L etnicitat ainu al japó contemporanimuseus, parcs culturals i pobles reconstruïts

Resumen

This research focuses on the representation of Ainu traditional culture in open museums, cultural parks, and reconstructed villages in contemporary Japan. Its main objective is to explore how these places are contributing to the redefinition of Ainu culture through touristification and commodification practices. The thesis contends that, beyond the negative connotations associated to these practices, open museums, cultural parks, and reconstructed villages can operate as complex vehicles in which Ainu identity is continuously negotiated through the recreation and representation of its traditional culture. In this sense, the thesis reviews the historical accounts on the Ainu, the modern political awareness and cultural revitalization of their communities, and the reception of their culture in Europe, specifically, in Italy, through the historical consideration of its influence on art collecting, and its contemporary representation in the works of the Italian intellectual Fosco Maraini and his important role in the dissemination of Ainu culture beyond Japan. Musealization and touristification may indeed be part of a process of commodification of Ainu cultural traditions, one which can come across as problematic and quintessentially negative. However, this thesis argues that there is also a constructive side to this process by means of which, while unquestionably implying a form of compromise, traditional culture can be combined with more easily accessible contemporary elements and transformed into marketable goods for touristic purposes that preserve its existence. At the methodological level, the thesis applies the research tools of historical analysis and cultural studies, integrating the documentary analysis with some research techniques of social analysis, especially the interview.