Ethnography: Ainu Essay example -- Cultural Anthropology

Ethnography AinuWorldview The Ainu, Japans essential aboriginal people, are very much an isolated people, living promptly 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 ordinal century due to forced labor and disease, and have largely left hand their old ways and integrated into standard Japanese connection, though even so the majority of those still reside in Hokkaido. The animistic religion of the Ainu is intemperately enmeshed with every otherwise aspect of the culture.Family and Kinship Most Ainu head in groups of nuclear families, the nuclear family being the basic social building block (Encyclopedia). Some groups, however, have extended families, but are not as common. Families are both patrilineal and matrilineal, the sons inheriting the fathers set and the daughters inheriting the mothers clan (. Both males and females do not marry cousins, but only from their mothers family ( Encyclopedia). Also, polygyny is practiced by the higher-status males in a community (Encyclopedia). During the bear ritual, relatives of the host in other settlements usually come to participate (Encyclopedia). Marriages traditionally were either arranged or of mutual consent (Museum, Life 1). Also, as a result of the 20th centurys attempted Japanese integration, often through exogamy, now not even a third of all Ainu have intravenous feeding Ainu grandparents (Bowring 244).EconomicsThe Ainu traditionally were scaters and gatherers, but rather than wandering nomadically, they settled in one location, on one section of a river, where they could fish and hunt (Museum People). However, in more recent times, Ainu seeking to integrate into Japanese society have taken jobs in ... ... Apr. 2002. Encyclopedia of World Cultures. CD-ROM. Old Tappan, NJ Macmillian.Forbis, William H. Japan Today People, Places, Power. New York Harper, 1975.Law to preserve Ainu culture was Pa ssed. 1 Feb. 2002. Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute. 25 Apr. 2002. .Takasugi, Shinji. Numbers in introduction languages. 25 Apr. 2002. .Thomason, Andy. The Ainu of Japan. 2 July 1999. Suite101.com Inc. 25 Apr. 2002. .Wright, Mike. Ainu-English Word List. 13 Nov. 1999. Costal bedim Net. 25 Apr. 2002. .