The Ainu of the Northwest Coast of Southern Sakhalin

by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney

A CASE STUDY, FROM THE REMOTE TIMES UNTIL THE MID 20TH CENTURY. A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THEIR TECHNIQUES OF HUNTING, GATHERING, AND ATTITUDES. WITH MAPS AND PHOTOS This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0881330922
• ISBN13: 9780881330922
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Waveland Press
• Length: 127 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Interesting data squeezed into a well-worn frame

Holt, Rinehart and Winston published this huge series of ethnographies over at least 15 years, between 1960 and 1975, perhaps later. They are ideal for students who want to get a basic idea of a particular group of people or for first-year students who need to get a feel for what ethnography is (or was). This book on the Ainu of a small region of Sakhalin island covers the same territory as the others---economic activities, daily life, the life cycle of an individual, kinship and marriage, the community, social rank, and finally, beliefs, rituals and world view (i.e. religion). Everything is presented in more or less severe description, with little chance for either anthropologist or the studied people to speak out. It is anthropology in a rather dry mode and certainly without much reference to any sort of theory whatsoever. I have used a number of books in this series. They are very good for what they are----just don't have very high hopes about what you will get. Other good ones I can recommend are Barnett's study of the Palauans, Friedl's study of a Greek village, and Beals' study of a South Indian village. They are out of date, but still useful for making students aware of what anthropology is (or used to be) about.The Ainu of the northwest coast of southern Sakhalin all left their homeland after the war and fled to Japan to avoid the Russian army. Thus, Ohnuki-Tierney's book is definitely a work of preservation, recording the ways of a culture that no longer exists. She approaches the people sympathetically, giving us a clear picture of their life style, without really revealing anyone's life. She also deals very well with the Ainu as a people, brushing aside all the mysticism and romantic nonsense once spread about "the lost Caucasian race of hairy Ainu" etc. I learned a lot about the possible origins of the Ainu as well as their relationship with the Chinese and Japanese in previous centuries. If a reader combines this book with Kayano Shigeru's "Our Land Was a Forest", a good picture of Ainu life in the 20th century can be acquired. I recommend this book with the caveat that it represents an earlier style of anthropology that is no longer in fashion. It can be useful nevertheless.