Paper short abstract:

The paper compares different interdisciplinary understandings of admixture in the Yayoi period and proposes a new diverse cultural model for the Yayoi.

Paper long abstract:

New research in biological anthropology over the 1980s led to the publication in 1991 of Kazuro Hanihara's influential 'dual structure hypothesis' for the population history of the Japanese Islands. A critique of previous models of ethnic homogeneity, Hanihara's hypothesis proposed a process of 'hybridisation' between two populations, the 'native' Jōmon and the 'immigrant' Yayoi. Interdisciplinary research in historical linguistics, archaeology and other fields has expanded our understanding of the social and cultural processes behind the meeting and mixing of the two population layers. However, the biological 'hybridisation' proposed by Hanihara cannot be directly extended to linguistics or archaeology. The evidence from historical linguistics supports language replacement in the Yayoi. While many archaeologists have seen the Yayoi as a cultural 'cocktail' they have assumed it results from an equal mixing of two elements which coalesced to form traditional Japanese culture. This paper will use an archaeological perspective to critique these ideas and propose a much more diverse cultural model for the Yayoi.