"Some 55 scholars, mostly Japanese but with a considerable number from the US and Europe, write about the ethnicity, theories of origin, history, economies, art, religious beliefs, mythology, and other aspects of the culture of the Ainu, The indigenous people of Japan, now principally found in Hokkaido and smaller far northern islands. Hundreds of photographs and paintings, mostly in excellent quality color, show a wide variety of Ainu people, As well as clothing, jewelry, and various artifacts." – Choice "The most in-depth treatise available on Ainu prehistory, material culture, and ethnohistory." – Library Journal

First Published in 1993. This book is the outcome of a project called Intercultural Relations in Japan with Special Reference to the Integration of the Ainu. The author’s main concern is the phenomenon called Fourth World Populations. After having read a book entitled Aiona by the French linguist Pierre Naert, she decided to investigate further the Ainu people and their integration into the Japanese nation state.

This special issue of Public Archaeology journal explores indigenous involvement in archaeological the wide range of areas where archaeological activities have implicaitons for indigenous concerns. This publication addresses key concepts in the ongoing debate over access, classification and use of ancient materials. This publication includes contributions from a global mix of expert authors, combining archaeologists and anthropologists with researchers and respresentatives of indigenous cultures. Selected contributions stem from research seminars which took place near the end of the United Nations Decade for Indigenous People (1995-2004).

This is the story of the Ainu in what is today far Northern Japan, showing the ecological and cultural processes by which this people's political, economic, and cultural autonomy eroded as they became an ethnic minority in the modern Japanese state.

For more than a century, the study of hunting and gathering societies has been central to the development of both archaeology and anthropology as academic disciplines, and has also generated widespread public interest and debate. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers provides a comprehensive review of hunter-gatherer studies to date, including critical engagements with older debates, new theoretical perspectives, and renewed obligations for greater engagement between researchers and indigenous communities. Chapters provide in-depth archaeological, historical, and anthropological case-studies, and examine far-reaching questions about human social relations, attitudes to technology, ecology, and management of resources and the environment, as well as issues of diet, health, and gender relations - all central topics in hunter-gatherer research, but also themes that have great relevance for modern global society and its future challenges. The Handbook also provides a strategic vision for how the integration of new methods, approaches, and study regions can ensure that future research into the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers will continue to deliver penetrating insights into the factors that underlie all human diversity.