12SOPHIA MAGAZINE Vol. 18An understanding of the reality of people with disabilities reveals the multilayered nature of African societies.Junction of Ecological Anthropology and Disability StudiesOf course, there are also people with disabilities in the region who absolutely require institutional care, she added.Toda’s specialty, ecological anthropology focusses on the inter-relationship between humans, the environment, and non-human organisms at the juncture of the natural and social sciences.“My methodology is based on close-contact surveys and intimate records of people. It’s important to refrain from resorting to dif-ficult terminology and theories,” she explains. When conducting fieldwork, in order to capture people’s ways of life, she was taught to “count what moves and measure what’s static.”“In disability studies, the sociological survey (questionnaire) method of interviews is often speculative in comparison to an-thropological studies that empirically measure other factors, such as the time involved in subsistence activities, the weight of food obtained, and the acreage of fields. The empirical studies can shed light on the actual impact of disabilities on social roles and the reality of care.”Disability studies examine social frameworks from the standpoint of the disabled, but lack in the observation of the interaction be-tween the disabled and non-disabled. Anthropology, on the other hand, attempts to decipher the interrelationships between people, things, and the environment in order to bring concrete understand-ing of people — including people with disabilities — living in a certain area. It is most effective to combine the two approaches.“Disability research tends to be directed to problem-solving. My goal, however, is to use large-framework basic research to address social change, development, and support,” Toda says.When Toda, whose undergraduate major was physics, happened to come across a video of “interaction” research on slash-and-burn farmers in the former Zaire when she was searching the Internet for information on subatomic particle “interactions.” “The person speaking was talking forcefully and loudly while the person listening appeared to ignore him. Witnessing this commu-nication shifted my interest immediately from space to humans,” Toda says, laughing. After refocusing her research on African hunter-gatherers, Toda visited Cameroon where she met people with disabilities making a living as “full-fledged” members of the community.“I started my research from the question of why the people with disabilities in Cameroon did not feel the type of ‘suffocation’ I had previously understood from discussions of disability and care.”Anthropological fieldwork at that time conventionally used infor-mants who were group representatives and practitioners of hunt-ing and farming societies; they were most often dismissive of re-search that focused on a disabled minority.“Nevertheless, as we continued our research, we came to see that the disabled, because they need the help of others, build close rela-tionships with their surroundings, at times skillfully using advanced social skills to succeed in these relationships. One can argue that an understanding of the lives of the people with disabilities in Africa can illuminate the complex nature of African society.”In addition to the development of their lifestyles, Toda is also studying the influence of the spread of Islam and Christianity on the disabled in Africa. She has recently begun practical research on community organizations and the use of forest resources in tropical rainforests. Her expanding research is supported by Sophia University’s growing network of research institutions in African countries.
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