Comparative Study of the Circum-polar Cultures

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Comparative study of arctic and sub-arctic cultures has been undertaken by a team of researchers in cultural anthropology, linguistics, history, ecology, etc. for the period of two years starting in 1991. Sixteen investigators in 1991 and fifteen investigators in 1992, including the head investigator, read papers in turn at four consective meetings at Sapporo, Nagoya and Abashiri. A substantial number of out research team also partipatipated in the 6th and 7th international symposia on northern peoples in Abashiri City as contributors, chairpersons and/or organizers. Many topics on the native cultures of Scandinavia, Siberia and North America were covered by us either at the regular meetings or at the symposia stated above. An emphasis was also placed upon the culture of the Ainu people in northern Japan ; some of the investigators read papers at a symposium on the Ainu language and culture organized by O.Miyaoka in November, 1991. In addition to our team members, specialists in other … More related fields, such as the one in physical anthropology, made valuable contributions to the accumulation of out knowledge on circum-polar peoples.The results of our research for the past two years are now being organized into the form of a final report of our team. It consists of ten papers, including three papers on the Ainu, two on the Northwest Coast Indians, one on Inuit and one on Sami (formerly known as Lapp), all of which fall into the category of cultural anthropology. Two other papers deal with the languages of Scandinavian and northeast Asian natives. Our final report is also supplemented by a contribution by our American colleague, W.M.Olson, who collaborated with the Okadas in studying Tlingit and Haida Indians in southeastern Alaska. while we missed to incorporate articles on Siberian ethnography in this volume, at least three papers by our team members were already publised in 1992, in the "Anthropology of the North-culture and ecology in the circum-polar area" edited by H.and A.Okada. The final report of out research team should go hand in hand with the book printed ten months ago. Taken together, we may safely say that our team contributed to the study of arctic and subarctic peoples and cultures in this country.Unpublished materials related to out research are collected and put into file either at Hokkaido University or at Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples for further use. Less