A Study of Plant and Animal Utilization in the Tropical Africa and Making of a Data-Base.

本研究的第一个目的是收集非洲动植物传统利用的资料，建立非洲动植物利用的数据库。在此基础上，进行民族植物学和民族动物学的比较研究，以阐明热带非洲各地区各民族资源利用模式的特点。该数据库已在京都大学文献中心建成，迄今已汇编了9,000多条记录。本研究将于短期内开放予其他机构的研究人员作学术用途，并特别强调有关植物用途的资料。研究表明，非洲人民对野生植物有着惊人的丰富知识，根据自己传统的分类、命名和利用系统对它们进行分类、命名和利用。许多物种实际上以多种方式被用作食物、药物、装饰材料、工具和建筑等，本文简要比较了生活在中部非洲热带雨林相似环境中的狩猎采集者和耕作者对植物的利用。研究发现，狩猎采集者食用的植物种类要比耕作者多得多，而后者则以更精细的方式使用许多药用植物。用于每种目的的物种清单也各不相同。这些事实再次证明了非洲植物世界的巨大潜力。最后，由于非洲几乎每天都在收集新的数据，因此必须不断努力维护和改进该数据库。

The first purpose of this study is to compile the information on the traditional use of plants and animals in Africa, and to make a data-base of the plant and animal utilizations. Based on this data-base, it also aims at carrying out comparative studies in ethnobotany and ethnozoology in order to clarify the characteristics in resource utilization pattern of various ethnic groups in various parts of tropical Africa. The data-base has been constructed at the Documentation Center of Kyoto University, and more than 9,000 records have been compiled so far. It will shortly be opened to the researchers at other institutions for academic use.The information on the plant use is particularly emphasized in this study. It is shown that African peoples have surprisingly rich knowledge of the wild plants, classifying, naming and using them according to their own traditional system of classification, nomenclature and utilization. Many species are actually used in a diversity of ways as food, medicine, materials for ornaments, instruments and construction, etc., which suggests a diverse potential of African plant resources.A brief comparison in plant use is made between the hunter-gatherers and cultivators who live in a similar environment of the tropical rain forest in central Africa. It is found that, much more species are used for food by hunter-gatherers than by cultivators, whereas the latter use many medicinal plants in a more elaborate way. The inventory of species used for each purpose also differ from each other. These facts again demonstrate a great potential of African plant world.Finally, continuous efforts will be indispensable to the maintenance and improvement of this database, since new data are being collected in Africa almost day by day.