The Movement Of The Ainu People: Fill & Download for Free

Afrocentrism, like the name says, can not be a neutral or real historic or scientific movement. (Eurocentric is also a fringe movement, do not misunderstand me, but I as Tamil/Indian have heard strange and absurd claims from this “afrocentrists”)…A good example that afrocentists are often fanatic liers is this picture of a Ainu men:Here is the original recoloured version from Japan - Hokkaido:(the textbook, originally written in Japanese, states that Ainu have often lighter skin than Yamato(Japanese people).Here is the afrocentrist picture used by the “realhistorywww or blackhistory” internet page: (they claim the Ainu as black african…)…The afrocentrists claim every culture and people as “black” or “african”… it is such a honorless lie and shamefull.This is a Ainu men:(green or blue eyes)As Russian soldiers reached Sakhalin and the Kuril islands, they meet the Ainu people. Russians described them as “a kind of European or Middle Eastern people”. They said some look like black haired Russians, others like Persians or Turkmens.Here a pure Ainu men from Takochi province (today south-eastern Hokkaido):another pure Ainu:and so on…This is only one example of the many (insane) lies spreaded by afrocentrists.It is mostly a pure pseudohistorical and fringe movement. Afrocentrism is a crime against the many cultures of this earth.

The short answer:There isn't a majority in either area that wants to be independent.A longer answer:These are two very different cases, and they can't be answered in one breath. Let's look at the Ainu first. Their situation is more closely analogous to that of Native Americans in the USA, and the reasons Japan isn't giving them Hokkaido could perhaps be compared to some extent with the reasons the US isn't giving Alaska to the Inuit or New Mexico to the Apaches, Navajos, etc.At the same time, there are important differences. Because they have been discriminated against over the centuries, and because the official policy until recently was one of assimilation, it is not easy to say who exactly is or is not an Ainu. The Ainu language cannot be used as a cultural marker, because it is all but dead, with only a dozen or so surviving speakers, all in their sixties or older.Officially, there are about 25,000 ethnic Ainu, but there are probably about 200,000 people in Japan with some Ainu blood, many of whom do not differ significantly from other Japanese people in their customs and lifestyle. The total population of Hokkaido at the moment is about 5.5 million people, so by any measure the percentage of Ainu is much smaller than the percentage of Inuit in Alaska.Another issue could be that the Ainu were not always restricted to Hokkaido, and once inhabited much of the main island of Japan.I'm not very well up on the legal situation, but I understand that about half of the land in Hokkaido does not officially belong to anyone, and it would probably be through a process of establishing control of this land (similarly to the Australian Native Title Legislation) that the Ainu would be able to strengthen their position.At the present time, while there is an incipient movement towards some kind of independence for Hokkaido, I don't think even its proponents see it as an imminent event, and I don't think anyone has a very clear idea of what an independent Hokkaido would look like. I hope that more young people will start to identify with their Ainu roots, and if Ainu culture regains sufficient strength perhaps at some stage the idea of an independent or autonomous Hokkaido, or perhaps an Ainu homeland within Hokkaido, will begin to seem plausible. But don't hold your breath!Okinawa is a very different kettle of fish. Whereas only a small percentage of the inhabitants of Hokkaido are Ainu, most of the inhabitants of the Okinawa island group are Okinawans. Apparently, about 40% of the Okinawan people see themselves as Okinawans, rather than as Japanese, while some 20% consider themselves Japanese, and about 35% consider themselves to be both (in much the same way as, say, a Californian is also an American).Before being part of Japan, the Okinawan islands were called the Ryukyu Kingdom. Although not part of China, they paid tribute to China and were in close relationship to it. Linguistically, it has two languages (though they are not officially recognized as separate languages in Japan) and a number of dialects. Culturally, they are clearly different from Japan.One can see much more clearly in the case of Okinawa how the area could be independent; the majority of its inhabitants come from a culture that is different from the rest of Japan. The situation is closer to the relationship between different parts of the United Kingdom, or to Catalonia or the Basque country in Spain.Okinawa is the poorest area of Japan. However, even being the poorest prefecture in one of the richest countries of the world is probably better than being cut adrift and left to its own devices. Surveys regularly show about 20% support for independence from Japan, and over 60% in opposition. The American bases in Okinawa are probably one of the main gripes Okinawan people have against Japan, but even they have not provoked feelings to run high enough for a majority to seek independence.Just for fun, here's a video of me hanging out & making music with a bunch of Okinawan friends in Tokyo:For the record, I don't remember any of them ever talking about independence for Okinawa.

