La deificación de las élites sociales en el Japón protohistórico

Abstract

This paper analyzes the deification of social elites in the Japanese archi­pelago during the first millennium A.D. After considering archaeological and documentary sources, it is possible to identify the existence of two differ­ent processes: one under which local leaders were granted a divine nature after death (post-mortem deification), the most visible manifestation was the erection of colossal funerary structures (ss. III-VII); and another (in vita deifi­cation), whose objective was legitimat­ing the prevailing power (ss. VII-VIII). One of the major highlights of this sec­ond process was the construction of a genealogy that linked the divinities -kami- who had created the archipelago with reigning monarchs -the heavenly sovereigns-, giving rise a myth-history that had a real influence in Japan until modern times.