La chasse à la baleine chez les Aïnous et leurs traditions préhistoriques dans l’archipel du Japon

Abstract

The Ainu is an ethnic group native to Hokkaido in the north part of Japanese Archipelago. Their territory also previously extended to the island of Sakhalin and the Chishima Islands. This knowledge and experience, was maintained by the Ainu. It is certain that the traditional whale hunting of the Ainu followed the material culture of the Prehistory which it was a primitive style. The Ainu had a special ecological knowledge of the cetaceans and this included the establishment of some taboos on hunting certain species.

Keywords

• whaling
• Aïnou
• tradition
• Japan
• prehistory
• Hokkaidō