The Japanese peoples origin is very interesting. I will write a rather long answer about the modern Japanese, their ancestors and the Japonic language family (also known as Ryukyuan-Japanese) as well as their culture.The Japanese people (also known as Yamato people) are direct descedants of the ancient Yayoi people and southern Jomon, which spoke a form of proto-Japonic.One study published in the Cambridge University Press in 2020 suggests that the Jōmon people were rather heterogeneous, and that there were several migrations of various peoples into Jomon period Japan. Japanese, especially the Yamato people, which make up about 98,5% of the total population of Japan, are genetically indistinguishable from other East Asians. Another research published in 2020 found the Japanese population to be overlapped with northern Han.The most well-regarded theory is that present-day Yamato Japanese are direct descedants the Japonic speaking Yayoi rice-agriculturalists and “southern Jomon tribes”. The modern Japanese (Yamato) are very closely related to other modern East Asians, particularly Koreans and Chinese. Genealogical research has indicated extremely similar genetic profiles between these three groups.The reference population for the Japanese (Yamato) used in Geno 2.0 Next Generation is 89% East Asia, 4% Siberian/Turco-Mongol, and 7% Austronesian, making Japanese ~100% East-Eurasian.Here the average “East-Eurasian” or simply East Asian (historically known as “Mongoloid race”) ancestry based on autosomal DNA and full genome analysis:East-Eurasian (or simply East Asian-related/Mongoloid) is one of the three human genetic groups/clusters. Rowold et al. 2020 found that East-Eurasians (represented in the study by East and Southeast Asians) “were most distant to both West-Eurasians and Sub-Saharan Africans and formed a completely separate genetic cluster.”Genetic research indicates that populations related to modern East Asians existed as distinct genetic group already during early human times (see Tianyuan man) and likely much earlier (per Yuan et al. 2019 and Chen 2020). Significant geneflow from East Asia and eastern Siberia into parts of Europe were carried out through multiple migrations of East-Eurasian hunter gatherers and nomads. A 2020 genetic study about Southeast Asian populations, such as the Javanese, by Liu et al. 2020, found that mostly all Southeast Asians are closely related to East Asians and have mostly "East Asian-related" ancestry. The isolated Andamanese (Onge) tribes were found to consist of two distinct components, one distinct indigenous “Oceanic component” at 55% and one East Asian-related component at 45% (Fig.8.C), disproving the long held hypothese of complete isolation of the Andamanese peoples. Another study by Chaubey et al. 2015 estimated 32% East Asian ancestry among the Andamanese (Onge).Fumihiko Takeuchi, Tomohiro Katsuya, Ryosuke Kimura and Norihiro Kato in 2017 compared three Japanese groups, “Hondu”, “Ryukyu” and Ainu to 26 other Asian populations. It was found that “Hondu” and “Ryukyu” clustered together and are nearly indistinguishable from Han-Chinese and Koreans. The Ainu were diverse and clustered either with Northeast Asians, Japanese (“Hondu”), Siberians, or at a rather distinct position, respectively.The Japanese cluster very closely to other East Asians and are nearly indistinguishable from them.Now about the diverse Jomon period people:See also:The Jomon period people were heterogenous and consisted of several distinct ethnic groups. Osamu Kondo et al. 2017 summarized that we can basically splitt the Jomon period population into “southern Jomon” of Kyushu, Shikoku and Southwestern Honshu, and “northern Jomon” of Hokkaido and Tohoku. “Southern Jomon” were mostly similar to contemporary East Asians. However there existed a gradual cline from North to South, suggesting geneflow between Honshu and Hokkaido.Excerpt from Watanabe et al. 2021:The genetic relationship between Jōmon samples and other Asian populations revealed further heterogeneity among the Jōmon samples. In contrast to a previous study (McColl/Wang 2018), which suggested partially shared ancestry between Ikawazu Jōmon sample (IK002) and Andamanese Onge, the new results did not find strong evidence for a partially shared ancestry, but rather geneflow