Toda Mikako

Mikako Toda is an associate professor in the Faculty of Global Studies of Sophia University. She received M.A. and Ph.D in Area Studies in Kyoto University. She has the following two research topics.

1) Disability in Africa

Since 2006, she has conducted research on people with disabilities in central African countries, including Cameroon and Congo, from the perspective of ecological anthropology with a focus on direct observation. People with physical disabilities must obtain multiple forms of assistance from community members to perform the activities of daily living. Thus, these individuals become more “social,” because they engage in more intimate and meaningful relationships with their neighbors than do able-bodied individuals. Her study aims to understand such multi-layered society by grasping the real life of people with disabilities.

2) Resource Use in Tropical Africa

She is recently conducting an international collaborative research project for implementing sustainable forest resources management in Cameroon. This is a trans-disciplinary project in which researchers in Cameroon and Japan from a variety of fields participate and the research outputs of which are expected to be implemented in the near future.

Projet Comca 2018-2023 Website : https://sites.google.com/view/projet-comeca/english

Hamada, Akinori & Toda, Mikako eds. 2017 How Do Biomedicines Shape People’s Lives, Socialities and Landscapes?. Senri Ethnological Reports 143, 211pp.

Toda, M. 2018. Kingdom’s Beads and Pygmies’ Beads. In. Kazunobu Ikeya (ed). Beads in the World, pp.70-71, National Museum of Ethnology.

Toda, M. 2017. Disability and Charity among Hunter-gatherers and Farmers in Cameroon. In A. Hamada and Mikako Toda (eds.) How Do Biomedicines Shape People’s Life, Sociality and Landscape?, Senri Ethnological Reports 143: 69-94, National Museum of Ethnology.

Olivero, J., J. E. Fa, M. A. Farfn. J. Lewis, B. Hewlett, T. Breuer, G. M. Carpaneto. M. Fernandez, F. Germi. S. Hattori, A. Noss, D. O. Ekoumou, P. Paulin, R. Real. M. Riddell, E. G. J. Stevenson, M.Toda, J. M. Vargas, H. Yasuoka, R. Nasi. 2016. Distribution and numbers of Pygmies in Central African forests. PLoS ONE 11(1).