Description

This lecture explores human responses to the turbulent shifts in climate and environment that marked the end of the last Ice Age in NE Asia. While the primary focus is on the ecological “borderlands” of Hokkaido-Sakhalin, explicit parallels are drawn between developments in NE Asia and NW Europe to explore what drove the alternative – yet poorly understood – trajectories towards sedentism, economic intensification and social complexity that define “Neolithization” across NE Asia. We will also examine the extent to which local and regional communities in Hokkaido were able to deploy economic and ritual strategies to cope with fluctuating sea levels and repeated shocks from major volcanic eruptions and abrupt climate change. Finally, we will briefly explore how dynamic regional processes of interaction, exchange and migration are reflected in modern cultural and linguistic diversity, including the emergence of Ainu, Nivkh and other Indigenous communities.

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https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/69859009851