Ainu (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tess Kelley.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Ainu are an indigenous group currently inhabiting the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Traditionally the group practiced a hunter-gatherer lifestyle incorporating plant cultivation and trade, yet forced assimilation into the Japanese state in 1869 significantly altered this way of life. The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of Harvard University...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gary Crawford.

Hokkaido, Japan is an island separate from the East Asian mainland and Honshu yet closely linked culturally to the rest of the Japanese archipelago. Hokkaido was never isolated entirely from the East Asian mainland either. This paper reviews several key events that relate to Hokkaido as an island with a distinct cultural history. As the contemporary home of an indigenous population, the Ainu, Hokkaido has played, and can continue to play, an important role in our understanding of cultural...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Lowman.

Close examination of Ainu objects in American museums reveals patterns of use-wear, re-use, and intentional marking. These marks draw attention to the life of the object, an avenue of research when depositional data or documents are absent. In colonial contexts, modification as a form of individual or cultural ownership can be used to oppose assumptions of assimilation by revealing ways materials were appropriated or were part of cultural hybridization. Ainu artifacts drawn from multiple...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Yuka Shichiza. Katsunori Takase. Hiroshi Ushiro. Thomas Royle. Dongya Yang.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) was historically an important subsistence item for many Indigenous peoples along the North Pacific Rim including the Ainu of Hokkaido in northern Japan. However, relative to salmon, little archaeological research has been conducted on this taxon. Ethnographic records and oral traditions are also limited as many Ainu were...