Course Description

This lecture will provide a history of the Ainu, an indigenous people in Japan. What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘indigenous peoples’? Peoples who are separated from modern civilization, living together with nature? Indigenous peoples are ordinary Americans, Canadians, Australians, Japanese etc. What distinguishes them from others are the historical relations between their ancestors and nation states. They are descendants of peoples whose homeland became settler colonies of Western empires, or predecessors of current governments. The Ainu has also similar history. We will survey why and how they became an indigenous people in Japan.