Isolated tribes and small-scale societies are a thing of the past. The world is growing rapidly and small companies that go against the flow are being pushed aside by people, claiming that their presence hinders progress. With more than seven billion people on this planet, space is becoming more and more precious and outsiders are being forced to accept regions that no one else desires. Eventually, societies mix, boundaries blur, and another unique society/culture is lost among the masses. Very few people can resist the influence of more popular cultures, but those who manage to preserve their traditional ways of life allow us to see different aspects of cultures other than our own. With this in mind, traditional Ainu life presents many new ideas about how to live a very different life and see the world from a new perspective. The Ainu are a group of people who currently reside in the Hokkaido Islands off the mainland. from Japan. The culture originated around the 1400s in and around the islands of Hokkaido. At the same time, the Ainu tribes began to prosper, as did other, larger Japanese societies in the region. The struggle for power and resources intensified between the Ainu and the Japanese, and tensions arose. Over time, tensions between the two groups flared and resulted in numerous battles that would take place over 350 years. The Battle of Kunasiri-Menasi of 1789 led to the defeat of the Ainu by the Japanese. The fall led to the oppression and exploitation of the Ainu people. Due to the oppression of the Ainu by the Japanese people, the culture we currently study of the Ainu people is a mixture of traditional customs and adopted Japanese lifestyles (Ainu Museum). While ...... middle of paper ......tion, I believe that as Japan continues to industrialize and move up the corporate ladder, the animist Ainu will continue to experience a simple life and their culture will eventually disappear like most other small societies. Works Cited Ainu Museum. The Ainu people. Porotokotan, nd Document.Ansipra. The Ainu - Some cultural aspects. Ed. W. Dallmann and K. Uzawa. th article. March 11, 2014. Cultural survival. "Ainu drops lawsuit against Hokkaido governor." March 8, 2002. Cultural survival. March 11, 2014. Farris, Phoebe. “Sharing Ainu culture”. October 10, 2012. Cultural survival. Document. March 29, 2014. Stephanie, Schorow. "Japan's Ainu seek help to preserve their native culture." 2001. Cultural survival. Document. March 14, 2014.Tanaka, Sakurako. “Ainu shamanism: a forbidden path to universal knowledge.” 2003. Cultural survival. Document. March 14 2014.