Third Edition Spring 2013 - Institute of East Asian Studies, UC ...

Does the formation of a global indigenous identity implythat the similarities shared by indigenous populations outweighthe significance, or even the existence, of any corresponding differences?As the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of IndigenousPeoples demonstrates, there is increasing power, in theform of international legal precedent, in conceiving of contemporaryindigenous populations as similar—as populations more alikethan different in terms of the rights to which they are entitled. Isuggest that this comparison derives its power to link distinct populationsfrom a framework of colonization. In other words, it is ofthe knowledge and mindset of a particular and relatively recentperiod world history, and a corresponding manner of dividing populationsalong the lines of colonized and colonizer, that producesthe framework for establishing this connection. Yet, the perceptionof indigenous populations as analogous has arguably provided abasis by which Ainu have gained significant rights and recognitionin the past decade.There is no ‘neutral’ formation of metaphoric understanding;metaphors are by definition highly contextualized modes ofperception. Detection is imperative, for as metaphors become increasinglyfamiliar, they shed their metaphoric encasement andbecome regarded as self-evident ‘fact.’ 1 If the connections forged bya metaphor appear obvious, this is because the metaphor has become“so woven into our cultural and linguistic system as to havelost its obviously metaphorical quality and to [instead] seem partof ‘nature.’” 2 Similarity is actively produced, not passively discovered,but in order to effectively create similarity, metaphors mustdiscard information that does not uphold the link they construct. 3These similarities emerge firmly bound to preexisting systems ofhierarchy. The very arbitration of what does and what does not getincluded suggests an underlying authority—a center, rather than aperiphery, about which these metaphors orbit.According to Max Black’s “interaction” theory, both compo-1 Nancy Leys Stepan, “Race and Gender: The Role of Analogy in Science” inThe “Racial” Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic Future, ed. Sandra Harding.(Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993), 359-376.2 Ibid., 368.3 Ibid., 368, citing Stanley Fish, 369.71 Valerie Blacknents of a metaphor are transformed by their interaction, and renderedmore alike. 4 Indigeneity, when understood as a metaphoricinteraction, implies stagnant and timeless human populations locatedin an exalted pre-colonized past that is forever beyond reclamation.Indigenous groups are symbolically bound to conceptionsof time and place, even long after land and other resource accesshas been systematically appropriated from them. A metaphoricunderpinning accounts for the ways in which indigenous identitiesare collectivized and condensed—impacting, in turn, how legalrights, and thus recognition, take shape.The question of whether Ainu are ‘more’ indigenous thanWajin has been long disputed in Japan—Ainu were not officiallyrecognized as an indigenous population by the Japanese governmentuntil 2008. To speak of Ainu and Japanese as discrete categoriessuggest that Ainu are not Japanese, and excludes those ofmixed heritage. Yet to call ‘ethnic’ Japanese ‘Wajin’ upholds theidea that there is an ethnically ‘pure’ form of Japanese identity. Togain legal and political leverage, indigenous populations, and thusindividuals, must fall neatly into contemporary national borders,and exist in the context of a nation-state. When an Ainu leaves Hokkaidofor Los Angeles, or for Tokyo for that matter, does this diminishthe source of power behind a collective indigenous identity? 5Should Ainu rights in Japan follow an international model, and besituated first and foremost in indigenous identity? How might perceptions,including self-perceptions, of indigenous groups be impactedby unexamined metaphoric relationships? The metaphorof indigeneity does not operate exclusively to the detriment of thepopulations it symbolically links. By examining the role of metaphorin constructing and reconstructing Ainu identities, and establishingthe relationship between these identities and Ainu history,science, law, and bodies, I seek to show the potency of metaphor inshaping, as opposed to merely reflecting, reality.4 Max Black, “More About Metaphor” in Metaphor and Thought, ed. AndrewOrtony. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 19-43.For a discussion of M. Black’s interactive theory metaphor in relation to the productionof scientific knowledge, see: Stepan, “Race and Gender: The Role of Analogy in Science,”359-376.5 Mark L. Watson, “Diasporic Indigeneity: Place and the Articulation of AinuIdentity in Tokyo, Japan,” Environment and Planning A42:2 (2010): 268-284.Ainu Indigeneity 72