Ryukyuan Culture and Society: A Survey 9780824891244

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T E N T H PACIFIC SCIENCE CONGRESS SERIES

TENTH

PACIFIC SCIENCE CONGRESS

SERIES

T e n t h Pacific Science Congress, H o n o l u l u , 1961

AGRICULTURE Soil C o n s e r v a t i o n in the P a c i f i c — A S y m p o s i u m and Panel Discussion J . H . Christ, chairman ANTHROPOLOGY R y u k y u a n C u l t u r e a n d S o c i e t y — A Survey Allan H . Smith, editor BOTANY A n c i e n t Pacific F l o r a s — T h e Pollen Story Lucy M . Cranwell, editor ENTOMOLOGY Pacific E n t o m o l o g y — R e p o r t of the S t a n d i n g C o m m i t t e e C h a i r m a n J . J . H . Szent-Ivany GEOLOGY G e o l o g y a n d S o l i d E a r t h G e o p h y s i c s o f the P a c i f i c B a s i n — R e p o r t of the S t a n d i n g C o m m i t t e e G o r d o n A. Macdonald, chairman MARINE BIOLOGY P h y s i c a l A s p e c t s o f L i g h t in the S e a — A S y m p o s i u m J o h n E. Tyler, editor MEDICINE P u b l i c H e a l t h a n d M e d i c a l Sciences in the P a c i f i c — A Forty-year R e v i e w J . R a l p h Audy, editor

RYUKYUAN CULTURE AND SOCIETY

TENTH

PACIFIC SCIENCE

CONGRESS

o f the Pacific Science Association

HOST

INSTITUTIONS

National Academy of Sciences Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum University of Hawaii

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.

August 21 to September 6, 1961

R Y U K Y U A N CULTURE AND SOCIETY A Survey ALLAN H .

SMITH

Editor

U N I V E R S I T Y OF HAWAII PRESS Honolulu, Hawaii, 1964

C o p y r i g h t 1 9 6 4 U n i v e r s i t y of H a w a i i P r e s s Library of Congress Catalog Card N u m b e r : 65-19525

PUBLISHER'S

PREFACE

T h e papers published in this v o l u m e w e r e presented at the T e n t h

Pacific

Science

C o n g r e s s of the Pacific S c i e n c e Association held August 2 1 to S e p t e m b e r 6, 1 9 6 1 , on the c a m p u s of the U n i v e r s i t y of H a w a i i , H o n o l u l u , H a w a i i , U . S . A . , scene of the meeting.

T h e Congress was sponsored jointly by the N a t i o n a l

A c a d e m y of

first

Sciences,

B e r n i c e Pauahi B i s h o p M u s e u m , and the U n i v e r s i t y of H a w a i i . T h e publisher is indebted to the c h a i r m a n for h a v i n g assembled these papers f r o m the far corners of the Pacific. In editing the material, A m e r i c a n usage has been followed in the m a i n , though the desire to put this material in print as soon as possible after it was assembled lias b e e n responsible for s o m e degree of stylistic inconsistency. Funds toward the issuance of T e n t h Pacific S c i e n c e C o n g r e s s papers published by the U n i v e r s i t y of H a w a i i Press have b e e n furnished by the Legislature of the State of H a w a i i and the N a t i o n a l Institutes of Health. It is believed that a useful p u r p o s e is served by b r i n g i n g together in o n e v o l u m e distinguished papers on a c o m m o n s u b j e c t as it applies t o c o n d i t i o n s that prevail in the various countries of this increasingly i m p o r t a n t s e g m e n t of the world scene.

vu

CONTENTS

PAGE

Early Prehistory CLEMENT W. MEIGHAN

3

Late Prehistory HIROE

TAKAMIYA

15

Aspects of Prehistory NAOICHI K O K U B O and ERIKA K A N E K O

19

The Death Ritual ERIKA K A N E K O

25

Dialect Areas YOSHIMITSU

NARITA

31

Ryukyuan and Japanese Dialects YUKIO UEMURA

35

Chinese and Japanese Influences DOUGLAS G. HARING

39

Problems of Cultural History W A Y N E SUTTLES

57

Primitive Fishing Methods ASAHITARO NISHIMURA

67

Spiritual Predominance of the Sister TOICHI

MABUCHI

79

The Okinawan Shaman W I L L I A M P. L E B R A

93

Personality in Rural Okinawa THOMAS

W . MARETZKI

99

IX

RYUKYUAN CULTURE A N D SOCIETY

Early Prehistory CLEMENT W .

