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the socioeconomic status of the Ainu: the past in the present 1
Author(s) -
PENG FRED C. C.,
RICKETTS ROBERT,
IMAMURA NARIO
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1974.1.4.02a00080
Subject(s) - redistribution (election) , socioeconomic status , population , fishing , agriculture , geography , government (linguistics) , social organization , demographic economics , socioeconomics , ethnology , economic growth , sociology , economics , political science , demography , social science , archaeology , law , politics , linguistics , philosophy
This is a study of the effects of the economic policies of the Japanese government on Ainu social structure. These policies were designed for the long‐term development of Hokkaidō and the stabilization of its Ainu population. They included land redistribution and an emphasis on agriculture at the expense of hunting and fishing. However, land redistribution did not stabilize the Ainu population because farming was the traditional occupation of the women, not the men. When Ainu men were forced to give up their traditional hunting and fishing activities, they became seasonal migrant laborers instead of farmers. The result was a redistribution of the populations of traditional Ainu communities and some major changes in social structure. Thus the present social organization of the Ainu is the outcome of the interaction of internal and external socioeconomic factors over a long period of time.