Anthropologist Marvin Harris says that the Japanese practice of 'white-face' has origins in emulating of the ancient noblemen.
Posted on 02/02/2006 6:15:42 PM PST by blam
MP's warning over 'blue-eyed foreigner' on Japanese throne
By Colin Joyce in Tokyo
(Filed: 03/02/2006)
A senior Japanese politician has attacked plans to allow a reigning empress in case the child of "a blue-eyed foreigner" succeeds to the ancient Chrysanthemum Throne.
The remark by an MP and former trade minister, Takeo Hiranuma, highlighted the way conservatives see the emperor as head of the Japanese race and equate national vigour with racial purity.
The government wants to change the law to allow Princess Aiko, the four-year-old granddaughter of Emperor Akihito, to become second in line to the throne.
Polls show overwhelming support for the plan. But determined opposition has emerged, centred on Prince Tomohito, the emperor's cousin and diehard conservatives in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
"If Aiko becomes the reigning empress, and gets involved with a blue-eyed foreigner while studying abroad and marries him, their child may be the emperor. We should never let that happen," Mr Hiranuma said in Tokyo.
Conservatives are particularly hostile to proposals to allow matrilineal succession, which they view as a breach of a 2,000-year-old tradition.
Though Japan has had eight reigning empresses, they were widows or unmarried and served as regents until the throne could revert to a son born through the male line.
Traditionalists believe that holy blood, transmitted from son to son over 125 generations of emperors, is central to the well-being of Japan.
However, all nine children born into the imperial family for 40 years have been girls. Even Japanese in favour of reform are aware that finding a suitable spouse for a future Empress Aiko will be tricky.
Japan has no titled aristocracy and the neutrality of the imperial family means it may be difficult for her to marry the son of a political or business family.
THE SAMURAI AND THE AINU
Findings by American anthropologist C. Loring Brace, University of Michigan, will surely be controversial in race conscious Japan. The eye of the predicted storm will be the Ainu, a "racially different" group of some 18,000 people now living on the northern island of Hokkaido. Pure-blooded Ainu are easy to spot: they have lighter skin, more body hair, and higher-bridged noses than most Japanese. Most Japanese tend to look down on the Ainu.
Brace has studied the skeletons of about 1,100 Japanese, Ainu, and other Asian ethnic groups and has concluded that the revered samurai of Japan are actually descendants of the Ainu, not of the Yayoi from whom most modern Japanese are descended. In fact, Brace threw more fuel on the fire with:
"Dr. Brace said this interpretation also explains why the facial features of the Japanese ruling class are so often unlike those of typical modern Japanese. The Ainu-related samurai achieved such power and prestige in medieval Japan that they intermarried with royality and nobility, passing on Jomon-Ainu blood in the upper classes, while other Japanese were primarily descended from the Yoyoi." The reactions of Japanese scientists have been muted so. One Japanese anthropologist did say to Brace," I hope you are wrong."
The Ainu and their origin have always been rather mysterious, with some people claiming that the Ainu are really Caucasian or proto-Caucasian - in other words, "white." At present, Brace's study denies this interpretation.
On the other hand, there were numerous intermarriages over the years, and it's difficult to separate the Emperor and his folks from the Samurai and their folks.
The Ya-Yoi, or Chinese origin people, belong to neither group.
I thought the Japanese descended from peoples from the modern-day areas of Korea and China.
Anthropologist Marvin Harris says that the Japanese practice of 'white-face' has origins in emulating of the ancient noblemen.
Someone needs to remind The Traditionalists how Hirohito Ruined The "well being" of japan
Japanese are the most racist people on Earth.
I have to respect the Japanese' love and protection of their culture. They have every right.
Furthermore, to claim that the Japanese were a patrilinear society for 2000 yrs is farfetched. My recollection is that the Yamato people may have been a matrilinear society. There was an Empress Suiko, I believe.
Then, too, as Shishedo demonstrated, coming up with cosmetics for Asian women is a different matter than scooping up red-clay, the common technique in the West.
What about green eyes?
Just insist that the Empress-to-be must marry a Japanese citizen, or else forfeit the right to the throne.
Ping
"The Ainu look like Caucasian people, they have white skin, their hair is wavy and thick, their heads are mesocephalic (round) and a few have grey or blue eyes. However, their blood types are more like the Mongolian people, possibly through many millennia of intermixing."
