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

本研究以实地调查资料为基础，对日本西南群岛作为灾荒食物的动植物资源的分布、种类、生态特征、取食和制备技术、营养药理含量和生存价值进行了研究，旨在阐明人类向环礁环境迁移的过程及其适应策略。结果如下：1.大量的野生食物资源在该地区被用作灾荒食物，尽管不同的岛屿环境有一些不同。目前已鉴定的植物有29科49属。几乎所有这些食物资源也被用作日常食物2：直到20世纪50年代末S，苏铁被证实是该地区最重要的饥荒和日常食物之一。开发的加工和制备苏铁的技术表明，它们在过去该地区的饮食文化中发挥了作用。3：利用野生食物资源，包括陆地和水生食物资源，用于饥荒和日常食物的觅食技术相对简单。采摘者主要是妇女、儿童和老年人。4：在因土地有限和贫瘠、干旱或台风而经常出现粮食短缺的地区，利用各种野生食物资源是不可或缺的生存策略。5：关于各岛屿季节性采食活动的民族物候学口头传统也确保了采摘野生食物资源是西南群岛的一项必要的生存活动。

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.