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, 20:29, 19 January 2018
*''Japanese'': 穢多 ''(eta)''
''Eta'' was one of several classes of outcastes in [[Edo period]] Japan. ''Eta'' lived in their own hamlets with their own headmen, separate from those of regular [[hyakusho|villagers]], and have been described as a "society outside society." In large cities such as [[Edo]] and [[Kyoto]], outcastes lived in separate neighborhoods (''[[buraku]]'') on the edges of the city. Most possessed this status as a result of hereditary professions which were considered (spiritually) unclean; this included leather workers, gravediggers, and others who worked with human or animal skins, meat, or bodies, as well as some categories of potters<ref>[[Timon Screech]], “Going to the Courtesans: Transit to the Pleasure District of Edo Japan.” In Martha Feldman and Bonnie Gordon (eds.), ''The Courtesan’s Arts: Cross-Cultural Perspectives'' (2006).</ref> and others who worked in dirty and dangerous positions. Roughly 2% of the early modern population of the archipelago were ''eta'' or some other sort of outcaste.<ref>Conrad Schirokauer, et al, ''A Brief History of Japanese Civilization'', Wadsworth Cengage (2013), 135.</ref>
In the [[Kanto|Kantô]] region, from [[1720]] onward, all ''eta'' were united in an association led by a figure called, in every generation, [[Danzaemon]].
The ''eta'' designation was abolished in [[1871]] along with, ostensibly, all official class distinctions. ''Eta'', like [[chonin|townspeople]], villagers, and samurai, were now to be all considered "imperial subjects," all alike and equal.<ref>Andrew Gordon, ''A Modern History of Japan'', Oxford University Press (2013), 65.</ref> However, in practice, former ''eta'', now known as ''[[burakumin]]'', continued to suffer considerable discrimination well into the 20th (and perhaps even the 21st) century.
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==References==
*Herman Ooms, ''Tokugawa Village Practice'', UC Press (1996), 6.
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[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Terminology]]