Ainu Archaeology as Ethnohistory: Iron Technology among the Saru Ainu of Hokkaido, Japan, in the 17th Century

This book presents an archaeological challenge to explain the ethnohistory of the Ainu of Japan and reappraise the Ainu culture. This challenge is posed by the existence of iron-working hearths in excavated Ainu villages dated before 1667. The Ainu culture has hitherto been thought of as largely a hunting, fishing and gathering society. The archaeological evidence, however, suggests something more complex, and leads to the hypothesis that this labelling of the Ainu may be a historical, acad...