Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-05-14
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

|
Japanese race and culture are hybrids
derived from three major sources.
This is the conclusion of Carl Whiting
Bishop, Smithsonian Institution archie
ologist, who holds that basically, both
in race and the fundamentals of their
culture, the Japanese are most closely
akin to ancient Monaghan inhabitants
of the Asiatic coast lands during the new
stone age which persisted to about the
dawn of the Christian era.
These people invaded the Japanese
islands and slowly established their
position in the face of opposition from
the original inhabitants, the Ainu. The
latter are one of the earth's most
mysterious races. Fewer than 10000 of
them still are alive but the infiltration
of their blood is very marked, especially
among the Japanese higher classes.
The invaders probably were quite
closely akin to the existing peoples of
Indo-China, Mr.. Bishop believes. They
| bad built up an economic life based
| primarily on fishing and planting. Their
culture was characterized by descent in
| the female line, seasonal mating festi-
walls, and, at least in the ruling families,
by brother-and- sister marriage. They
| tatooed their bodies and blackened their
teeth. No domestic animals other than
the dog and fowl appear to have been
known. Probably their most conspicu-
Gus material advance was in the building
of large canoes, usually ornamented at
the bow with the carved head of a
crocodile or alligator. They were nature
WorShlpers. Possibly as result of the
matrilineal organization of society. the
principle Of reproduction and growth
received special veneration and goddesses
were particularly in evidence. Practi-
cally all these culture elements are
traceable in Japan, Mr. Bishop says.
Some OF them survive to this day
while others have disappeared rela-
lively recently. The "amphibious war
fare" which has been described recently
as Japanese invention, itself may be
credited to these ancestors.
In Japan proper they encountered the
Ainu, probably the first race to occupy
the islands. Regarding the origin of this
primitive people ethnologists still are
in the dark. Physically there Is no
connection between them and the gen.
eral mongoloid stock of yellow-brown
men. They sometimes have been called,
probably enormously although much de-
ponds on definition, an isolated race of
white men. In the light of all the
available evidence, Mr.. Bishop says, they
may be considered to represent an
extremely ancient, generalized human
type from which more than one of the
wavy-haired and heavily bearded races
of Europe and Southern Asia have been
specialized.
The contribution of the Ainu to the
development of Japanese culture and
character usually is overlooked but it
may be considered as quite significant,
Mr.. Bishop says. Their conquest was
not completed much before the 10th
century of the Christian era and even
in the latter part of the 18th century
they were making a bold but futile fight
foes clad in iron armor and equipped
with matchbox guns.
'As distinct people" says Mr.. Bishop,
"the Ainu have almost completely dis
appeared, with the exception of a few
thousands still living in the island of
Yezo. Nevertheless they form a very
large element in the racial composition
of the Japanese people to this day.
"As usual, in cases where crossing
has occurred between Mongoloid and
other races, the external physical char
acteristics of the former have tended
to be dominant, although apparently
this does not hold true to quite the
same extent regarding skeletal traits.
Traces of Ainu mixture are visible
throughout the country. Particularly
strong was this strain among the for
mer Samurai or knightly class, in large
part descended from the Ainu incorpo-
rated in the Japanese armies In the
eighth and ninth centuries. To this
inheritance it was that the naughty,
two-sworded man Of later times owed
his less Mongoloid features, heavier
beard and ruddier complexion, to say
nothing of his splendid fighting quail
ties.
1T would be difficult to exaggerate
the influence which the Ainu have ex-
erted over the historical development
of the Japanese Empire. To the long
centuries of warfare which their sub
jugation entailed were due the rise
of that hereditary warrior class and
system of military government with
out which Japan almost certainly would
have vegetated into feeble imitation of
China, without either the will or the
force to think and act for herself"
Super-imposed on this Ainu-neolithic
Mongoloid mixture, Mr.. Bishop points
out, was a higher type of civilization
which began to reach Japan about the
beginning of the Christian era, and
which was accompanied by certain
infusion of fresh blood, largely from
Korea. Some, however, came direct
from China.
The japanese first appear in written
history, Mr.. Bishop says, about the
close of the second century when a
long period of turmoil was ended by
the rise of a powerful queen over the
land of Wo-Western Japan-who by
her command of magic extended her
influence far and wide over the vari-
Gus tribes Thus was established the
nucleus of the Japanese nation.