ABSTRACT
Focusing on the heterogeneity that the Ainu face when interacting with the larger society, and the strategies they employ in coming to terms with new and alien values, allows for an understanding of the multiplex interplay between the Ainu and the dominant ethnic group in Japan, the Wajin.4 As there are several actors in the arena, there are also several strategies in dialog and encounter with one another. Ainu contact with values and norms belonging to the dominant ethnic group in Japan has taken place over a long time span, and during intervals the Ainu have maneuvered in various ways and on different levels,
from the grassroots up. By placing emphasis on a multifaceted reality and by incorporating the Ainu as active players, we are given a means to understand the religious tradition of the Ainu as a product/construction work, subject to the possibility of transformation. This is an enterprise embracing periods of active struggle for practicing religious rights and rules, as well as periods of a more passive behavior, and even periods when the Ainu were eager to forget their own religious beliefs in favor of the beliefs of the dominant ethnic group.5 One main advantage of this approach is that it departs from a view of the Ainu as passive objects and their tradition as something belonging to the past.
