Ainu　A culture of silence?Aakre, Bjørn Magne31993The purpose of this paper is to present an introduction to Ainu History and Culture from an educational perspective. Analytical categories from the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire were applied. We studied the historical relation between Ainu and Japanese, and how the Ainu became a “culture of silence” incorporated in the Japanese society. We came to the conclusion that because the Ainu had deep respect for nature they were considered to be primitive, and they became vulnerable to a philosophy that practiced the idea of exploitation of human and nature. Ainu communities were small and the political and social structure was weak when facing a heavy Japanese expansion. The Ainu gradually became exploited and discriminated. In the Japanese society the Ainu also seem to have been offered a status among the lowest social class, or as outcasts3. Therefore, they were offered few or any social or human rights, and most of them even developed negative image of themselves. Their culture was never appreciated in the schools and they gradually faced heavy assimilation that still affects the existence and survival of the Ainu culture. Some improvements are made over the last years, but mostly on voluntary bases.departmental bulletin paper名古屋大学大学院教育発達科学研究科　技術・職業教育学研究室2009-10-31application/pdf技術・職業教育学研究室　研究報告 技術教育学の探求67887http://hdl.handle.net/2237/123771348-4893https://nagoya.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/10552/files/bulitv_6_78.pdfeng