An Anthropology of Ba: Place and Performance Co-emerging

Do places influence human behavior? In everyday thinking, spaces and places are generally seen as empty vessels where human activity occurs. Digging a bit deeper, we can distinguish spaces from places: places are spaces that have meanings attached — an empty room becomes a classroom or a bedroom depending on what people do in it. Focusing on the Japanese concept ba — usually translated as 'place' — these studies recognize that places imbued with social meaning influence human behavior. Ba t...