The only type of drum widely distributed among peoples in the North Pacific area is a single membrane drum. In this sense the North Pacific area can be called a “single membrane area”. There are complications in the Bering Strait area, in terms not only of which part of the drum is beaten, but also of the direction from which it is beaten, that is, whether it is beaten from above or from below. On the basis of research data obtained at Gambell on St. Lawrence Island (1979), which is located between Siberia and Alaska and served as a hub of trade, this paper will make it　clear that the complicated usage of the drum was brought about by the intimate contact of different peoples that accompanied active exchange and trade between the continents.

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After the foundation of Soviet Union, an initial policy of the collective farm for indigenous people of Kamchatka from 1930s was to establish reindeer herding farms. This collectivism had both good and bad influences on the living conditions of the indigenous people. Then, most collective farms of Kamchatka were gradually reformed to state farms, and in the early 1990s, with the collapses of the Soviet system, its economic system changed from socialism to market economy. When collective farms and state farms were disorganized, most indigenous people lost their job. During such social and economic confusion, reindeer herding industry which was supported by subsidy of the government broke down. However, now, some of the reindeer herders are making an effort to reconstruct their reindeer herding. In this paper I would like to consider the perspective of reindeer herding industry in Kamchatka from the viewpoint of economic position by examining their historical situation.

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In August, 2004 Hiroshi Hoshino, Tetsuya Yamada and I organized a folklore expedition to the Khabarovsk district Nanai area villages named Troitskoe, Djari, Naihin, Daerga, Dada and Lidoga. The purpose of our expedition was collecting “ningman” (heroic epic tales and other animal tales = fabulat), myths, legends and mysterious stories (true tales = memorat). We aimed at listening to tales, which the speaker wished to tell us most of all. In fact, it often happened so that precious information for the study of folklore simply “jumped out” in course of our casual conversations. Quite an unexpected result as it is, virtually every informant related interesting stories about shamans to us, which leads towards further investigation of a close relationship between folktales and shamanism. We could not foresee either that it would be possible at all to hear tales related to Japan. As far as I can judge, the latter had been recorded for the first time ever, which will serve as a precious data for examining the relationship between the Japanese folklore and the Nanaian folklore. 　 One major factor which has resulted in that there are no longer any performers of nanaian heroic epics “ningman” relates to World War II. The fact that male performers are no longer alive and the resulting crisis of the heroic epos being on the verge of disappearance must also be classified as victims of war. Nowadays when elderly women capable of telling the “ningman”are still alive, we have to hurry to record them. Speaking of the fieldwork, we were fortunate to become acquainted with many remarkable people within a short period of time. It has become possible through the agency of Larisa Petrovna Passar, Director of the Museum of Regional Studies located in the village of Troitskoe. She generously helped us in all our endeavours; including taking care of home-stay premises as well as the moving by car arrangements.

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As has often been pointed out, the indigenous peoples in the north make wide use of plants in spite of limited vegetation which consists mainly of bushes, grasses, fem and lichen. In No.13 reindeer-herding brigade which is located in the northernmost part of the Severo-Evensk district, Magadan region, reindeer-herding Koryak make use of a number of plants for sustenance, housing, clothing, medicine, rituals, and amusement. The present paper aims to make an ethnobotanical description of plant use among the reindeer-herding Koryaks in No.13 brigade, based on linguistically exact descriptions of each Koryak plant name along with each plant's biologically exact identity.

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In 2001 Meiji University deposited Alaskan ethnological and archaeological materials in Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples. The ethnological materials are 113 pieces, and archaeological ones are 523 pieces. These were collected by the staff of Meiji University on the occasion of the Alaskan investigation in 1960. In this paper I report about artifacts collected by ethnological group at Shishmaref in North Alaska. There are spearpoints for bird and fish, harpoon heads, foreshafts, combs and so on. Though most of the artifacts do not have information of the origin, these are necessary for us to have a better understanding of the relations between Eskimo culture and environment in the arctic and sub-arctic area, the socio-cultural structure, and the process of culture change.

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This paper will present Dr. Hattori's records which show the situation of the Nivkh (Gilyak) language research in 1937-1943. Dr. Hattori Takeshi (1909-1991), a Nivkh(Gilyak) language linguist, traveled in Karafuto (Sakhalin) in Showa 12 (1937). Those days, the southern part of Sakhalin island from north latitude 50 degrees was the Japanese territory. The indigenous peoples as Nivkh, Uilta and others, except Ainu, mostly lived in Otasu of Shisuka (now Poronaisk) suburbs. Dr. Hattori went to Otasu and made a field work. Based on the data gathered in the travel, Dr. Hattori pursue the exact research on Nivkh (Gilyak) language with the support of the Nihon Gakujyutsu Shinko-kai in 1940-1943 In 1994, Dr. Hattori's collection of books, notebooks, voice tapes, microfilms, and photos was filed and stored in the Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples. The account of a travel had been filed to a Karafuto-related binder (reference number N-175). The reference numbers of draft of the Nivkh (Gilyak) language research are T544-l and T545-l.

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Translation of the middle part, one third of the original: Е.А.Крейнович ‘Собаководство гиляков и его отражение в религиозной идеологии’, in “Этнографя 4:29-54(1930). ”

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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