists for so long. We often assume that our current theory of knowledge about contamination is justified—although this current understanding fails to take into account the agency of contaminants themselves. Ideas about contamination throughout history have helped to fashion a particular dichotomy—a dualism where infection contrasts against wellbeing, where purity confronts impurity, and where ‘pristine’ nature opposes toxic landscapes. However, this binary understanding is often a double bind that does not reflect all of the nuances involved in contemporary problems, such as ecological disasters. For this reason, anthropologists have a lot to gain by focusing on matter – that is – to envision the agency of given materialities as a complementary topic to the analytical processes surrounding contamination. For instance, what actually happens if we consider that contamination “refuses” to recognize our political, social, and cultural boundaries? This article attempts to reconceive the notion of contamination by targeting the materiality of contaminants, particularly nuclear radioactivity in relation to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, in order to theorize a hybridized (i.e., non-binary) understanding of contamination—an understanding that better reflects the ways in which societies, governments, and individuals think about and interact with matter.