| Our Land Was A Forest: An Ainu Memoir Contributor(s): Selden, Mark (Author) |
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ISBN: 0813318807 ISBN-13: 9780813318806 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $63.64 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 1994 Annotation: An Ainu Memoir. This is an absorbing account of Ainu life written by an Ainu striving to preserve his people's cultural heritage and sense of nationhood. Unlike many accounts by outsiders, which impose predetermined socio-anthropological categories on indigenous cultures, Kayano Shigeru offers a living testimonial to the history, ethos, customs beliefs, hopes, and aspirations of a people whose way of life has been undermined by successive waves of invasion of their homeland by the Japanese. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Asia - Japan - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social - Social Science | Regional Studies |
| Dewey: 952.4 |
| LCCN: 93045707 |
| Lexile Measure: 1180 |
| Series: Transitions--Asia & the Pacific |
| Physical Information: 0.6" H x 5.4" W x 8.3" (0.50 lbs) 192 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Asian - Cultural Region - Japanese |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book is a beautiful and moving personal account of the Ainu, the native inhabitants of Hokkaidō, Japan's northern island, whose land, economy, and culture have been absorbed and destroyed in recent centuries by advancing Japanese. Based on the author's own experiences and on stories passed down from generation to generation, the book chronicles the disappearing world--and courageous rebirth--of this little-understood people. Kayano describes with disarming simplicity and frankness the personal conflicts he faced as a result of the tensions between a traditional and a modern society and his lifelong efforts to fortify a living Ainu culture. A master storyteller, he paints a vivid picture of the ecologically sensitive Ainu lifestyle, which revolved around bear hunting, fishing, farming, and woodcutting. Unlike the few existing ethnographies of the Ainu, this account is the first written by an insider intimately tied to his own culture yet familiar with the ways of outsiders. Speaking with a rare directness to the Ainu and universal human experience, this book will interest all readers concerned with the fate of indigenous peoples. |