Relationships between humans and nature reflected in myths : An ethno-religious study of East Asian folk cultures

本研究得出以下四个主要结果。首先，在以往研究积累的基础上，对构成渔猎世界观核心的“动物主人”概念进行了根本性的重新评估。其次，阿伊努人的动物主人已经从他们的神话叙述中重新考虑，并与北美和西伯利亚民族的相似之处进行了比较。第三，在更广泛的意义上，关于人与自然的关系的神话，如口头传统和关于星体的想法，自然灾害，如洪水，和砍伐耕作进行了调查。第四，沿着上述三点，重新审视神话学的理论和方法，并将其成果公之于众。

The present study yielded four major results that follow. First, the concept of master of animals, which forms the core of the hunting-fishing worldview, has been given a fundamental reassessment on the basis of accumulated preceding studies. Second, the master of animals of the Ainu has been reconsidered from their mythological narratives, and compared with parallels of North American and Siberian peoples. Third, myths concerning the relationships between humans and nature in a broader sense, such as oral traditions and ideas about astral bodies, natural catastrophe like flood, and swidden cultivation, have been investigated. Fourth, along with the above mentioned three points, theories and methodologies of mythology have been re-examined and its results have been made open to the public.