Changes

==Ainu Society==

==Ainu Society==

[[File:Ainu-robes.jpg|right|thumb|320px|Ainu robes on display at the East-West Center Gallery in Honolulu]]

[[File:Ainu-robes.jpg|right|thumb|320px|Ainu robes (''[[attus]]'') on display at the East-West Center Gallery in Honolulu]]

From the 16th century or so (or perhaps earlier) onwards, Ainu society was organized into small communities called ''[[kotan]]''. There was no overall Ainu chief or king, or any sort of government administration or bureaucracy; the ''kotan'' was, more or less, the largest social (or political) entity in Ainu society. There is, however, a concept of an overall Ainu homeland, called ''Ainu moshir'', incorporating all the many Ainu lands; the geographical boundaries of this homeland have never been precisely identified, and are considered blurry even by the Ainu themselves.<ref>Mark Watson, "Tokyo Ainu and the Urban Indigenous Experience," in ann-elise lewallen, Mark Hudson, Mark Watson (eds.), ''Beyond Ainu Studies'', University of Hawaii Press (2015), 72.</ref>

From the 16th century or so (or perhaps earlier) onwards, Ainu society was organized into small communities called ''[[kotan]]''. There was no overall Ainu chief or king, or any sort of government administration or bureaucracy; the ''kotan'' was, more or less, the largest social (or political) entity in Ainu society. There is, however, a concept of an overall Ainu homeland, called ''Ainu moshir'', incorporating all the many Ainu lands; the geographical boundaries of this homeland have never been precisely identified, and are considered blurry even by the Ainu themselves.<ref>Mark Watson, "Tokyo Ainu and the Urban Indigenous Experience," in ann-elise lewallen, Mark Hudson, Mark Watson (eds.), ''Beyond Ainu Studies'', University of Hawaii Press (2015), 72.</ref>