DURING

T H E PAST F E W YEARS a

MEIGHAN

finds are reported to occur in coral fissures, w h e r e p o c k e t s of up to 1000 individual b o n e s have been f o u n d , mostly b r o k e n and mixed t o g e t h e r . From o n e site (Ie), T o k u n a g a f o u n d b o n e s believed to s h o w h u m a n w o r k m a n s h i p . T h i s material is still problematical. O n t h e o n e hand these several occurrences suggest h u m a n activity since n o predators of deer are k n o w n . S o m e a n t i q u i t y is also implied by t h e general scarcity of deer b o n e in t h e later shell m i d d e n s . O n t h e o t h e r hand there is so far an absence of cultural materials. Also, t h e geological situation is u n k n o w n and t h e fact t h a t t h e b o n e s are mineralized does n o t necessarily imply very great age.

collaborative

p r o g r a m of research in R y u k y u prehistory has been u n d e r t a k e n by t h e writer and Hiroe Takamiya, with T a k a m i y a directing t h e field explorations and the writer collaborating in the laboratory analysis and description of the collections. This paper summarizes o u r u n d e r s t a n d i n g so far of t h e earlier periods in R y u k y u prehistory; the a c c o m p a n y i n g paper by T a k a m i y a considers our k n o w l e d g e of t h e later periods. T h e r e are t w o general s u m m a r y papers dealing with t h e archaeology of t h e R y û k y ù s : o n e by Yawata in J a p a n e s e ( J a p a n e s e J o u r n a l of Ethn o l o g y , vol. 15, n o . 2, 1950); t h e o t h e r by T a k a m i y a in English ( J o u r n a l of O k i n a w a University, vol. 1, n o . 2, Feb. 1961). T h e following s u m m a r y draws u p o n these sources as well as t h e recent field investigations of Takamiya and analysis of s p e c i m e n s at t h e University of California (Los Angeles).

THE "SHELL MIDDEN PERIOD"

T h e earliest excavated sites with cultural rem a i n s are shell m i d d e n s classed by s o m e writers as " n e o l i t h i c " a l t h o u g h t h e presence of agriculture is uncertain. T h e r e is a clear a g r e e m e n t that t h e n o r t h e r n islands s h o w t h e earliest ceramic materials so far as style similarity to J a p a n is c o n c e r n e d , t h e central islands i n c l u d i n g O k i nawa are believed t o correlate r o u g h l y with Late J o m o n , and t h e s o u t h e r n islands have so far p r o d u c e d only relatively recent material. This, however, reflects t h e spread of cultural influences f r o m J a p a n and probably d o e s n o t really pertain to t h e original o c c u p a t i o n of t h e R y u k y u island chain.

P R E C E R A M I C PHASES

T h e search for preceramic sites is i m p o r t a n t since it may establish t h e date of original o c c u p a t i o n of t h e R y ù k y û s . So far n o clearly identifiable preceramic c o m p l e x has been f o u n d in t h e R y ù k y û s . A n investigation of claimed paleolithic finds was c o n d u c t e d by E k h o l m and Bird of t h e American M u s e u m of N a t u r a l History in 1959; their w o r k , which involved site survey and test excavations, reported negative results so far as preceramic complexes are concerned.

O n O k i n a w a s o m e six shell m i d d e n s of relatively early period (according t o t h e ceramic sequence) have been d u g . T w o of t h o s e exa m i n e d were t h e sites of Atta and K a n e g u s u k u , which are n o t identical b u t can be considered to b e l o n g to t h e same general cultural level.

T h e only o t h e r c o n t e n d e r for preceramic o c c u p a t i o n in t h e R y û k y û s is a series of locations (five certain and o n e possible) where fossil deer b o n e s h a v e been f o u n d . All such

