Posted on 06/07/2008 8:29:49 AM PDT by blam
Bear-worshipping Ainu to flourish again
By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Last Updated: 4:20AM BST 07/06/2008
A bear-worshipping indigenous minority of northern Japan are to receive official recognition, a move that will end 140 years of enforced assimilation and discrimination.
Representatives from Japan's minority Ainu people bow their heads after the Japanese parliament recognised their indigenous status
The Ainu, the original inhabitants of Hokkaido island, were conquered by Japan in the mid-1800s and forcibly assimilated into Japanese culture.
The Meiji government in Tokyo declared the Ainu language illegal, forced them to adopt Japanese names, redistributed their land to mainland settlers and forced them to labour in the fishing industry.
But yesterday Japan's parliament unanimously adopted a resolution to recognise the Ainu as "indigenous people that have their own language, religious and cultural identity."
Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura issued a statement saying that the government would set up a panel to draw up measures to assist the Ainu.
The Ainu are one of Japan's most marginalised groups. Government estimates put the number of people with half or more Ainu ancestry at around 50,000.
The century-long repression of the Ainu has all but rendered their dialect extinct.
The cultural differences are also significantly at odds with mainland Japanese culture.
Ainu men preferring full beards and long hair and women tattoo around their mouths for decoration.
Traditional clothing is made from tree bark and the Ainu are animists – believing that everything in their rugged homeland contains a spirit. They worshipped natural landmarks and animals, especially bears.
"The Ainu people have been waiting for this day for 140 years and we no longer have to be ashamed of being considered a minority group," said Mikiko Maruko, an Ainu woman attending a festival in Tokyo to mark the Diet's decision.
"This is a very important day for us – and for other minorities in this country," she said. "This is the beginning of our empowerment, although this is just the start of a new phase of our struggle."
Ainu elders also welcomed the announcement, which they hope will entitle them to treatment similar to the Aborigines of Australia and native Americans.
"We will take seriously the historical fact that during our country's modernization process, many Ainu people were discriminated against and were forced to live in poverty," Mr Machimura's statement said.
"Today's resolution will turn a new page in Japanese history," Tadashi Kato, director of the Hokkaido Utari Association, told a meeting of a group of politicians. "I sincerely hope you will continue to support the creation of a society with ethnic harmony."
Say what???!!!
I think I might have a cult!
Been worshipping daBears my whole life. Go BEARS!
Praise the almighty Grizzly, this is great news. I scratch againstb a tree trunk in praise.
This is weird.
Ain’t happenin’ in Green Bay! ~
Figures. Now you’re going to be unbearable.
The North American Indians of Japan - if a genetic comparison is done, it is highly likely the Ainu will turn out to be similar to the Inuit and the Native American and Native Canadian indigenous people.
Very likely that was the direction of the migration, just a small detour to the south from the Bering land bridge.
It has long been suggested that the Ainu may be white caucasians, descended either from seafarers or Europeans who migrated eastward across Asia. There are also disputed traces of early white people in parts of China.
That certainly is suggested by the faces in the photo.
I have not kept up with this theory in recent years, but it would be interesting to know what DNA testing suggests about their genetic background.
They tried to wipe out the Ainus, but they couldn’t do it. The whole situation stinks!
Don’t get a swelled head, now.
Somebody alert Stephen Colbert....
Sheep flatulence inoculation developed
Telegraph | 6/5/08 | Peter Allen in Paris
Posted on 06/05/2008 8:06:31 AM PDT by Keli Kilohana
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026478/posts
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I've been listening to the abridged book-on-CD version of "Flags of Our Fathers", and had to stifle a gag regarding the statement that the planting of the Flag on Iwo Jima represented the first foreign conquest of Japanese homeland in 4000 years. The Japanese as such are descended from immigrants who entered kinda sudden like less than 3000 years ago. There's a repression of any data in support of an early human presence on the island, and that is also political in origin.The Meiji government in Tokyo declared the Ainu language illegal, forced them to adopt Japanese names, redistributed their land to mainland settlers and forced them to labour in the fishing industry... The Ainu are one of Japan's most marginalised groups. Government estimates put the number of people with half or more Ainu ancestry at around 50,000. The century-long repression of the Ainu has all but rendered their dialect extinct... Ainu men preferring full beards and long hair and women tattoo around their mouths for decoration.Thanks Blam. |
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I read the title as beer-worshiping. I thought it was an interesting object to deify.
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