Peopling the Archipelago. 1.Key features of social, political organization Three civilizations or...
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Transcript of Peopling the Archipelago. 1.Key features of social, political organization Three civilizations or...
Peopling the Archipelago
1. Key features of social, political organization• Three civilizations or eras, from
20,000+ bp through 500 ce2. What sorts of evidence? Mainly objects3. What sorts of debates? An obsession
with origins• From where?• Singular vs. multiple sources?
Topics and themes:
Early Jōmon:
20,000 bp
Glaciers
Volcanoes
Jōmonpottery
Jōmon Period
• 20,000 BCE - 300 BCE• Hunters/gatherers• Stone tools• Pit dwellings• Apparently little
wealth disparity or social stratification
• Matriarchical society?
http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~KAIGUCCI/e_index.htm
Over 2500 such sites are known
Edward Sylvestor Morse
1838-1925
See: Christopher Benfey,The Great Wave
Yayoi Period • Name from Tokyo place
• 300 BCE - 300 CE• Settled
agriculturalists• More sophisticated
pottery• Wet rice agriculture• Use of metal tools,
weapons, bells• Connections to the
Asian mainland
Yayoi village, artist’s rendition, of ca. 2000 bp
Site of a Yayoi village
•Social class structure
•Varied village size
•Specialized production
Possibleroutesof entryfor Yayoiculture
• B and C:Most support
• Mixed withJomon
Start of consistent flow of culture across sea
Kofun Period
• 300 ce -645 ce• Giant Tombs• Wealth/status disparities
• Sign of early state formation• Rule over distant subjects
• Exact tax of tribute• Legitimacy (ideology)
Evidence:Tombs (kofun), circa 300 CE through 500sThese: Nintoku and Ritoku, early 400s
Timing
Haniwa: show up from 5th c. CE (400s)
Cultural inflow, 400s
• Haniwa• Writing• Better rice and metal technology• More complex political offices, ranks• How delivered?
– Invasion of horseriders (x)– “Japanese” (Wa) conquest and return (x)– Migrants, war refugees (o)
Who were the earliest people?• Multi-cultural “Japan:” from various
places• Replaces “singular” race or ethnicity
theories of “the Japanese”• Ironically, harks back to wartime
rhetoric of Japan as multi-ethnic empire
• Three eras: Jōmon, Yayoi, Tomb • Increasingly complex• Mixing, hybrid
• Evidence • Mainly in objects
• Debate: • Over origins, shifting consensus in
shifting present
Summary