An Anthropological Study on the Traditional Use of Animal and Plant Food Resources as Famine Foods in the Southwest Archipelago of Japan

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This study examined the distribution and kinds of animal and plant resources used as famine foods in the Southwest Archipelago of Japan, their ecological features, the technology of foraging and preparing them, their nutritional and pharmacological contents, and their survival value for the purpose of elucidating the process of human migration to atoll environments or their adaptive strategies there, based on the data from field surveys.The results are as follows :1 : A great number of wild food resources have been used as famine foods through the area, although there were a few differences according to each island environment. As for plants, many of which were determined, 29 families and 49 genera have been recorded so far. Almost all these food resources have also been used as daily food materials.2 : It has been confirmed that cycads were one of the most important foods as both famine and daily foods throughout the area until the late 1950's. The technology developed to process and prepare cycads suggests that they playd a part in the dietary culture of the area in the past.3 : The foraging techniques involving wild food resources, both terrestrial and aquatic ones used for famine and daily foods, were relatively simple. The foragers were mostly women, children, and the elderly.4 : The utilization of various wild food resources was an indispensable subsistence strategy in the area where food shortages often occurred because of limited and barren land, droughts, or typhoons.5 : Ethnophenological oral traditions concerning the seasonal foraging acitivities on various islands also make sure that the foraging of wild food resources was a necessary subsistence activity in the Southwest Archipelago.