from an East Asian-related population, basal to East and Northeast Asians, into both the Jōmon period people and the Andamanese Onge respectively. Additionally, the results do not find evidence for a noteworthy relation between coastal East Asians and Jōmon, or a hypothetical coastal migration route. Contrary, the majority of Jōmon samples appear closer to Inland and East Asian Highlanders, such as Tibetans, Tujia and Miao people. The genetic evidence suggests that an East Asian source population near the Himalayan mountain range, basal to East and Northeast Asians, contributed high amounts of ancestry to the Jōmon period people, and less to ancient Southeast Asians. The authors concluded that this points to an inland migration through southern or central China towards Japan, rather than a coastal route. Another ancestry component seem to have arrived from Siberia towards Japan and was more common in the northern Jōmon of Hokkaido and Tohoku. The seven Jōmon samples were generally closer to modern East and Northeast Asians as well as Central Asians (Xibo) and rather distant from ancient and modern Southeast Asians (Fig.5).Southern Jomon people of Kyushu, Shikoku and (southwestern) Honshu, which got assimilated into the Yayoi, looked mostly like that, according to anthropologic and genetic data:The majority of Jomon people looked quite similar to East Asians. Per the new results of Watanabe et al. 2021, we can conclude that the majority of Jomon people looked like these modern people (Tibetans, Tujia and Miao people, which also have medium frequency of hg D1) which share the highest amount of SNPs with the seven Jomon samples:This is also why Japanese people generally look typically East Asian. The fact that the Japanese also lack specific alleles associated with facial features, which are detected at a medium frequency in Ainu, supports the heterogenity of northern and southern Jomon. (More about that below.)While some mistake haplogroup with ancestry, lets make some facts clear. Haplogroups are not ancestry. Like blood-types, haplogroups are a small element within the total genome.The medium-high amount of haplogroup D (D1a2a1) in Japanese (~30%) is not a sign on Ainu-like admixture or the “real Jomon haplogroup”. It is a bit annoying to read fringe claims including us Ainu. At first, Jomon period haplogroups included C1, K, F and D1, secondly, a haplogroup does not make a people. D1 has greater diversity within southern Japan rather than northern Japan, suggesting that D1 expanded from south to north, and than underwent a positive bottleneck within historical Ainu people, which correspond to the historical migrations.It is suggeted that K and F was among the first haplogroups to arrive in Japan, followed by C1 and D1 as well as C2. D1 is not the original Ainu lineage, but seem to represent a male-centric bottleneck event during the formation of Ainu people. Maternal lineages of Ainu are however different from Japanese.Haplogroup D can actually be mostly linked to ancient East Asian Highlanders, which seem to have had geneflow into coastal southern East Asia, as well as to Japan and ancient Southeast Asia prior to the expansion of East Asian lowland farmers. East Asian Highlanders (associated with haplogroup D1) are closely related to East Asian lowland farmers (associated with haplogroup O2/O3), however, they from a divergent sister branch to them, descending from an ancestral East Asian source population about 40,000 years ago. Northeast Asian pastoralists are associated with haplogroup C2 and also closely related to both East Asian Highlanders and East Asian low land farmers.This is evident through the distribution of haplogroup D expanding from an area between Tibet and the Altai mountain. Haplogroups do not say much about ancestry. Only autosomal DNA and full genome analysis can say something about total ancestry and genetic relation.C1 is associated with paleolithic East Asian hunter gatherers, while K and F are similarly associated with various East-Eurasian hunter gatherers, which expanded mostly in Southeast Asia (with P1 moving into Siberia, towards Europe (R)).See also: “Out-of-Eurasia”, the reversal of human phylogeny?Here the haplogroup migration within East Asia:The Ainu are not an Japonic ethinc group, but an “Ainuic” speaking ethnic