Diversified rituals such as Bladder Feast and Whale Ceremony have been observed in traditional communities of Alaskan Eskimo. Among them Messenger Feast is distinguished itself from common trading markets where people merely gather to contribute their share in the respect to that the whole deed of trading is conducted within the framework of a traditional ritual. Employing information gathered on-site studies and documentary records, the current paper is to testify that in the occasion of exchange and trading among Alaskan Eskimo in coastal districts of Bering Strait their ritual and its singing and dancing help to iron out the onerous equalization of claimed prices being capable of inviting serious conflicts.

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After the foundation of Soviet Union, an initial policy of the collective farm for indigenous people of Kamchatka was to establish reindeer breeding farms. However, collectivization brings reorganization of indigenous settlements that have harmful influence on traditional custom and social system of indigenous society. From 1960s, most collective farms of Kamchatka were gradually reformed to state farms because of aggravation of management, and in the early 1990s, with the collapses of the Soviet system, both collective farms and state farms were disorganized and also most indigenous people lost their job. During such political and economic confusion, reindeer breeding industry which was supported by subsidy of the government forced to be on the brink of extinction. However, in 2006 the government had taken a new policy to promote reindeer breeding business of indigenous people. In this paper I would like to consider the perspective of reindeer breeding industry and also the significance of reindeer breeding as a traditional subsistence for indigenous society.

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In recent years most of the work in Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples has focused on Russian indigenous peoples. Therefore our information about indigenous peoples living in the northern part of America and Europe has become out of date. For the purpose of improving this situation, we have carried out preliminary research in Finland to collect the latest information about the Sami culture. In this article, I report results of the research, particularly about reindeer husbandry in Finland, organizations and facilities conducting preservation and succession of Sami culture at Inari town. The field research was conducted from June 1 to 14 2007, in Finland and part of Norway. We inspected the related organs, had interviews with the people concerned, and collected documents and brochures. Consequently, the following points are found: Reindeer herding in Finland has been institutionalized and herding units are organized nationwide. Financial support from the state and EU, and production-distribution system of reindeer meat has been established. In spite of some problems such as livelihood of herders depending on subsidies, friction between forestry or game hunting, loss of livestock by predation and traffic accidents, reindeer herding seems to be maintaining stably as a contemporary industry. Since traditional knowledge and techniques are needed in reindeer husbandry and herding even now, stable existence of the reindeer industry is important for the conservation of a part of Sami culture. Besides reindeer herding, many activities to preserve and develop Sami culture have been carried out in Finland. There are many organizations such as Sami Parliament, Sami museum, Sami Education Institution, Sami Handicraft Association and so on at Inari. They are related to each other in their formation and cooperation. This situation seems to indicate that Inari is a center of preservation and development activities for the Sami culture.

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Hisao Tanabe (1883-1984) was one of famous ethnomusicologists in Japan. He studied Japanese and Asian music. He researched music of Karafuto (Sakhalin) Ainu, Nivkh(Gilyak) and Uilta, too. He had been Karafuto (Sakhalin) in 1923, and he studied and recorded Karafuto (Sakhalin) indigenous peoples’ music. India musicologist Mr. Hideo Tanabe who is Hisao’s son entrusted some materials of Hisao’s musical trip in Karafuto(Sakahalin) to a director of Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples, Kazuyuki Tanimoto, and then those objects were stocked in the museum. This paper presents these materials which show music of indigenous peoples in Karafuto (Sakhalin) and his trip. Some articles have explanations and photos.

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This is a report about Northwest Coast Indians silkscreen prints collected by Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples. The museum stores 15 prints. Most of them were purchased in 1990’s . All prints and the artists are noticed in this paper. Some of them will be shown at the 23rd special exhibition in 2008 Summer.

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Many Okhotsk-Type Potteries excavated at the Moyoro Shell Mound are possessed in Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples. It is within the bounds of possibility that these were not heated by a fire in their own houses. Therefore it is possible that these potteries were heated for daily using, like a cooking by Okhotsk Culture Peoples. In this paper, I marked heated and carbide zones in each potteries. As the result of this work, it was observed that there were glossy black paints on many potteries, and carbides on inside and outside of the surface, irrespective of big or small potteries. I think that these marks are furnished with much information on using potteries of Okhotsk Culture Peoples.

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[in Japanese]

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