Commercial Goods and Ainu Indigeneity in Hokkaido, Japan
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When God Was a Keychain: Commercial Goods and Ainu Indigeneity in Hokkaido, Japan The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Eddy, Zoe A. 2019. When God Was a Keychain: Commercial Goods and Ainu Indigeneity in Hokkaido, Japan. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42029823 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA When God Was A Keychain: Commercial Goods and Ainu Indigeneity in Hokkaido, Japan a dissertation presented by Zoe Antoinette Eddy to The Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Anthropology Harvard University Cambridge, MA May 2019 © [2019] [Zoe Antoinette Eddy] All rights reserved. Zoe Antoinette Eloise L’Ecuyer Kingsland Eddy Dissertation Advisors: Theodore Bestor, Rowan Flad When God Was a Keychain: Commercial Goods and Ainu Indigeneity in Hokkaido, Japan This dissertation uses the case study of the Hokkaido Ainu and bear imagery to investigate the recursive relationship between non-Indigenous consumption of Indigeneity and Japanese national branding. I argue that, since the initial colonization of the northern Island now known as Hokkaido, non-Ainu populations have consumed Ainu Indigeneity through appropriation and commercial dispersal of Ainu material objects. Objects consumed run the gamut: academics have taken skeletons from Ainu graves to produce scholastic knowledge; Ainu gender identities have been consumed and used for non-Ainu amusement; Ainu music and performance has served as entertainment for non-Ainu. Within these examples, however, there is perhaps no example more powerful or tangible than the appropriation and commercialization of the “Ainu bear.” Throughout interactions between Ainu and non-Ainu, the Ainu bear has served as a focal point of cultural consumption: consumption of the symbolism and material objects connected to the bear, by Japanese, European, and North American individuals, has resulted in a complex colonization of Ainu culture. The Ainu bear image, along with Ainu identity, has been appropriated by the larger Japanese nation state. In part, this image has served to help Hokkaido establish a specific regional identity. This regional iii identity presents Hokkaido as a far-flung wilderness that the Japanese nation state has successfully occupied and tamed. There exists, in this regional identity of Hokkaido, a duality: Hokkaido serves as both an exotic wilderness and a claimed territory. The Ainu bear, and the history connected to its appropriation, have been central to the cultivation of this image. The Japanese appropriation of bear imagery have allowed for the formation of a uniquely Hokkaido regional identity, that, importantly, ties into the larger national narrative of Japan itself. iv Table of Contents List of Figures .............................................................................................................. vi Dedication ..................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgments......................................................................................................... x Glossary ...................................................................................................................... xiv Prologue ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Collage and Consumerism in Hokkaido Japan ........................................ 8 Chapter 2: Restructuring the Hokkaido Dreamscape ............................................. 49 Chapter 3: Colonizing Ainu Anthropology .............................................................. 101 Chapter 4: Gods and Mascots .................................................................................. 130 Chapter 5: Gods as Keychains ................................................................................ 200 Chapter 6: Failed Hoops and Feeling Real .............................................................. 265 Appendix I .................................................................................................................. 287 Appendix II ................................................................................................................. 305 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 318 v List of Figures Figure 0.1 ....................................................................................................................... 4 Figure 0.2 ....................................................................................................................... 6 Figure 1.1 ....................................................................................................................... 9 Figure 1.2 ..................................................................................................................... 11 Figure 1.3 ..................................................................................................................... 12 Figure 1.4 ..................................................................................................................... 13 Figure 1.5 ..................................................................................................................... 22 Figure 1.6 ..................................................................................................................... 39 Figure 2.1 ..................................................................................................................... 53 Figure 2.2 ..................................................................................................................... 59 Figure 2.3 ..................................................................................................................... 84 Figure 4.1 ................................................................................................................... 158 Figure 4.2 ................................................................................................................... 159 Figure 4.3 ................................................................................................................... 186 Figure 4.4 ................................................................................................................... 188 vi Figure 4.5 .................................................................................................................. 191 Figure 5.1 ................................................................................................................... 201 Figure 5.2 ................................................................................................................... 201 Figure 5.3 ................................................................................................................... 202 Figure 5.4 ................................................................................................................... 203 Figure 5.5 ................................................................................................................... 221 Figure 5.6 ................................................................................................................... 222 Figure 5.7 ................................................................................................................... 223 Figure 5.8 ................................................................................................................... 225 Figure 5.9 ................................................................................................................... 226 Figure 5.10 ................................................................................................................. 231 Figure 5.11 ................................................................................................................. 232 Figure 5.12 ................................................................................................................. 232 Figure 5.13 ................................................................................................................. 235 Figure 5.14 ................................................................................................................. 236 Figure 5.15 ................................................................................................................. 237 Figure 5.16 ................................................................................................................. 238 Figure 5.17 ................................................................................................................. 242 Figure 5.18 ................................................................................................................. 248 Figure 5.19 ................................................................................................................. 249 vii Figure 5.20 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