group. They are known for their different apperance in the West. However, the majority of Ainu has/had an rather typical Siberian/Northeast look. The reason why some Ainu groups have a rather unusual, European-like look, is that they possess some DNA alleles associated with facial features. Jinam et al. 2015 found that this DNA allele is likely the reason why some Ainu have a “Caucasian apperance”. The DNA allele is frequently found in Europeans/Middle Easterners. It is not known how and when this allele arrived into Japan, but it probably entered Japan during the Jomon period from Siberia. The allele is absent in southern Jomon, at least it is not detected in modern Japanese.About Jomon people from various regions of Japan from Watanabe et al. 2021:As previous morphological studies, such as Kondo et al. 2017, the genetic data confirmed that the Jōmon period people were heterogeneous and differed from each other depending on the region. A North-to-South cline was detected, with the southern Jōmon of Kyushu, Shikoku and southwestern Honshu being closer to contemporary East Asian people, while the northern Jōmon of Hokkaido and Tohoku being more distant from East Asians. SNP data revealed that southern Jōmon samples had largely SNP haplotypes associated with continental East Asians and East Asian phenotypes, while northern Jōmon had partially distinct SNP haplotypes, including alleles for facial features absent in East Asians and southern Jōmon. Hokkaido Jōmon samples were found to have 47,6% alleles of ABCC11 gene and 68,9% alleles of EDAR gene, common in continental East Asians and southern Jōmon. The study results confirmed the "dual-structure theory" regarding the origin of modern Japanese, but found that noteworthy amount of East Asian associated alleles were already present within the Jōmon period people prior to the migration of continental East Asians during the Yayoi period. The authors stated that this is the first comprehensive genetic evidence for heterogeneity among the Jōmon period population of Japan.The majority of Ainu had always a rather Siberian like look, rather than the hyped “European look”. It is kind of disrespectfull to see mostly westerners, but also some Asians which think real Ainu look only European and today Ainu are not true Ainu. There are Ainu tribes which look mostly Northeast Asian/Siberian and others which looked somewhat European like, depending on their genetic makeup. We Ainu formed from the merging of Okhotsk and Satsumon tribes, local Hokkaido Jomon. See my answer for more information about my people: Who are the Ainu?Now about the Yayoi agriculturalists:(Early Yayoi-Japanese in traditional clothing)The most well-regarded theory is that present-day Yamato Japanese are predominantly descedants the Japonic speaking Yayoi people. They replaced and assimilated the southern Jōmon people to form the modern Japanese people.The Yayoi people and their language, proto-Japonic, is now generally believed to have originated in southern or eastern China. (Note however that they were not descendants of modern Han-Chinese.) Another proposal suggests the Shandong penisula as homeland, rather than southern/eastern China. From there the proto-Japonic Yayoi people migrated into the Korean peninsula in 1500 BC with the spread of wet rice cultivation. However some, such as Chaubey and van Driem (2020), suggest that the southern Jomon spoke Japonic already before the Yayoi migration. This is also supported by several Japanese linguists, but is controversial. The data of Watanabe et al. 2021, may support a link between southern Jomon and Japonic, however more linguistic data is needed.We see that one of the suggested origin places for Japonic languages correspond to both the possible homeland of the Yayoi and of the majority of Jomon (southern Jomon) in central China or near the Tibetan Plateu/Himalayans. The mainstream view is that Japonic arrived with the Yayoi agriculturalists, but the new data of Watanabe et al. 2021 may also give weight to a pre-Yayoi Japonic Jomon lineage as proposed by Chaubey and van Driem 2020.The claim that the Yayoi are descendants of modern ethnic Koreans is obsolete and is not supported by modern scholars anymore. Rather there is much evidence that there is a notable Yayoi ancestry component in modern