Sustainable use of ecosystem and egalitarianism in the south-western islands of Japan

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This study aimed at understanding how natural environment and resources in the South-western islands of Japan have been used in a sustainable way by local communities and how egalitarianism has worked there form the viewpoints of ecological anthropology and environmental folklore. Fieldwork was conducted in Kudaka island and Yaeyama islands of Okinawa, and Pingtong Prefecture of Taiwan. Also for the purpose of comparison, data of various places such as Hainan island of China was analyzed along with the literature.In Kudaka, subsistence activities, natural environment and resources, ethno-science of Kudaka islanders, the traditional belief system and the social structure were investigated. Customary land use pattern which was partly based on the explicit egalitarian idea and sea snakes collecting activity which also involved egalitarianistic structure were studied. A few hundreds of place names of the island including the surrounding reefs were collected and analyzed. Traditional ceremonies of the local community were observed and the role of such ceremonies were analyzed. Finally, recent projects for revitalizing the island in order to cope with the population decline and social breakdown were surveyed.Those investigations have revealed the function of egalitarianism deeply located in the nature of island society for the sustainable use of natural resources and stability of the society. In a small island of subtropical climate, natural resources are limited and not so much concentrated. So their use must not be intensive but diverse use patters are necessary. Such a style of resource use is based on various kinds of social norms and principles. We can understand that egalitarianism is one of most important principles on which social life in subtropical island settings is based.