Exploring human-animal relations among the Okhotsk Culture in northern Japan

Summary

This paper investigates long-term human-animal interactions among Okhotsk cultures in Hokkaido, northern Japan. The Okhotsk Culture were maritime foragers and traders who expanded out from the Amur into Hokkaido and Sakhalin Island from about AD 600, with many of their distinctive traits and practices such as elaborate bear ceremonialism and other hunting rituals persisting into the historic Ainu cultures. Our ongoing research aims to understand the origins, spatiotemporal variability and long-term change in how communities living along the north coast of Hokkaido were ‘bringing home animals’ and subjecting particular terrestrial and aquatic species to specific processing and consumption practices. To trace the origins of some of these traditions, our study examines cultures that predate the Okhotsk, for instance the Late Jomon period. We are applying organic residue analysis of food processing technologies such as tools and pottery containers to elucidate how different marine and terrestrial animals were treated, for example, according to a common set of procedures or in terms of more specific beliefs for each species.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Reimagining Human-Animal Relations in the Circumpolar North

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15004