The Ainu

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I thought I'd dedicate a thread to the Aimu, the indigenous aboriginal people of Japan. They've been a quiet obsession of mine for many years- I first heard of them over 20 years ago through playing the old RPG "Bushido".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_people

http://www.ainu-museum.or.jp/english/english.html

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2244.html

They're a bit of a forgotten race. I'd be surprised if most people are aware that there are longer-established inhabitants of Japan than the Japanese. It's also sad that they are still discriminated against.

[Traianvs]

Oh, I actually was under the impression that Japan was one of the few states in the world that was also a unified nation-state...

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Traianvs
Oh, I actually was under the impression that Japan was one of the few states in the world that was also a unified nation-state...

It used to be a meritorious act for 'ethnic' Japanese to go campaigning against the barbarian Ainu in centuries gone by.

Although Ainu were also recruited as mercenaries too...

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by Traianvs
Oh, I actually was under the impression that Japan was one of the few states in the world that was also a unified nation-state...

Scary, isn't it? An entire race, that still exists today in a developed country, that's pretty much unknown in the wider world.

[molly bloom]

I find the whole 'treat a baby bear like a little god then ritually kill and eat it thang' rather fascinating.


Available from a British Film Institute near you...

http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/129227

Hairy Ainu:

[Dr Strangelove]

According to the Wikipedia article they seem to be clearly Oriental genetically, yet in the past I've read of them as being classified as Caucasian.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

It's disputed- some link them to the same origins as the Australian aborigines.

[Arrian]

I find the Ainu interesting too... I think my father mentioned them to me when I was a kid (he'd been to Japan several times on business).

I didn't realize they were discriminated against... how so? Are they shunted off into ****ty "reservations" and generally pissed on except they're allowed to run casinos? Oh, wait...

-Arrian

[Patroklos]

I have to say I am amazed the survived the first half of the 1900's given the nationalism present in China at the time.

[Dr Strangelove]

I hope that you meant to say Japan.

[Barnabas]

Do the japanese have "admixture" from these original inhabitants?

[Barnabas]

Something I was told, (not about ainus but related) is that japan also has a lower caste, like the dalits of india, (altough the cagots of france and north spain are a better example I think)

Something few people know about.
A japanese woman wouldnt let her daughter marry someone from this caste.

Nowadays there is racism in japan against japanese-latin americans who return to japan, even if they have remained ethnically japanese 100%, because people from that low caste made a big bunch of the japanese who emigrated to south america (they were obviously trying to escape the situation they were in), so these returning people are suspect.

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
I hope that you meant to say Japan.

[dixie]Awl the same, idnit?[/dixie]

[Nikolai]

I knew there were older inhabitants of Japan than the Japanese. I didn't know their name though. But I thought there were more than one of those aboriginal people?