Ethnic whaling from the Viewpoint of Archaeology

At the 4th Annual International Symposium of I B I in Kamogawa, Feb. 1992, I presented a preliminary paper on the variety of ancient whaling, comparing prehistoric/ancient whaling with ethnic whaling. "Ethnic" whaling covers a wide range of interpretations like "ethnic" music. To archaeology, the so-called aboriginal or indigenous whaling is more important than the modern Western whaling. Of course, anthropological investigation of present whaling must have a large framework including commercial whaling.

An anthropological investigation of small-type coastal whaling in Japan shows that it　does not fall under either of the two categories by I W C, commercial whaling or aboriginal/subsistence whaling, but forms a third category (Freeman et al., 1988). The variety of ancient whaling can be revealed by archaeological study, too. Dolphin fishing, which is the origin of whaling, had its rise in the fishing tradition of the area. The Mawaki site is located in an undistributed zone of hooks and harpoon　heads; numerous dolphin bones were excavated with many stone spear points from the Jomon stratums at the site. In this area, netting is the main method of traditional fishing.

Since Japan has a whaling history over 5000 years from dolphin "fishing" of the Jomon-period, we could not fully explain Japanese whaling without adequate knowledge and comprehension about its historical transition.