Koreans. This is because Japonic speakers (known as Peninsular Japonic) were present in the penisula during the Mumun period. The proto-Koreans lived during this time in modern day Manchuria and started to migrate into the Penisula later (in 600 to 300 BC), causing the large scale Yayoi migration into Japan.There is much evidence for a Japonic substrate in the ancient languages of Baekje, Tamna and Silla. Some Japonic words were also found in the Goguryeo language. Gaya is suggested to have been Japonic speaking and is the origin of the Mimana storyline.Leading linguists, such as Vovin, Janhunen and Whitman suggest that Baekje was predominantly Japonic-speaking until it was koreanized by the arriving proto-Koreans.Similarly a genetic and linguistic study by Lee and Hasegawa, using a bayesian phylogenetic analysis, concluded that the Yayoi people were farmers and originated in eastern China before they migrated to the Korean Peninsula and Japan.Several studies in 2019 and 2020 found also evidence for language contact between Japonic and Turkic, Tungusic, Mongolic and Koreanic, around the Liao river system in Northeast China (Xinglongwa culture 4500BC). This Transeurasian (formerly known as Altaic) linguistic and cultural area is also linked to the later expansion of East Asian ancestry into Central Asia (starting at 2200BC) and the following expansion of Turkic peoples and the turkification of Central Asia. That means Transeurasian/Altaic is not a genealogical unit but an areal family through linguistic contact. (Para-) Austronesian influence was also detected in this region and can either be linked to Japonic itself or an own Austronesian group.The language family associated with both Mumun and Yayoi culture is generally Japonic.Proto-Koreans lived during this time in a region of Manchuria and were not present in the southern Peninsula. Proto-Koreanic arrived later from Manchuria to the Korean peninsula at around 300 BC and caused the Yayoi migration into Japan. The proto-Koreans later coexist with the remaining descendants of the Japonic Mumun farmers and assimilated them slowly.→ Following this event, the Yayoi migrated into the Japanese archipelago and replaced/assimilated the diverse Jōmon tribes.So we know now that the Yayoi people dominated the southern Korean Peninsula before the Koreans. The ancient Jin state in southern Korea is suggested to be of Japonic (Peninsular Japanese) origin and was slowly assimilated by early Koreans, which were military dominant and already ruled the norther part of the Peninsula.After the migration of proto-Koreans from Manchuria, the Yayoi people started to resettle in, and dominate Japan, merging with the “Southern Jomon”.Now about the early Japanese, specifically the Yamato Japanese, which became dominant:After the merging of Yayoi and southern Jomon, the early Japanese started to expand rapidly and replaced/assimilated the various remaining Jomon tribes. Hokkaido and Tohoku Jomon tribes were met with hostility and declared as “savage barbarians”. From the many Japanese clans, the Yamato clan became most powerfull and dominated this area completely:to this:Conclusion:The Japanese people are predominantly descendants of the Yayoi people (and southern Jomon). Modern Japanese (Yamato) make up 98,5% of the total population of Japan. As the Jomon period ancestry is heterogenous, the amount of Jomon ancestry vary, depening on which sample is used for comparison, and thus Gakuhari et al. 2020 estimated only 3,3% non-Yayoi (East Asian) ancestry.The ancestors of the Japanese, were also present on the southern part of the Korean Peninsula before the proto-Koreans arrived from Manchuria. (See “Peninsular Japonic”.)Recent genetic studies concluded that: “Japanese people are genetically very closely related to other East Asian people.”Now some more interesting facts…About the Japonic language family and its possible external relations:Today it is generally accepted that the Japanese language belongs to the Japonic family. The Japonic family includes this languages:Japanese languageRyukyuan languagesNorthern RyukyuanSouthern RyukyuanHachijo languagePeninsular Japonic (extinct, formerly spoken on the today Korean Peninsula)other extinct branches possibly spoken in China (ancient Wu language ?)While it is generally agreed that