Ainu

expand_more Description

The Ainu are a group of people in northern Japan who used to earn their living mainly by combining hunting, fishing, and plant gathering. Their traditional homeland was the northwest coast of southern Sakhalin Island, a region historically contested by Russia and Japan. At the end of World War II, this land became part of the USSR and the Japanese government relocated many Ainu families to the nearby Hokkaido. Over the years since then, the Ainu as a distinct group have almost disappeared.

Identifier

Region

• Asia

Subregion

• East Asia

Subsistence Type

• hunter-gatherers

Samples

• EA
• SCCS

Countries

• Japan

External Links

• Ainu (Binford Hunter-Gatherer) D-PLACE
• Ainu (Ethnographic Atlas) D-PLACE
• Ainu (Standard Cross-Cultural Sample) D-PLACE