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

本研究在野外调查的基础上，研究了日本西南群岛用作饥荒食物的动植物资源的分布、种类、生态特征、采集和制备技术、营养和药理成分及其生存价值，旨在阐明人类向环礁环境迁移的过程或适应策略。结果表明：1 .大量野生食物资源被用作饥荒食物，但各岛环境差异不大。在植物方面，许多植物已被确定，迄今已记录29科49属。几乎所有这些食物资源也都被用作日常的食材。据证实，直到20世纪50年代末，苏铁一直是该地区最重要的食物之一，既是饥荒的食物，也是日常食物。加工和准备苏铁的技术表明，苏铁在该地区过去的饮食文化中发挥了作用。用于饥荒和日常食物的陆生和水生野生食物资源的觅食技术相对简单。这些采集者大多是妇女、儿童和老人。在由于土地有限和贫瘠、干旱或台风而经常发生粮食短缺的地区，利用各种野生食物资源是必不可少的生存战略。关于各岛屿季节性觅食活动的民族物候口述传统也确保了野生食物资源的觅食是西南群岛必要的生存活动。

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.