●本書の特徴
The Ainu bear festival is part of the cult of bears, or more precisely, part of the respect paid to them, and is found extensively in the Northern Hemisphere. From the viewpoint of northern studies, it is positioned as an extension of circumpolar cultural studies, which were a product of attempts in the 19th and 20th centuries to connect reindeer hunters in the Upper Paleolithic of France and Arctic Eskimos. Although there have been separate descriptions of the event on the Ainu bear festival, no anthropological studies comparing, analyzing and integrating them have been carried out.
This book is based on a new anthropological paradigm known as shizenshi, the anthropology of nature and culture, which is a systematic description of human activities, as a theoretical framework to present and analyze the bear festival as an activity system with ecological, biological, social and religious aspects. The methodology used stems from the organization and analysis of various materials including old records, other historical documents and Ainu pictures from between the early 18th and early 20th centuries, ethnological documents centered on materials from between the 1920s and the 1950s, film recordings of the bear festival, photographic evidence, and the data based on author’s current fieldwork.
The book first analyzes Ainu bear hunting along with its symbolic meaning, and clarifies the Ainu’s behavioral strategy in hunting within a broad framework based on an understanding of the relationship between the ecology of the Ainu and their view of the world, then summarizes the forms and details of the Ainu bear festival in terms of the temporal sequence of related activities. It clarifies regional differences in the nature of the bear festival and the significance of the bear festival from an anthropological viewpoint, and discusses reciprocity and behavioral strategy in hunting, social ranking and egalitarianism, trade and wealth redistribution, and the festival along with the concept of original oneness. Then, it analyzes related historical variations, and the origins and dynamics of the bear festival are clarified. It also details and analyzes the current revival of the bear festival based on the results of related fieldwork. This book highlights the Ainu bear festival’s nature as a dynamic system that has helped to shape Ainu culture itself while responding to the ecology and society of each period, and outlines how the event has changed dynamically while contributing to the staging and revitalization of the Ainu world.
Chapter 1 Ainu Bear Hunting
1．Hunting techniques
2．Hunting activities and their symbolic significance
3．Behavioral strategies for hunting
Chapter 2 Ritual Processes of the Ainu Bear Festival
1．Preparation
2．Ritual slaughter of the bear cub
3．Grand feast
4．Sending-off of the spirit
5．Small feast
6．Confirmation
Chapter 3 Regional Differences in the Bear Festival
1．Regional differences in temporal sequence
2．Regional differences in altar composition
3．Regional differences in altar deities
4．Regional differences in cultural elements
Chapter 4 Significance of the Bear Festival
1．Reciprocity and behavioral strategies for hunting
2．Social ranking and egalitarianism
3．Trade and wealth redistribution
4．The bear festival and original oneness
Chapter 5 Historical Variations in the Bear Festival
1．Period 1: 1599-1798
2．Period 2: 1799-1821
3．Period 3: 1822-1867
4．Period 4: 1868-1912
5．Consideration of historical variations
Chapter 6 Origins and Dynamics of the Bear Festival
1．Phase 1: A ritual for sending off hunted wild bears
2．Phase 2: Commencement of bear cub rearing
3．Phase 3: Establishment of the bear festival
4．Phase 4: Cultural revival
Chapter 7 Revival of the Bear Festival
1．Background to the revival of the bear festival
2．Incentives for revival
3．Conflicts in revival
4．Resolution of conflicts
5．Practice of the bear festival
6．Succession of traditional culture and ethnic symbiosis
Chapter 8 Conclusion and Discussion
1．The dynamic system of the Ainu bear festival
2．The human mind and the human nature
Bibliography
Appendices
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Postscript
Index
●著者紹介
Takashi Irimoto（煎本 孝）
Takashi Irimoto , Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus at Hokkaido University and Chair of the Northern Studies Association of Japan.
His publications include Chipewyan Ecology: Group Structure and Caribou Hunting System (National Museum of Ethnology, 1981), The Eternal Cycle: Ecology, Worldview and Ritual of Reindeer Herders of Northern Kamchatka (National Museum of Ethnology, 2004), and his co-ed. books include Circumpolar Religion and Ecology (University of Tokyo Press, 1994), Circumpolar Animism and Shamanism (Hokkaido University Press, 1997), Circumpolar Ethnicity and Identity (National Museum of Ethnology, 2004), Continuity, Symbiosis, and the Mind in Traditional Cultures of Modern Societies (Hokkaido University Press, 2011).
He was awarded the16th Dr. Kyosuke Kindaichi Memorial Prize (1988) for his studies on a cultural anthropological analysis of historical data on the Ainu of the Saru River region: c.1300-1867 A.D. Bulletin of the Institute for the Study of North Eurasian Cultures, Hokkaido University. His book, Circumpolar Religion and Ecology, won an Award of the Publishers' Association for Cultural Exchange (PACE), Japan (1994). Then, he received an Award for distinguished service from The Anthropological Society of Nippon (2013).
