Posted on 01/17/2004 2:50:55 PM PST by 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.
I gather you go along with the policy of their ancient caste system of labor designation. Officially abolished with the samurai caste in the Meiji restoration, the caste system lives on. Not to mention the denigration of anyone who is even one fourteenth korean, etc.
Has DNA affirmed that or just skull features?
Nat Geographic Society's collaborators seem to have one of the largest . . . But their initial fee is $100 essentially and then additional male side research is another $164 or some such from the company holding the DNA and the mother's side another $70 or so.
Sorry, Don't know.
Thanks anyway.
Have a blessed weekend.
We have it all on FR.
Thanks.
I signed up and gave my sample a year or so ago. Trying to scrape together the coins for the added analysis.
This is the thread that just won't die! LOL
:'D
As do mexicans.
I don't know what data his interpertation is based on.
THANKS MUCH, Blam.
FWIW . . . and I don't know . . . maybe it's related to the prayer req I just read for Tonkin Gulf . . .
As I was starting to type this . . .
I just felt a very strong flood of feeling to strongly encourage you to take care of yourself and enjoy your loved ones to the max.
I don't know that it's a warning per se. It may well be merely an encouragement to do what you are likely already doing but to continue and protect such activities at whatever cost it takes.
But the intensity of the unbidden and unpremeditated feeling kind of shocked me. And the . . . flavors, character of it was also quite unusual in my experience . . . almost or quite like . . . how to put it . . . .
Kind of like . . . holding a beautiful newborn baby . . . such a great amount of love and warmth . . . and a very fierce feeling of protectiveness . . . and a feeling that it was more than an idle thought wandering through . . .
Therefore what, I don't know.
I usually hesitate to share such . . . especially if I don't know the person well. On top of that, rightly or wrongly, I have in my noggin that you are likely quite uncomfortable and maybe even hostile to such phenomena.
On the other hand, I put myself in the other person's shoes and try to do what I'd want done were I in the other position. So, many times I'll share even though I feel hesitant.
I guess in summary . . . I'll just pray that you have a richness of intimacy, fellowship, dialogue, fun, treasured experiences with those closest to you that surpasses anything heretofore. And, that such will continue for decades.
Guess I have nothing else to add.
Feel free to toss it all in the trash.
I just couldn't shake such intense floods of emotions and felt compelled to share them with you.
LUB,
My 59 year old sister had a heart attack this morning and is presently in the hospital in Indiana. She is in stable condition and my younger sister is with her. I've told no-one but FReeper LucyT about this. How were you able to sense 'something.' Our paths on FR seldom cross. Thanks.
You're blowing me away and bringing tears to my eyes.
It was just as I wrote above. Let me grope around and see if I can glean any other bits from that experience . . .
It was a very robust and intense feeling. That you either had or would have soon a very strong need or opportunity to express a lot of caring toward a close loved one or more.
And, there was some sort of image, in addition to a kind of intense love toward a newborn type of love intensity--there was a kind of holding--a kind of wrapping in love; a cradling . . . . a cherishing, . . . a caressing . . . a kind of very thick caring--almost a tangible love sort of transmitted person to person in some unusual way out of the depths of one or more hearts involved.
And I think I sensed (or maybe imagined) a bit of hesitancy of some kind and I wanted to scream--avoid the hesitancy--wade in fiercely, strongly, floodingly. But I was chicken to say any such thing in the earlier post.
No, I had not communicated with nor heard from anyone about you AT ALL. Was just reading the thread and felt to respond about prayers re the person the prayers or thread were about . . . and as I saw your name on the screen I had the flood of such stuff as above just flow through me and into my awareness in a kind of intense condensed form that took a lot of words and tuning in to tease out into a form words could be put to. Not sure I'm making sense but that's about as well as I can put it.
It was kind of like a flower bomb--like a small very dense bomb was placed within me and then the flower petals of it started to rapidly unfold and expand in a way that allowed some words to form with the flood of intense feelings. I was quite shocked and taken aback by the suddenness, the unbiddeness and unconnectedness of what I received to anything that had gone before. But I felt like I dare not hesitate to share it with you--for whatever it might be worth.
It felt like it was too important to share even if it risked your disapproval.
Along with the above was a strong feeling of wishing I could wrap you and your whole family in a huge fuzzy thick down flannel or fur comforter of liquid love. Doesn't quite put it very accurately but that's as close as I can come.
Then I was somewhat concerned that I would come across as warning about some impending disaster. But it didn't feel like that was quite right. So I ended up putting it as I did.
If I have more thoughts and feelings on it, I'll try and share them after my shower.
Please know that you are deeply cared for, blam. I don't know what all's involved. But I know that's true. Very true. And I know that God is somehow hovering around your family for a list of good purposes regardless of the tragedy, hazards, risks, dangers. I know He seeks to do good to more than one or two in your family out of all this. There's a sense of awe in my gut about it all.
LUB,
later,
AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!
Thanks to Quix for pinging me. My prayers are with you and your family, Blam, and your sister's complete recovery.
I lived on Hokkaido when I was in high school. The Ainu are very easy to spot and were very friendly towards Americans.
Adding my prayers, Blam, for your sister's complete healing.
Quix dear, sometimes He lets us see a bit farther than we imagined possible. You were meant to let Blam know, for our Lord guided you exactly there.
A sweet little girl in my daughter's class is from Nigeria. She is new to the U.S.. You wouldn't believe what a little seven year old has witnessed and escaped from. The Muslims there get off on slaughtering Christians. Eventually they fled to the U.S.. Others that don't have the means live from minute to minute.
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