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Hyphenated Japan Thesis-1.pdf (27.08 MB)

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Hyphenated Japan: Cross-examining the Self/Other dichotomy in Ainu-Japanese material culture

Shapiro, Jonathan Chira
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1494762526392067

Abstract Details

2017, BA, Oberlin College, Anthropology.
This is a historical ethnography that examines how shifts Japanese national identity and values of homogeneity have affected Japan’s minority Ainu population. I argue that the symbolic position of Ainu culture has historically been rearranged to suit prevailing ideas about Japanese nationality and culture without input from Ainu. Using theoretical understandings of Self-Other dichotomies, I examine the particular way these practices manifested in Meiji Japan to create modern Japanese national identity, and how these functioned both against the West and people colonized by Japan. From there, I look at how cultural nationalism was objectified as present from time immemorial in Japan through the installation of key parts of Japaneseness and Ainuness into symbolic objects (most notably food and the forms of food-getting) and using these symbols to retroactively label Ainu culture as an aspect of Japanese nationality. Finally, I look at how contemporary Ainu have subverted this practice using cultural objects to work against a “vanishing ethnicity” narrative and reject the idea that being Ainu is inaccessible in modern contexts.
Crystal Biruk (Advisor)
Baron L. Pineda (Advisor)
160 p.
Asian Studies; Cultural Anthropology; History; Native Studies
Ainu, Japanese, Hokkaido, Meiji, discrimination, colonialism, Indigenous studies, modernity, racism, material culture, post-colonial studies, Japanese history, nationalism, assimilation

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Shapiro, J. C. (2017). Hyphenated Japan: Cross-examining the Self/Other dichotomy in Ainu-Japanese material culture [Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1494762526392067

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Shapiro, Jonathan. Hyphenated Japan: Cross-examining the Self/Other dichotomy in Ainu-Japanese material culture. 2017. Oberlin College, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1494762526392067.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Shapiro, Jonathan. "Hyphenated Japan: Cross-examining the Self/Other dichotomy in Ainu-Japanese material culture." Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1494762526392067

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

oberlin1494762526392067
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© 2017, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Hyphenated Japan: Cross-examining the Self/Other dichotomy in Ainu-Japanese material culture by Jonathan Chira Shapiro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Oberlin College Honors Theses and OhioLINK.