3

4 According to ceramic seriation, the K a n e g u s u k u site overlaps Atta in time but extends back to an earlier period. Both of these sites are shell middens at the base of a rock outcrop. The K a n e g u s u k u midden was slightly over six feet deep; that at Atta was up to eight feet in depth. Such depths are exceptional in O k i n a w a n middens which tend to be shallow deposits. A larger sample of material remains was obtained from Atta, although K a n e g u s u k u is more informative in having a clearer stratigraphy of ceramic types. The earliest ceramics are rather coarse, sandtempered brown or red pottery, not conoidalbased but generally similar to J 5 m o n pottery in having incised decoration on the upper third of the vessel and frequently bearing rim projections similar to J o m o n pottery. The decoration is geometric and very rarely curvilinear; it is nearly all done in straight lines. According to the stratigraphic sequence worked out by T a k a m i y a at the K a n e g u s u k u site, the earliest incised decorations were done with a two-pointed stick yielding designs composed of paired lines. The later phases show decoration with a one-pointed stick; still later decoration is rather coarse and done with a broad bamboo stick 4 - 5 mm. wide. (Figs. 1 - 5 . ) Pottery decorated with a single-pointed stick has been found in the G u s u k u d a k e shell midden (also on O k i n a w a ) associated with knife-shaped coins of ancient China (ca. 200 B.C.). This provides a time marker of great importance. The pottery decorated with two-pointed sticks must be older than this date, and a single radiocarbon date for the earlier period was obtained through the courtesy of Dr. G. J . Fergusson of the Radiocarbon Laboratory at U.C.L.A. The date (obtained too late for reporting at the Congress) is: UCLA 146: Charcoal from middle levels of Atta shell mound, O k i n a w a . A g e : 3,370 ± 80 years (1408 B.C.) There are several important implications in this rather limited dating evidence: 1. There is little culture lag between J o m o n on the main islands of J a p a n and t h e j o m o n - l i k e remains from Okinawa. 2. The shell midden culture was firmly established on O k i n a w a by 1500 B.C. and had a duration of at least t w o millenia.

3. Since the radiocarbon date is not from the bottom levels at Atta, and the K a n e g u s u k u site seems to be still older than a n y t h i n g at Atta, the b e g i n n i n g of the shell midden culture on O k i n a w a must be older than 1500 B.C. by an undetermined amount. In addition to the ceramic complex of the shell midden culture, the following objects are found in the sites: simple bone objects like awls (Fig. 6); semi-polished stone axes or celts; whole shells of some weight with holes punched in the center, probably net weights (Fig. 7); a variety of ornamental objects of bone and shell, such as Atta's many simple triangular pendants with central perforation and also zoomorphic objects cut from shell (Figs. 7, 8), and K a n e g u s u k u ' s several very elaborate cut and carved bone objects of unknown meaning. Notably absent from the sites so far recorded are fishhooks, a l t h o u g h such artifacts are found in the earliest J o m o n sites of J a p a n . The burial customs of the O k i n a w a n shell midden peoples are not known since graves have not been excavated. The graves are not in midden refuse but must be located elsewhere, perhaps in rock shelters. T h e termination of the shell midden period is generally set at about the 8th century A.D. This gives a k n o w n t i m e span for the middens of over 2000 years, and within this time span there are marked changes in elements of the material culture. The pottery of the final period is clearly very different from the beginning, and various scholars have divided the shell midden culture into sequent cultural periods. M o s t of the divisions so far have been based on seriations of surface pottery collections. An exception is the sequence worked out by T a k a m i y a at Kaneg u s u k u , where he believes that he can distinguish at least 3 complexes on stratigraphic grounds. T w o of these are in the " e a r l y " shell midden period; the other may date into the A.D. period. The variety of objects and ceramic decoration is sufficient to suggest that refined work should be able to recognize time divisions of a few hundred years or less. External connections between O k i n a w a and other areas can be clearly seen. Influences from China are obvious in the trade coins, and from J a p a n in the style of the pottery and its cultural and temporal affinities to J o m o n .

FIG. 1. Pottery f r o m Atta site. T o p 18 inches of deposit; length of 51';) and

PyMui-nushi ( 11 Ifa • j:) d e n o t e males w h o p e r f o r m administrative tasks. These words, however, d o n o t seem to be survivals f r o m o l d e n times. "In t h e historical process of unification of ritual and a d m i n i s t r a t i o n , there » a s a t i m e in which ritual was a n t e c e d e n t . If in t h e Nlnchu period ritual was d o m i n a n t , it would be a plausible inference that R y u k y u society was matriarchal. I have f o u n d n o proof of this, h o w ever; nor have I f o u n d any evidence of matrilinear families in which females o w n e d property and land. Before and d u r i n g t h e period of Anji ( ft' UJ) t h e rule of Omekei and Omenai was t h e accepted system; t h e Anji and his sister controlled their district. " W h e n t h e C h u z a n k i n g unified all of R y u k y u he s u m m o n e d all of t h e Anji to Shuri, and f r o m that t i m e on, the priestesshood was systematized. T h e Kikoe Ogimi ( K i n g ' s sister, wife, or princess) was at t h e top, and local N o r o were a p p o i n t e d o n t h e basis of each g r o u p of sonraku ( t o w n ships). T h e local N o r o included s o m e w h o were

