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International Symposium “Prehistory, Language and Culture of Indigenous Societies in the North Pacific”

When:
2023年11月03日 @ 10:00 – 2023年11月05日 @ 17:00 Asia/Tokyo Timezone
2023-11-03T10:00:00+09:00
2023-11-05T17:00:00+09:00
Where:
National Museum of Ethnology, Seminar Room 4 (In-Person & Online)

Date November 3rd (Friday) – November 5th (Sunday), 2023 (Japan Time)
Location National Museum of Ethnology, Seminar Room 4 (In-Person & Online)
Presented by Inter-University Research Projects “Interdisciplinary Comparison of Historical Change, Current of State, and Future of Indigenous Societies along the North Pacific Rim: From a Perspective of Human History”(2020.10-2024.3)
Language English
Registration If you would like to participate in person or online, kindly contact me with your name, affiliation, and email address by noon on November 2nd (Thursday) at the following email address: inuit[at]minpaku.ac.jp.

Introduction

 Systematic North Pacific Rim Studies at the National Museum of Ethnology began with a joint research project related to the 2001 special exhibition “Sea Otter and Glass Beads.” The leader of this project was Kazuyoshi Ohtsuka, with the participation of Shiro Sasaki and Nobuhiro Kishigami, among others. This project not only organized the exhibition but also published the exhibition catalog “Sea Otters and Glass Beads” (National Museum of Ethnology ) and “Indigenous Trades and Arts and Crafts in the North Pacific” (Shibunkaku Publishers). The project’s main argument was that indigenous trade and fur trade between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples contributed to the revitalization of indigenous cultures.
 Subsequently, as part of the Jesup II Project led by Laurel Kendall and Igor Krupnik, Kazuyuki Tanimoto and Koichi Inoue held the international symposium “Raven’s Arch” in Sapporo, Hokkaido, in 2000. Starting from October 2002 until March 2025, they conducted a joint research project at the National Museum of Ethnology titled “The Jesup North Pacific Expedition (1902-2002) Revisited: Cultural Transformations of Indigenous Peoples in Far East Siberia and North America.” As a result of this research, they published “Raven’s Arch (1903-2002): The Jesup North Pacific Expedition Revisited” (Senri Ethnological Research Reports 82) in 2009.
 Building on this foundation, Nobuhiro Kishigami from the National Museum of Ethnology, in conjunction with esteemed scholars David Koester from the University of Alaska, Benedict Colombi from the University of Arizona, Thomas Thornton from Oxford University, and Ben Fitzhugh from Washington University, organized the international symposium “Comparative Studies of Indigenous Cultures around the North Pacific Rim: Focusing on Indigenous Rights and Marine Resource Utilization” in January 2014 at the museum. While certain challenges prevented the publication of the results in an English paper collection, some portions were documented in “Indigenous Cultures in the North Pacific Rim” (Senri Ethnological Reports 132), published in Japanese.
 Furthermore, Nobuhiro Kishigami later organized and conducted a joint research project at the National Museum of Ethnology, including “Interdisciplinary Comparative Studies on Changes, Current Situation, and Future of Indigenous Societies in the North Pacific Rim: From the Perspective of Human History” (October 2020 to March 2024) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) project “A Comparative Study of Emergence, Current Status, and Future of Indigenous Cultures in the Alaska and the Northwest Coast Regions of North America” (April 2019 to March 2024). As part of the research outcomes, a thematic exhibition titled “Screen Prints of Canada’s Northwest Coast Peoples” was organized, alongside an International Symposium “Prehistory, Language and Culture of Indigenous Societies in the North Pacific.”
 In this symposium, distinguished scholars Dr. A. King, an expert in Koryak culture, Dr. Thomas Thornton, a leading authority on Tlingit’s environmental knowledge and marine resource management, and Dr. Ben Fitzhugh, a renowned archaeologist specializing in the North Pacific region, have been invited as keynote speakers. They will present their latest research findings on indigenous cultures in the North Pacific region, fostering valuable discussions and insights. It is our fervent hope that this symposium will significantly contribute to the continued advancement of research in this field.
 Furthermore, as the organizer of this symposium, I, Nobuhiro Kishigami, am scheduled to retire from the National Museum of Ethnology at the end of March 2024. Hence, this symposium will mark my final international symposium organized and conducted at the museum. I wish to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all colleagues at the museum and researchers from other institutions who have collaborated on and supported my research endeavors throughout the years. Your contributions have been invaluable. Thank you very much.
 Finally this symposium is carried out as a research meeting of the National Museum of Ethnology’s 2023 joint research project “Interdisciplinary Comparative Studies on Changes, Current Situation, and Future of Indigenous Societies in the North Pacific Rim: From the Perspective of Human History” (N. Kishigami), with support by JSPSKAKENHI Grant Number JP19H00565 “A Comparative Study of Emergence, Current Status, and Future of Indigenous Cultures in the Alaska and the Northwest Coast Regions of North America” (2023, N. Kishigami). I thank the museum and JSPS for their financial supports.
 
