Peer 1

I stumbled upon an article called, A Tribe Dispossessed: How Japan Is Losing Its Ainu History. This is a tragic account of folk culture being lost. This indigenous tribe tried to fight for their culture against the demands of the rising popular culture of Japan only to end up with nothing.

Hokkaido is a northern island of japan and home to the Ainu people. The Ainu people are indigenous to the island and have about 300 years of culture and influence. Their origins are unclear but speculation suggests that they are a result of relations between the Satsumon tribe of Hokkaido and the Okhotsk tribe of what is now Russia. In the 13th century both cultured influenced each other to eventually create todays Ainu. Dave Afshar describes the historical conflict below,

During the Muromachi era (1336 – 1573), the Ainu frequently clashed with mainland Japan. Disputes between the two islands led to war, during which the Ainu leader was killed and many Ainu were captured and enslaved. The Ainu still controlled Hokkaido for most of the Edo era (1601 – 8168), though trade agreements and increased contact between natives and mainlanders caused them to become more dependent on the Japanese, resulting in added tension and conflicts between the two peoples. The rising tension led to a full-scale revolt against the Japanese in 1789 now known as the Menashi-Kunashir rebellion; the Ainu lost, and the Japanese gained full control of Hokkaido.

As a result, the Ainu were forced to deny their culture and assume the culture of the Japanese. In 1899 the Hokkaido Aborigine Protection Act was passed. This meant the Ainu would permit the Japanese government to the land they lived on as well as to “assist” the Ainu into complete assimilation with their culture. The Ainu culture was completely lost within forty years. Although the Act was no longer in effect after 1997, the Ainu were not recognized as an indigenous group until 2008.

Today the Ainu are still met with discrimination. The communities have various economic struggles such as poor schools, lack of gainful employment, and overall significantly lower quality of life. The worst part is the Ainu people became so assimilated to the Japanese culture that most citizens aren’t aware of their connection to the ancestry. In fact, there is an estimates 200,000 Ainu people living in Japan today but about only 25,000 are aware of their ancestor. Actually, I don’t know what’s worse, not knowing where I came from or knowing that I come from a culture that is completely lost.

Afshar, D. (2017, APRIL 4). A Tribe Dispossessed: How Japan Is Losing Its Ainu History. Retrieved from https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/a-tribe-dispossessed-how-japan-is-losing-its-ainu-history/

Rubenstein, J. M. (2017). The Cultural Landscape (Vol. Twelfth Edition). Oxford, Ohio: Pearson.

Peer 2

Option 2 – Of all the examples of cultural challenges and issues presented in either Chapter 4 or Chapter 5, which one do you find most interesting or important to study? Explain why you think it is such a compelling issue. Discuss at least 2 specific examples of how aspects of cultural geography are involved, based upon the terms and concepts presented in the textbook.

The issues I find very interesting to study are social media and internet restricting. The diffusion of social media and internet started in the United States but then rapidly spread to other developing countries. What I find interesting is that even though the United States had higher percentages initially for both social media and internet use (per user), that once they diffused to other countries, the share of US users actually declined. Although I can see in table 4-3, Changing Distribution and Diffusion of Facebook and Twitter, that users for both media platforms are increasing in the US, I do wonder if that will eventually decline as people grow weary of sharing everything with everyone? I know that I personally made the decision to restrict my own social media usage about 2 years ago because I felt I wasn’t “present” when I should be. My husband has recently done the same. We both still have accounts, but we are rarely on them. I suppose you could say that a cultural thing I remember as a child was to go through my grandparents’ and parents’ photo albums, and those have been passed down to us. I have made it a priority to actually print and put photos into an album for my children to have, because for the longest time I was only posting photos on social media. If Facebook is gone in 20 years (and when I’m eventually gone) my children wouldn’t have any photos if I didn’t make an album or if I only kept them on my computer.

I also found the restriction of internet content to be especially interesting. I was aware that there were countries that did this to their citizens, however I didn’t realize it was on such a large scale.

Rubenstein, J. M. (2017). The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography (12 ed.)Part 2