Not likely. The Hakkas (the guests) made a centuries long migration from north to south China. During that migration any of them with Caucasian features was executed. (for being barbarian)
Geez. That Ainu woman resembles my dad as he got older. Hmmmm
Actually I don't blame the Japanese for wanting their emperor to be completely Japanese.
However, the East Asians themselves appear to be derived substantially from the very same group of humans as are the European peoples.
Fundamentally, there are two major East Asian populations. The Chinese represent one type; the Ainu represent the other.
Neither group, though, should be confused with the NE Asian Chuchi, who are purely of European-type stock, but otherwise resemble the Chinese and American Indians.
Japanese-American women prefer American-American men for a variety of reasons. One is that they are all nice guys, eh!
Let's not expect the Japanese to play the same silly, PC games we do. It won't happen.
Supposedly he killed all those with a large or high nose, and as a result the only surviving Hakka had short noses. This is an unsustainable Lamarckian view of inheritance.
The fact is the Hakka tend to not have a high bridge. Numerous Japanese people today, including many members of the Royal Family group do not have a high bridge. Many Ainu and those descended from Samurai do not have a high bridge.
Whatever happened to the Hakka who went from North to South is irrelevant to what happened to the Hakka who went to Japan "way back when".
H. Narain (an Indian archaeologist) says that Caucasian people have their origins in or around the Gansu Province of China.
I have a Chinese friend who married a Hakka woman. He says the Hakka Chinese women are the prettiest women on earth.
It wouldn't suprise me if ol' Qin turns out to have some Caucasian features himself. There were many poems written about the green eyes of the Han emperors.
BTW, tests recently done on his tomb indicate very high levels of mercury...lending evidence to the legend that he has 'streams' of mercury in his tomb.
What you have to remember is that when the King of Chin (Qin) undertook the conquest of China, he used genocide as one of his weapons.
When he was done he'd changed the ethnic face of China forever.
The Hakka still don't look all that much like the Han.
I agree.
I noticed they were on average, not very attractive, but there would always be one really pretty one. I also noticed the pretty ones tended to be petite with round faces. The Japanese boys had the same ideas, in other words they thought the same ones were pretty that we did. The ugly ones were tall and had flat faces.
The girl who plays Lana Lang on "Smallville" is about as pretty as they get and she is Chinese and Dutch.
Over all I am certain the prettiest girls come from Ireland, Scotland as well as the rest of the British Isles. Also Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland.
I think beauty is mostly about regular features and for some reason, those places seem to produce the most like that.
gaijin bump
Your post makes a lot of sense to me. Ainu people are very muscular and were known as the best warriors on earth.
I'm attracted to those too. Of course, I'm from there, lol.
"The "theory" on Hun origin of Hakka was based on very fragmentary > blood typing and DNA analysis > done by Japanese and Russian researchers. Undoubtedly, the > original Hakkas migrated under the > pressure of the northern intruders. During this cultural conflict, > there could be a very small portion of > the population derived from voluntary or involuntary marriages > causing the inclusion of non-Han > factors. However, using the isolated examples to support the > Hun-Hakka theory is ungrounded."
Actually these Ainu people remind me more of American Indians than Japanese.
Also think about how many popular actors/actresses over the years fit into this category...many had unusually large heads for their bodies (Jolson, Astaire, Bendix, Cary Grant are just a few that readily come to mind...)
I agree. I think Japan is hands-down the most anti-PC civilized nation on earth. The tradition of rejecting foreign ideas and remaining aloof on their islands for centuries has served them well, as has their undoubtedly VERY difficult language which has kept most foreigners from ever really being able to understand the Japanese - OTOH, they have incorporated western technology while avoiding debilitating western decadence and destructive ideas like feminism - the fact that their immigration laws are among the toughest on earth helps too....
Assuming random chance and a 50% probability of having a girl baby, the probability of that happening is less than .2% The actual probability is somewhat lower, just under .1% because actual probabily of a girl baby is 48.78%. (About 1.05 boy badies per girl baby).
I'd say the Imperial family has a problem making sperm with Y chromosomes.
Very interesting discussion. I will have to come back to it to see where it goes.
You are WRONG.
The Great Wall was built to keep out Chuck Norris.
It failed miserably. :P
Lots of stuff going on in the intervening 3,000 years of course.
