| dc.description.abstract | This ethnographic master’s thesis was prompted by a fieldwork at the Obubu tea company in Wazuka, a tea farming village in the countryside of Japan. The research method was one of participant observation, primarily by full immersion in the cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, and knowledge dissemination of tea. The village and company were characterized by innovation, openness, informality and spontaneity, giving rise to an impression of social freedom. Very few anthropological studies have ever been done that deal directly with liberty, and even when social scientists employ the term ‘freedom’ their ideas of the concept are seldom made explicitly clear. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the academic and popular discourse on freedom by developing an appropriate analytical framework. The main discussion of the ethnography explores a range of definitions that provide clarity for future debates and research on the topic. In the thesis, episodic descriptions from the fieldnotes spark the exploration of various freedom concepts, whether these pertain to choice, autonomy, spontaneity, or some other definition. While all the concepts are connected, each offers a unique angle. Besides its main theme of social freedom, the thesis also helps to illustrate the diversity of
Japan, all the while suggesting that the link between tea and social liberty might be more than a coincidence. The ethnography concludes with the acknowledgement that its list of definitions is not exhaustive, yet it nevertheless offers some of the evaluative tools necessary to recognize patterns of behavior that can be associated with freedom | nb_NO |
