Marking Ownership on Ainu Objects: Three Museum Collections in the United States

Abstract

Ainu ethnographic objects in U.S. museums exist in collections mediated by collectors during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Marks and modifications on these objects provide insight into Indigenous uses and meanings that were not always present in ethnographers' accounts. This is particularly important when considering trade items, because they encompass evidence of changes in meaning as they moved through differing cultural contexts. Trade items can be hard to find in collections that were made using the paradigm of salvage ethnography. However, Japanese historical records, Ainu poetry, and Ainu language all suggest that trade goods were an important part of Ainu religious practice. Using these sources, along with an examination of Ainu-inscribed marks of ownership, I compare collections made by Western collectors specifically for museums and reassemble their contents with a focus on Ainu understandings of the objects' meanings. [Ainu, Japan, collecting]

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