Nobuhiro Kishigami
National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan

Program

International Symposium “Prehistory, Language and Culture of Indigenous Societies in the North Pacific”

Time: November 3 – 5, 2023
Place: The fourth Seminar Room, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan

November 3 (Friday)

Session 1
10:30~10:40 “Opening Speech”
Nobuhiro Kishigami (National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan)
10:40~11:40 (1) “Research Trends in Anthropological Studies of Indigenous Cultures and Societies in the North Pacific Rim”
Nobuhiro Kishigami (National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan)
10:40~12:10 Questions and Replies
Session 2
13:30~14:30 (Keynote Presentation)
(2) “Native Fisheries in the North Pacific: Pursuing Histories of Indigenous Stewardship”
Ben Fitzhugh (University of Washington, Seattle, USA)
14:40~15:40 (3) “Adaptation of Pleistocene Hunter-Gatherers to Large Rivers and the Background of Technological Innovation”
Hirofumi Kato (Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan)
15:50~16:50 (4) “The Interaction of Complex Hunter-Gatherer Societies with the Development of Seafaring Technology in the Late Pleistocene in the North Pacific Rim”
Kaoru Tezuka (Hokkai-Gakuen University, Sapporo, Japan)

November 4 (Saturday)

Session 3
10:00~11:00 Keynote Presentation
(5) The Social Production of Language Documentation: People, Places, and Processes
Alexander D. King (USA)
11:10~12:10 (6) “Difference of Lexical Borrowings in Tungusic from the Perspective of Areal Linguistics”
Baek Sangyub (Muroran Institute of Technology, Muroran, Japan)
Session 4
13:30~14:30 Keynote Presentation
(7) “Horticulture, Mariculture and Indigenous Cultivation Portfolios on the Northwest Coast of North America (Southeast Alaska)”
Thomas Thornton (National Academies, Washington DC, and University of Alaska, USA)
14:40~15:40 (8) “Considering the New Perspectives about Human Migration to the New World from Stone Tools”
Yu Hirasawa (Toua University, Shimonoseki, Japan)
15:50~16:50 Toshiaki Inoue
(9) “The Gwich’in Historical Relations with External Powers and Their Meaning of “Tradition”
Toshiaki Inoue (Josai International University, Togane, Japan)

November 5 (Sunday)

Session 5
10:00~11:00 (10) “Climate Change, Food Security and Wildfood Sharing in Alaska”
Hiroko Ikuta (Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan)
11:10~12:10 (11) “Alaska Native Corporation and Natural Resource Development”
Ryo Kubota (Oita University, Oita, Japan)
Lunch Break
13:30~14:30 (12) “Origin and Sacredness of “Prestige Goods” in Southwest Alaska: Hunting Hats of Unangan and Yup’ik Societies”
Hiroya Noguchi (Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples, Abashiri and Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan)
14:40~15:40 (13) “Social Change and Indigenous Art of Northwest Coast Peoples”
Nobuhiro Kishigami (National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan)
Session 6
15:50~16:50 General Discussion
16:50~17:00 Concluding Remarks