Hello!
How are you? Today let's look at Japan's own indigenous people (先住民族) - the Ainu.
Let's look at the picture above. It's a group of Ainu, taken in 1904. Do you know who the Ainu are? They are a group of Japan's indigenous people.
Here's a map of Japan showing the original area, plus the widest locations, of Ainu populations:
As you can see, at one time they lived from the northeastern part of the Tohoku, all of Hokkaido, and the way up through Sakhalin Island (what many older Japanese call Karafuto「樺太」) and even up through the Kuril Islands (千島列島).
But now they only live in Hokkaido. Their numbers are small, and they have married regular Japanese people enough so that they do not look so different. But they are proud of their culture and traditions.
Genetic testing shows that most Ainu belong to Y-haplogroup D-M55 (ハプログループD1b 「Y染色体」) , and have a higher frequency of Y-DNA haplogroup D1b than most Japanese.
What do you think are the origins of the Ainu? Are they a completely indigenous (先住民) people, or did they come from somewhere else? If so, where did they come from, and how did they get to Japan?
Here are two maps showing two ideas about where the Ainu might genetically come from:
Write out some notes about your ideas - most importantly, give some reasons why you think so in your notes. If you believe they came from elsewhere, draw a rough map - or find another map on the internet - of where you believe they came from.
Next week, we'll come in and present our ideas to each other with our notes, and any extra maps you might have found.
Take care! See you next time!
Let's look at the picture above. It's a group of Ainu, taken in 1904. Do you know who the Ainu are? They are a group of Japan's indigenous people.
Here's a map of Japan showing the original area, plus the widest locations, of Ainu populations:
As you can see, at one time they lived from the northeastern part of the Tohoku, all of Hokkaido, and the way up through Sakhalin Island (what many older Japanese call Karafuto「樺太」) and even up through the Kuril Islands (千島列島).
But now they only live in Hokkaido. Their numbers are small, and they have married regular Japanese people enough so that they do not look so different. But they are proud of their culture and traditions.
Genetic testing shows that most Ainu belong to Y-haplogroup D-M55 (ハプログループD1b 「Y染色体」) , and have a higher frequency of Y-DNA haplogroup D1b than most Japanese.
Homework
Since genetic testing shows that the Ainu have some characteristics that make them at least somewhat different from most Japanese, here's some small research: What do you think are the origins of the Ainu? Are they a completely indigenous (先住民) people, or did they come from somewhere else? If so, where did they come from, and how did they get to Japan?
Here are two maps showing two ideas about where the Ainu might genetically come from:
Next week, we'll come in and present our ideas to each other with our notes, and any extra maps you might have found.
Take care! See you next time!
Images: Top - by Official Photographic Company - Missouri History MuseumURL: http://images.mohistory.org/image/EC2888F4-26C5-258A-DF5F-9E6EBE7F704E/original.jpg Gallery: http://collections.mohistory.org/resource/143534, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61717410/Map - by Arnold Platon - This vector image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this: Japan on the globe (claimed) (Japan centered).svg (by TUBS). - Own work (Vectorization), based on this map, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25364093/Upper genetic map - by ABCEditer - Own work by reference to 崎谷満（2009）『DNA・考古・言語の学際研究が示す新・日本列島史 日本人集団・日本語の成立史』勉誠出版, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62921263/Lower genetic map - by Y-dna data file - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63590897
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