against diffusionism

19th February 2013 we had the first meet of our anthropological seminar after quite a long brake. twas devoted to diffusionism.

some days ago I again met some terrible expression of a wide spread diffusionism myth. a Japanese guy pon youtube insisted that Ainu borrowed bear rite from Siberia.

it's a great lol first of all cause taking into consideration the fact that Ainu had seen bears almost every day during a period over 10000 years before they saw any Siberian and sure it hardly can be imaged that Ainu could not elaborate bear rite by themselves and waited till coming of Siberian.
bear rite is one of the most elementary and fundamental practics and it was invented many times pon many places independently by all tribes who practised hunting as one of their main activity so it's just a highest degree of stupidity to think that some tribe borrowed it from from another. wide spread of bear rites among very different ethnicities covering a huge territory and great diversity of meanings of bear rite clearly shows us that it obviously was invented many times independently.

diffusionism is theory that states that all things all technologies all ideas were invented just once and then took place just their diffusion. twas one of old european anthropology idea and it has already gone in Europe while still is maintained in Japan cause Japanese anthropology is sometimes a true cargo cult: some Japanese anthropologists often uncritically and stricktly follow to some ideas which were already thrown in West and they think of themselves as true western people while really they are just a ridiculous parody.

of course I speak mostly of extremities of diffusionism which states that all stuff of culture was invented only once. of course there are many examples of diffusion of ideas things and technologies but we are to note that in all such cases spread items usually are pretty complicated/unique (Chinese writing system, guns, christianity and so on) and there are many items which are elementary enough to be invented many times in many places independently (boats, ceramics, bows and so on).

it should be always taken in mind that similar nature conditions usually form similar practics and also always should be paid a due attention to contexts first of all to the context of nature. I guess if all anthropologists pay due attention to context diffusionism will be immediately given up. just due attention to nature context can be very powerful medicine against diffusionism.

moreover here is a moment of ideology and geopoloictics: Japanese offi always try to present Ainu as a 'wild northern tribe' that's why they always speak of archaeological cultures of Japanese archipelago not as of technical complexes but as of real cultures and use also some myths of diffusionism such as myth of borrowing of bear rite from Siberia. the goal of this is clear: to distinguish artificially Ainu from their roots and ignore the role of Ainu component in Japanese history.
and a moment of dirty right wing scum geopolitical games.japanese right wing scum think so: 'if Ainu are 'northern wild tribe' and if they were subdued by Japanese then all 'Ainu lands' should be Japanese'. this idea is never pronounced publicly but it is widely thought.

Tresi Nonno anthropology seminar

having wondered how strong and how spread stereotypes and myths are I decided to renew my last year anthropological seminar on early Japanese history but with more attention to methodology.

the first meet is going to take place on February 19 at 6:45 AM SLT
pon Ainu Resort

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ever%20After/124/176/3023

(I hope it will become a good tradition and will take place every Tuesday)

feel free to connect me and send any notes

sincerely yours

Tresi Nonno