Peopling the Archipelago

1. Key features of social, political organization• Three civilizations or eras, from

20,000+ bp through 500 ce2. What sorts of evidence? Mainly objects3. What sorts of debates? An obsession

with origins• From where?• Singular vs. multiple sources?

Topics and themes:

Early Jōmon:

20,000 bp

Glaciers

Volcanoes

Jōmonpottery

Jōmon Period

• 20,000 BCE - 300 BCE• Hunters/gatherers• Stone tools• Pit dwellings• Apparently little

wealth disparity or social stratification

• Matriarchical society?

http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~KAIGUCCI/e_index.htm

Over 2500 such sites are known

Edward Sylvestor Morse

1838-1925

See: Christopher Benfey,The Great Wave

Yayoi Period • Name from Tokyo place

• 300 BCE - 300 CE• Settled

agriculturalists• More sophisticated

pottery• Wet rice agriculture• Use of metal tools,

weapons, bells• Connections to the

Asian mainland

Yayoi village, artist’s rendition, of ca. 2000 bp

Site of a Yayoi village

•Social class structure

•Varied village size

•Specialized production

Possibleroutesof entryfor Yayoiculture

• B and C:Most support

• Mixed withJomon

Start of consistent flow of culture across sea

Kofun Period

• 300 ce -645 ce• Giant Tombs• Wealth/status disparities

• Sign of early state formation• Rule over distant subjects

• Exact tax of tribute• Legitimacy (ideology)

Evidence:Tombs (kofun), circa 300 CE through 500sThese: Nintoku and Ritoku, early 400s

Timing

Haniwa: show up from 5th c. CE (400s)

Cultural inflow, 400s

• Haniwa• Writing• Better rice and metal technology• More complex political offices, ranks• How delivered?

– Invasion of horseriders (x)– “Japanese” (Wa) conquest and return (x)– Migrants, war refugees (o)

Who were the earliest people?• Multi-cultural “Japan:” from various

places• Replaces “singular” race or ethnicity

theories of “the Japanese”• Ironically, harks back to wartime

rhetoric of Japan as multi-ethnic empire

• Three eras: Jōmon, Yayoi, Tomb • Increasingly complex• Mixing, hybrid

• Evidence • Mainly in objects

• Debate: • Over origins, shifting consensus in

shifting present

Summary