Essay about Ethnography Ainu - 2155 Words

Ethnography: Ainu Worldview The Ainu, Japan’s native aboriginal people, are very much an isolated people, living now only in the northern island of Japan, Hokkaido. They number, as of a 1984 survey, 24,381, continuing a rise from a low point in the mid nineteenth century due to forced labor and disease, and have largely left their old ways and integrated into standard Japanese society, though even the majority of those still reside in Hokkaido. The animistic religion of the Ainu is firmly enmeshed with every other aspect of the culture. Family and Kinship Most Ainu organize in groups of nuclear families, the nuclear family being the basic social unit (Encyclopedia). Some groups, however, have extended families, but are†¦show more content†¦During the 70s Ainu revival, many intellectual Ainu saw an opportunity to spread their ideas and oral traditions in print, and were not ignored, providing financial support for the Ainu arts (Dab 10). Politics As an indigenous and oft-oppressed people, forced back by the Japanese for centuries from their native lands to only the Northern part of Japan’s Northernmost island, the Ainu did not focus on politics outside of their community, especially in Japan’s blindly homogenous culture. â€Å"After World War II, the first Ainu political part, the Sinei Undo, had formed and though it only counted 5% of Ainu among its members it was the largest political association of Ainu at the time, and had branches in the major Ainu communities† (Dabb 10). In their settlements, Ainu usually have a single male decision-making leader per settlement, who makes his decisions with the advice of the elders in the settlement (Encyclopedia). The elders are opposed by shamans, who, frequently being female, allow for more of a sexual balance of power in the settlement. A few groups of small settlements are under the control of larger settlements, but this is uncommon. The political leader of a community is always the host of a bear ritual, which usually attracts the leaders of the nearby settlements (Encyclopedia). Language Ainu language has, like the Ainu themselves, a past wrapped in mystery. Of the known language families, such as Indo-European, the basis of English,Show MoreRelatedTattoos : a Permanent Mark on Pop Culture Essay6526 Words   |  27 Pagescommunication among spies. Markings identified the spies and showed their rank. Romans marked criminals and slaves. This practice is still carried on today. The Ainu people of western Asia used tattooing to show social status. Girls coming of age were marked to announce their place in society, as were the married women. The Ainu are noted for introducing tattoos to Japan where it developed into a religious and ceremonial rite. In Borneo, women were the tattooists. It was a cultural traditionRead MoreEssay on Birth: The Beginning of Life2455 Words   |  10 Pagesmale-dominated field of anthropology. Until quite recently in the history of anthropology, our views of social organization consistently ignored the many and varied places of women in society, resulting in a distorted theory and an impoverished ethnography (Jordan 5). By exploring childbirth, one can gain insight into the lives of women in any culture. Parturition in non-human primate societies Childbirth is inherently natural. All non-human primates experience childbirth, as they are all mammalsRead MoreThe Myths of Cultural Globalization Essay3502 Words   |  15 Pagesand what they actually do or mean is often a very different matter. Good ethnography combines detailed empirical research with larger political and philosophical questions. The anthropologist, who goes into the field for an extended period of time (on average 12-18 months), attempts to take the perspective of the people he/she studies and represent his/her findings to a wider audience. The resulting ethnography is a translation, shifting between the perspective of the cultural insider andRead MoreAgrarian Magic: 20 Theories on the Origin of Religion8239 Words   |  33 Pagesquestions about religion, and while we cant evaluate the veracity of religion’s claims, we can attempt to understand its functions. The methods of comparative religion, comparative mythology, with interdisciplinary analysis throughout the fields of ethnography, neuroscience, psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, and linguistics have made a lot of progress in the last 100 years, with a boom of database-driven analysis in the last decade. There are a number of theories attempting to explain the