Here's a thought for you if you follow this sort of thing, a number of minor-dark ages occurred since the last glaciers melted off. Many of them correlate well with what we call a "mini-ice age". That's where the temperature drops a bit, things dry out, and the temperate zone moves South.
Agricultural populations find themselves S.O.L. unless their existing crops will also grow under the new conditions.
When it comes to migratory tribes herding reindeer (or just following them, adjusting their path with elaborate gate systems), their range expands tremendously.
The Chuchi, Sa'ami and many other Polar Peoples MOVE SOUTH bringing with them new genes (e.g. the package we call Scandinavian Porphyria is worth looking up), new gods and goddesses, and new drugs (maybe even "little red man").
The first migration of the Hakka most likely began at the beginning of a colder period. Interesting that the Hakka have "round heads", "round" even according to the Chinese, who hardly have "square" heads~! Most of the Polar People also have very "round" heads. (Try buying a hat, eh?).
Given everybody's practice of trading daughters to adjacent tribes, I'd suspect the Hakka quickly acquired a totally new gene pack before they, themselves moved South toward the Han.
This sort of thing can cause a lot of confusion when you do studies of aleles.
Yup. Professor Mike Baillie (an expert in dendrochronology) in his book Exodus To Arthur has used tree-rings worldwide to document some of these periods. Below are the dates he says shows worldwide effecting events: (serious Dark Ages)
* 3195BC
* 2354BC
* 1628BC
* 1159BC
* 540AD
And two smaller events at 207BC and 44BC.
Victor Mair, in his book, The Tarim Mummies, (The Curse Of The Red-Headed Mummy), says that the people in the Tarim Basin and on into Gansu Province, China were Caucasian and it was only about 100-200BC that Mongoloid skeletons( presumably the Han) started showing up in the grave yards... and, then later mixed race skeletons. I've often wondered if the Hakka were the result of this mixing. A cold dry spell set upon the region and people migrated from there in all directions. We know about the Hakka from Chinese records, we don't know about the others. Might some of the people also be the Picts?
That's a gross generalization - that "Hakka still don't look all that much like the Han."
In fact, "Han" people don't look like each other. "Han" Chinese is made up of many different ethnic groups essentially. Han Chinese in Sichuan will look vastly different than Han Chinese in Shandong. And Hakka, who has migrated south, look more like Han Chinese in the south (which are again, influenced by Viet, Hmong, etc.)
The skin tones of Han is also quite different. The facial features are also quite different amongst itself.
My dad, for example, came from Jiangsu province. He has incredibly dark skin and high bridge nose. My mom, from Taiwan, has much lighter skin and flat nose. My wife, from Shandong province, is probably whiter than most caucasians (though there is a debate amongst their family of whether she has 1/32 Germanic blood) and features that are drastically different than other places -- She's 5'8", not really short for a woman in China. Her hair is not dark "black", but actually much closer to dark red. Her facial features is very much "Shandong"-like, the perfect example would be the actress Gong Li from Shandong province (very light skinned, tall bridge nose, etc.)
I'd have to say that "Han" chinese is more about a culture than ethnicity. Northern Han Chinese is vastly different than Southern Chinese, ethnically speaking. And sometimes those rules don't apply -- my dad has skin colors that will resemble someone from Guandong province or Vietnam (i.e. darker skinned) but he has facial features from northern Chinese.
In reality, Han Chinese is probably one of the biggest melting pots there is, ethnically speaking. Culturally it's fairly unison with regional/local differences.
As far as Hakka goes, i have met Hakkas that are dark skinned and Hakkas that are light skins and look more like Japanese (flat facial features). They do speak and proud of their own spoken laguage, but that's about it, ethnically speaking they're not much different than the Hans.
"As far as Hakka goes, i have met Hakkas that are dark skinned and Hakkas that are light skins and look more like Japanese (flat facial features). They do speak and proud of their own spoken laguage, but that's about it, ethnically speaking they're not much different than the Hans."
I've read that the Hakka are very accurate record keepers. And, also are famous for their poem writing.
I always thought that there was a connection between the Ainu and the Inuit. I noticed some similarities in their artwork long ago.
Under the Mongols additional ethnic varieties were brought to China for a variety of purposes ~ but until then the Chinese had about as much variation as modern Korean-speaking people.
They used to be.
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