The Samurai And The Ainu (Read This Before Seeing The Movie "The Last Samurai")

Science Frontiers ^ | 1989 | Dr C Loring Brace

[blam]

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.

[Cronos]

That was a good post. I guess it was pro-Korean and a bit biased against the Japanese. E Sasaki, with due respect, I find that the Japanese have tended to aggrandise themselves quite a bit and have distorted their history accordingly. This is the traditional inferiority complex for newer cultures when in the presence of ancient cultures and nations: like Germany in the 1870s, Japan when formed around the time of Christ was in awe of it's far more ancient and civilised Chinese forebears and had heard of the even more ancient civilisation of India. No wonder they tried hard to make themselves some kind of supermen.

[Cronos]

Today even Koreans say that Japanese look different from Koreans. If so the only explanation would be the extent of Jomon (Ainu) blood that exists in modern Japanese

Good point -- I've associated with quite a few Chinese, Koreans and Japanese and pride myself on the fact that I can generally distinguish between them (note: generally!!) -- with the Japanese being slightly less broad and rough faced as the Koreans and being fairer than the Chinese

[Cronos]

The 'Bushmen' of Africa have Mongolian Spots also.

Wow!!! Each of your posts teaches me something new!! Thanks!

[Cronos]

It is very charitable of you to give the Japanese the benefit of the doubt like that, but their behavior is based on racism, not rational thought.

Gaijin eh?

[Destro]

It is kind of a big stretch.

[dsc]

So, if you think the Gulf Stream runs south to north, you're not Polish?

Talk about your non-sequiturs.

[lepton]

On a related topic, have you heard or seen a study using matriarchal DNA that discovered that the majority of Japanese people are genetically closer to the Korean people than the Chinese?.

I have. And it was much more recent than the land-bridge.The articles I read noted that Japan is environmentally odd - its rainy season is during the growing season, which roduces a far more lush environment. This lush environment allowed the oddity of a hunter/gatherer culture to last much longer than it would normally, and thus the displacement of that culture was not until at least the second wave of improved rice strains - and probably the third.

Further there were commentaries about the three Korean kindoms, and how the Japanese seemed to be mostly related to one of these three who historically mostly vanished in the first few centuries after the time of Christ.

[lepton]

Good point -- I've associated with quite a few Chinese,

I've noted that "Chinese" is a pretty broad term, appearance-wise.

[Cronos]

It seems to work. I mean, nobody's ever yet managed to stage any sort of a successful demographic coupe against the Japanese in their own land and they've apparently had 13,000 years to try it

Actually I think the present-day Japanese only came over apprx 2500 years ago, from Korea (I may be wrong)

[Cronos]

well, then you'd have to account for the fact that the S-E asians aren't Ainu, they are mostly Mongoloid with some Caucasian blood (courtesy migrations from Southern India).

However, there is the Tamil (South Indian) myth about the Dravidian peoples coming from an Island in South-East Asia that submerged around 7000 B.C. -- and the Tamil language has cousins that are found in coastal areas -- Brahui in Baluchistan (Western Pakistan / Eastern Iran), and supposedly, Harappan and Sumerian.

This is a point brought up by Blam before that I increasingly find to be true: it could be the source for the Ainu (some Dravidians moving east up to Japan) and accounts for the fact that India has two Caucasian branches (Aryan and Dravidian) with Dravidians being mostly in the Eastern coasts and up the Indus river and also for the fact that Sumerians seem quite distinct from their Semitic successors, the Akkadians / Amorites.

[Cronos]

well, most Europeans have Ancestors from Asia (well, a couple of millenia older) -- the most recent before the 1900s were the Gypsies from Western India, before them, the Mongols, Turks, Avars, Bulgars, etc. in the early Middle ages from Central Asia / the Far East, before them, the Huns from the same area accompanied by the Alans, the Scyths, the GErmans, the Slavs etc, before that, the Celts, Latins, Baltics etc. -- all Indo-Europeans/Aryans. Probably the only Europeans whose ancestors were there before 2000 B.C. would have been the Basques -- even the Magyars are probably from Northern Siberia / the URals

[Cronos]

Even the vowel heavy Indo-European tongues are an indication of a wandering nomadic herder sosciety where sounds had to travel far as they tended their moving flocks.

Interesting, thanks for this!

[Cronos]

Nor did our ancestoral features resemble the ones developed in Europe. Arrival in Europe also changed the physical make-up of these people

True -- you have the Iranis / Northern Indians who can look somewhat European (Freddie Mercury or Ben Kingsley for example)

[righttackle44]

"Study Says Americas Settled 15,000 Years Ago (Ainu/Jomon)"

This is always interesting to me. Many--most--American Indian children are born with the so-called mongolian spot around the end of their tail-bones. Many Asian children are born with the same kind of spot.

[MadManDan]

Ping for later.

[blam]

"However, there is the Tamil (South Indian) myth about the Dravidian peoples coming from an Island in South-East Asia that submerged around 7000 B.C. "

That could be Sundaland.

Oppenheimer said that the strait (forgot the name) there at Singapore opened (rising waters) in this period allowing these refugees to sail toward India, etc. for the first time.

[Styria]

Even the vowel heavy Indo-European tongues are an indication of a wandering nomadic herder sosciety where sounds had to travel far as they tended their moving flocks.

I don't buy it. They had sheep, but the vowels aren't an indication. Why on earth would they have the zero-grade vowel ablaut in that case? That doesn't carry far.

[blam]

"I wonder if there are any other people that carry swords or other weapons out in the open besides Ainus? I wonder why they carry swords around? They look like Samurai swords to me."

Good eye and good thinking. They are the Samurai!

[SunkenCiv]

[sinanju]

They sure as hell didn't like me. Being that I was half-asian only made things worse. Dad was a civilian at the time and we lived in kaknoki-zaka. There were some running battles with the local boys (who were not interested in making friends). One day Mom caught one of the boys who were throwing rocks at our windows. She gave him a lecture, then let him go; later that day the parents turned out to formally apologize (they hadn't exercised their authority previously) from then on, peace reigned...