南アジアにおける社会、宗教、政治
16世紀から現在までの南アジアにおける地域社会と政体の構造と変容について歴史人類学的に研究してきた。またポスト植民地期インドにおける市民社会と共同体の緊張と補完の関係をめぐる問題についても考えてきた。インドの精神世界、とくにヨーガにも関心がある。

• 田辺明生. 1999. ｢土地とアイデンティティ―インド・オリッサ州クルダ地方における土地の文化政治史｣ 杉島敬志編 『土地所有の政治史―人類学的視点』 風響社, 125-155.
• Tanabe, Akio. 1999. The Transformation of Śakti: Gender and Sexuality in the Festival of Goddess Ramachandi, In Tanaka. M. and M. Tachikawa, eds., Living with Śakti: Gender, Sexuality and Religion in South Asia. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology, pp.137-168.
• Tanabe, Akio. 1999. Kingship, Community and Commerce in Late Pre-colonial Khurda, In Karashima, N. ed., Kingship in Indian History. New Delhi: Manohar, pp. 195-236.
• 田辺明生. 1997. ｢伝統の政治学―インド・オリッサでの武術競技会による国民文化形成の試みとその波紋｣ 『岩波講座文化人類学9：儀礼とパフォーマンス』岩波書店, 175-207.
• 田辺明生. 1997. ｢共生のしくみ―クルダ王国マニトリ城塞の事例から｣木村靖ニ, 上田信編『地域の世界史10: 人と人の地域史』山川出版社, 278-330.

【著書・論文】
• Tanabe, Akio. (in press) "Towards Vernacular Democracy: Moral Society and Post-postcolonial Transformation in Rural Orissa, India" American Ethnologist 34(3).
• Tanabe, Akio. (in press) "King, Goddesses and Jagannath: Regional patriotism and sub-regional and local identities in early modern Orissa." In Georg Berkemer and Hermann Kulke eds., Centres Out There? Facets of Subregional Identities in Orissa, India (provisional title). New Delhi: Manohar.
• Tanabe, Akio. (in press) "Understanding Ethical Basis of Local Democracy: Towards Post-Postcolonial Transformation in Rural Orissa, India" In H. Ishii, D. Gellner and K. Nawa, eds., Northern South Asia: Political and Social Transformations. New Delhi: Manohar.
• Tanabe, Akio. 2006. Recast(e)ing Identity: Transformation of Inter-Caste Relationships in Post-Colonial Rural Orissa. Modern Asian Studies 40(3): 761-796.
• 田辺明生. 2006. 「デモクラシーと生モラル政治―中間集団の現代的可能性に関する一考察」『文化人類学』71(1): 94-118.
• Tanabe, Akio. 2006. Cultural Politics of Ethics in Everyday Practice: Caste, Local Society and Vernacular Democracy in Orissa, India. 博士学位請求論文(東京大学総合文化研究科提出) 300p.
• Tanabe, Akio. 2006. Democracy and Development in Agrarian India: An Anthropological Reflection on Rural Political Economy. In N. Nagasaki ed. Democracy and Development in South Asia: East Asian Comparative Perspectives. Ryukoku University, pp. 26-52.
• Kimura, Masaaki. and Akio. Tanabe, eds. 2006. The State in India: Past and Present. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Introduced (pp.1-34) and contributed a chapter‘Early Modernity and Colonial Transformation: Rethinking the Role of the King in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Orissa’(pp. 202-228).
• Tanabe, Akio. 2005. The System of Entitlements in Eighteenth-Century Khurda, Orissa: Reconsideration of ‘Caste' and ‘Community’in Late Pre-Colonial India. South Asia 28(3): 345-385.
• Abinales, P. N., N. Ishikawa, and A. Tanabe, eds. 2005. Dislocating Nation-States: Globalization in Asia and Africa. Kyoto and Melbourne: Kyoto University Press and Trans Pacific Press. 289p.Introduced (‘Introduction: Dislocating nation-states’ pp.1-14) and concluded (‘Conclusion: States under stress, society in flux’ pp.271-283) (with P.N. Abinales and N. Ishikawa)
• 田辺明生. 2005. 「近代人種主義の二つの系譜とその交錯―地域連鎖の世界史から人種を考える」竹沢泰子編『人種概念の普遍性を問う―西洋的パラダイムを超えて』人文書院, pp.205-226.
• 田辺明生. 2004. 「儀礼のなかの歴史／歴史のなかの儀礼―人類学の視点から」名古屋大学文学部内歴史科学研究会編『歴史の理論と教育』18: 19-29.
• Hayami, Y., A. Tanabe, and Y. Tokita-Tanabe, eds. 2003. Gender and Modernity: Perspectives from Asia and the Pacific,Kyoto and Melbourne: Kyoto University Press and Trans Pacific Press, 309p. Introduced ('Introduction: Gender and modernity in Asia and the Pacific’with Y. Tokita-Tanabe, pp.1-16) and contributed a chapter‘Power, Culture and Masculinity in (Post-)Colonial Orissa, India’(pp.61-86).
• 田辺明生. 2003. ｢インド世界周縁部における王権確立の過程‐オリッサ・クルダ地方の事例から｣ 角田文衛, 上田正昭監修, 初期王権研究委員会編 『古代王権の誕生II 東南アジア・南アジア・アメリカ大陸編』角川書店, 116-133.
• Tanabe, A. 2003. The Sacrificer State and Sacrificial Community: Kingship in Early Modern Khurda, Orissa Seen through a Local Ritual. In Berkemer, G. and Frenz, M. eds., Sharing Sovereignty: The Little Kingdom in South Asia. Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, pp. 115-135.
• Tanabe, Akio. 2002. Reconsidering Spirituality and Secularism in India. Proceedings of International Conference on Rethinking Indian Culture: Challenge and Responses. Cuttack.
• 田辺明生. 2002. 「ポストモダンの課題と南アジア」長崎暢子編『現代南アジア第一巻―地域研究への招待』東京大学出版会, pp. 277-305.
• Tanabe, A. 2002. Moral Society, Political Society and Civil Society in Post-colonial India: A View from Orissan Locality, Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies 14: 40-67.
• 田辺明生. 2002. ｢差異と同一性のエロス―インドにおけるジェンダーの可能性｣『アジア新世紀３―アイデンティティ―解体と再構成』岩波書店, pp. 259-280.


