Towards the Second International Conference of Northern Studies Association　　　Takashi Irimoto

　Since the previous international conference held in 1991 (the results of which are released in book form as Circumpolar Religion and Ecology: An Anthropology of the North, University of Tokyo Press, 1994), the significance of northern cultures, e.g., dualism of seasons, sending-off ritual of animals, reciprocity and original oneness between nature and supernatural, and northern shamanism, has been revealed and the general understanding of the dynamic interrelationships between religion and ecology has been achieved.
　Thus, it is timely for us now to proceed in our inquiry of the theme of ICNSA 2, “Animism and Shamanism in the North.” Shamanism and animism elsewhere have been described as one of the most significant characteristics of northern cultures, as was noted in the previous conference, but the subject remains the theme least analyzed specifically in its own right. The theme would include problems in the nature of animism and shamanism in the north, and of the relationships between them. Other aspects of culture, society and ecology also relate to the subject.
　So the purpose of the conference is twofold. One is the theoretical contribution to the study of animism and shamanism in a general anthropological framework. The other is the reassessment of the significance of circumpolar animism and shamanism, through comparison of various northern cultures.
　As each contributor presents a case study of a particular northern cultural group, e.g., Ainu of Japan, Evenki, Yakut, Mongol and Siberians in northern Eurasia, Aleut, Inuit, Athapaskan and other Indians in North America, the range of diversity and the similarity of circumpolar cultures will be demonstrated in the conference.
　Then, we hope that the conference will contribute to the understanding of human beings, through the study of various northern cultures and through international communication.
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