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The road from Ainu barbarian to Japanese primitive: A brief summary of Japanese-ainu relations in a historical perspective
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Godefroy, Noémi |
| Copyright Year | 2013 |
| Abstract | Edward Saïd, in his ground-breaking work Orientalism, underlines that to represent the “Other” is to manipulate him. This has been an instrument of submission towards Asia during the age of European expansion, but the use of such a process is not confined to European domination. For centuries, the relationship between Japan and its northern neighbors, the Ainu, is based on economical domination and dependency. In this regard, the Ainu’s foreignness, impurity and “barbaric appearance” their qualities as inferior “Others” are emphasized in descriptive texts or by the regular staging of such diplomatic practices as “barbarian audiences”, thus highlighting the Japanese cultural and territorial superiority. But from 1868, the construction of the Meiji nation-state requires the assimilation and acculturation of the Ainu people. As Japan undergoes what Fukuzawa Yukichi refers to as the “opening to civilization” (文明開化 bunmei kaika) by learning from the West, it also plays the role of the civilizer towards the Ainu. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://f.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/7292/files/2013/03/The-road-from-Ainu-barbarian-to-Japanese-primitive-_-Godefroy.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