【口頭発表】
• Tanabe, Akio. 2006. "Bio-Moral Politics and Vernacular Democracy: On the Possibilities of Alternative Socio-Political Solidarities in Postcolonial India" The Joint Conference comprising the annual conferences of Anthropology Southern Africa and The Pan African Anthropological Association and an Intercongress of The International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (University of Cape Town. South Africa, 3-7 December 2006)
• Tanabe, Akio. 2005. Democracy and development in agrarian India: An anthropological reflection on rural political economy. Workshop on Democracy and Development in Comparative Asian Perspective An Indo-Japanese Dialogue (Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi, 23-24 March 2005)
• Tanabe, Akio. 2004. Understanding ethical basis of local democracy: Towards post-postcolonial transformation in rural Orissa, India. Workshop‘Social Dynamics in Northern South Asia’ (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies,　Tokyo, 25-27 June 2004)
• Tanabe, Akio. 2004. Democracy and development in agrarian India: An anthropological reflection on rural political economy. Workshop on South Asia and East Asia: Comparisons and Connections (South Asia Initiative, Asia Center, Harvard University. Boston, 8-9 March 2004)
• Tanabe, Akio. 2003. King, Goddesses and Jagannath: Regional patriotism and sub-regional and local identities in early modern Orissa. Annual Conference of the Orissa Research Project, ‘Centres Out There? Facets of Subregional Identities’ (Salzau, Germany, 13-17 May 2003)
• Tanabe, Akio. 2002. The Sacrificer State and Sacrificial Community: Kingship in early modern Khurda, Orissa seen through a local ritual. 17th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies (Heidelberg, 9-14 September 2002)