Austronesian’ and ‘Jōmon’ identities in the Neolithic of the Ryukyu Islands

This paper examines Neolithic cultural identities in the Ryukyu Islands of southwest Japan. It is argued that there were two different identities in this archipelago: a ‘Jōmon’ identity in the northern and central Ryukyus and an ‘Austronesian’ identity in the southern Ryukyus. These identities were constructed despite broad similarities in subsistence adaptation in both cultural zones.V članku analiziramo neolitske kulturne identitete na otočju Ryukyu, jugovzhodna Japonska. Ugotavljamo, da sta bili na arhipelagu dve različni identiteti: ‘Jōmon’ v severnem in osrednjem delu in ‘Avstronezijska’ ma jugu. Identiteti sta se izoblikovali kljub podobnim subsistenčnim prilagoditvam v obeh kulturnih conah