Japonic forms its own linguistic family and is one of the world's primary language families, some external relation theories exist.Here a list of proposed external relations:Korean (Koreo-Japonic): controversial/often rejected; confirmed intense language contact on the Peninsula and in Manchuria before the Yayoi migration into Japan.Ainuic (Ainu-Japanese): generally rejected, Ainu is either a language isolate or related to ancient North Asian or Native American languages.Altaic/Transeurasian theory: generally rejected; confirmed contact in Northeast Asia (Liao river system and language diffusion). Some argue that Japonic formed as hybrid language between Altaic and Austronesian.Austronesian/Kra-Dai theory: generally rejected; Some argue that Japonic formed as hybrid language between Altaic and Austronesian.Dravidian theory: obsolete/generally rejectedAustroasiatic theory: unlikely/obsoleteTibeto-Burmese: a rather unknown hypothese, suggesting a link between Tibeto-Burmese and Japonic, but rejects the Sino-Tibetan family. It is controversial and viewd as fringe.We see that the theories regarding an external relation are either rejected or likely because of language contact. This means Japonic is one of the major language families of the world. A “Transeurasian” origin in Northeast Asia is proposed, together with Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic and Koreanic, however the inclusion of Japonic remains controversial and is often rejected as fringe, even by proponents of Transeurasian.But I want to mention a very interesting view from Larish et al. 2006. He proposed the “Proto-Asian hypothesis”, which argues for a relation between languages of Southeast and East Asia. Japanese is grouped together with Korean as one group of the descendants of Proto-Asian. The proposal further includes the Austronesian, Austroasiatic, Kra-Dai, Hmong-Mien and Sino-Tibetan languages. (Possibly even languages formerly united as Altaic and Uralic.)→But this is very controversial and unlikely to be demonstrated.Culture and architecture:The architecture and culture of modern Japanese is directly linked to the early Yamato people. Later there was additionally Han-Chinese influence from Tang China. There is continuity between Kyushu Jomon and Kyushu Yayoi culture, which gave rise to the proto-Japanese culture.While Japanese culture has many similarities with other East (and also Southeast) Asian cultures, it is unique and has independent Japanese innovations, achievements and distinct character.Here some Japanese pre-Chinese architecture:(Hōryū-ji is widely known to be the oldest wooden architecture existing in the world. While today it is distinctive Japanese, the styles are based on the fusion of Yayoi and Tang China architecture and culture.)The early Japanese architecture is directly ancestral to modern Japanese architecture with additional Tang Chinese influence. Some also note distinctive Austronesian features in certain ancient Shinto shrines, but a connection is unproven. Nevertheless, certain features have undoubtedly Austronesian like touch.The early Japanese religion is also ancestral to modern Shintoism. (Nevertheless, Shintoism has also adopted some other traditions over the time and also shares similarities to other folk religions in East and Southeast Asia, but also Siberia or even Native American religions.)Japanese warriors and military:At first, the early Japanese used a military style similar to the ancient Chinese, but overtime they created their own specialized form of warrior and military style: Bushidō (武士道, "the way of warriors"). In the west known as Samurai.Modern Japanese culture is based on the proto-Japonic culture, with some influence from the (Tang-) Chinese culture.The Japanese have one of the most interesting cultures and history I know. Their determinism and belief in themselves and their culture made them to one of the most successful ethnic groups. (Althought sometimes to the suffering of others.) Respect.A good summary about the early history of Eastern-Eurasia and its population movements generally is this post (and or the cited studies): Recent developments regarding human genetics and human origin, with a special look onto East-Eurasian peoples and their history. (see the author for attribution). …Thank you for reading. :)