남방 왜인설의 목적 및 방법에 관한 고찰‒일본민족 기원론과의 관련성‒

Abstract

Since Chinese history books called the residents of ancient Japan as ‘Waein(倭人)’, researchers in the academic world have conventionally recognized Waein as ancient Japanese. After World War II, however, some researchers have interpreted Waein in a broader sense, and sought for a residential area of Waein outside of the Japanese Islands. Especially, the view that Waein were both a farmer and fisher race that originated from southern China or Southeast Asia was the mainstream among those new views. These views were tentatively called “Views on Waein originated from Southeast Asia”. This study aimed at clarifying the attributes of these views by investigating goals and methods that typical advocate them. The aim of such prior studies was to pursuit the origin of the Japanese as hybrid race to the last and the study about Waein was being carried out as a part of this wider frame. The methods of their study was an interdisciplinary approach which syntheticized such fields as archaeology, anthropology, etc. The method of literature analysis of Chinese history books was just a part of interdisciplinary approach. Thus, a close relevance can be verified between the content of studies, their aims and methods of “Views on Waein originated from Southeast Asia”. Probably, the established theory which postulates that Waein were the ancient Japanese also needs to be verified under such a viewpoint in a similar manner.