Okinawans

Asiaintensive agriculturalists
Map
expand_more Description

The Okinawans inhabit the Ryukyu Archipelago, a chain of 146 islands, stretching in a 1200-kilometer arc from Kyushu, Japan to Taiwan. The islands to the south of make up Okinawa Prefecture and those to the north are part of Kagoshima Prefecture. The Ryukyuan languages and Japanese diverged about 1300 years ago. Young people speak only Japanese. Before 1960 about half of Okinawan families were farm families, but today it is a minority occupation. Fishing is a major occupation of coastal villages. The major commercial activities on Okinawa are food processing (sugar and pineapples), oil refining, and tourism.

Identifier
Region
  • Asia
Subregion
  • East Asia
Subsistence Type
  • intensive agriculturalists
Samples
Countries
  • Japan
External Links