49 p r o m o t e d f r o m N l n c h n and s o m e w h o had been b r o u g h t f r o m o t h e r b u m k n . R y u k y u a n society included b o t h ritual performers and administrative ritualists, and f r o m t i m e to t i m e these g r o u p s quarrelled over ritual f u n c t i o n s , liven n o w s o m e conflict exists in certain villages. Certain traces of t h e N I n c h u era are f o u n d in t h e N o r o ' s ritual p e r f o r m a n c e . " T h e k i t m i served by N o r o are U j i & a m i (local guardian deity or clan deity) and Ancestral K a m i . It is said that they also serve t h e K i n i m u - m i s h i (.king), t h e Y r n u t - w t s h i { A j i or local lord), and i W i i r a - n n H u s h i ( V i l l a g e h e a d m a n !. I t is t h o u g h t

that t h e Ancestral k a m i was a Sea-Deity that c a m e f r o m N i r Z K a n - (or N i r a y a k a > i a y . / ) \ I think that the T c r u k o m e n t i o n e d in your article is related t o this k a m i . " T h e r e is n o d o u b t that t h e N o r o of A m a m i O s h i m a developed f r o m O m e n a i or O n a r i . In R y u k y u it is believed that t h e O m e n a i protects the O m e k e i . " (Translated by M . I s e a n d myself.)

U n f o r t u n a t e l y t h e N o r o system has n o t received t h e a t t e n t i o n it deserves f r o m O c c i d e n t a l s t u d e n t s . " W h a t little has been written o f t e n suffers f r o m reading into R y u k y u c u s t o m s t h e ideas of Sir J a m e s Frazer and II. B. T y l o r ; uncritically it has been assumed that here, t h r o u g h t h e mysterious b u t u n i f o r m u n f o l d i n g of social evolution, could be f o u n d a replica of the vestal virgins of the Mediterranean area. T h e inclusion in N o r o rites of a fire ritual provided t h e pretext for d r a g g i n g in t h e M e d i terranean analogy. In a d d i t i o n to t h e published literature, a conversation with S h u n c h d Higa convinced m e that t h e fire ritual was incidental— an accidental accretion to t h e N o r o complex. As for t h e vestal virgin idea, s o m e N.>ro marry and o t h e r s d o n o t ; in A m a m i , at least, there has been a division of t h e N o r o into tw;> s c h o o l s o n this topic. At anv rate, t h e sister-kami and its aristocratic version, t h e N o r o , can claim a respectable an-

FIG. 4. N o r o ritual, February 1953: D a i k u m a hamlet, Mikata-son, A m a m i O s h i m a . T h e N o r o ' s headdress is said t o be decorated with feathers of t h e mandarin d u c k ; she holds t h e large fan. ( P h o t o by R o b e r t Byers.)

50

F I G . 5 . C r y s t a l a n d miigatamii b e a d n e c k l a c e w o r n by N o r o of D a i k u m a h a m l e t , A m a m i O s h i m a ( M i k a t a s o n I. R e p u t e d l y o l d e r t h a n 1609 a n d o r i g i n a l l y received f r o m head N o r o in O k i n a w a u n d e r L o o C h o o k i n g . ( P h o t o by D . G . H a r i n g . )

tiquity. Certainly it was not copied from M i n g China; it was maintained in the face of a strong Chinese example to the contrary. T h e references to the islands in the Eastern Sea in the Chinese annals of the 2nd century A.D. describe the "Queen Country" in which the Queen devoted herself to ritual and magic in seclusion while her brother conducted the mundane business of government. On her death a man ascended the throne but was soon replaced by a woman who met the public taste.1'2 The Chinese description of brother-sister rule fits Ryukyu perfectly. At that early date it may have fitted Naichi—at least, Kyushu. Before ruling out continental sources of Ryukyuan tradition more knowledge of the preChinese cultures of Southeast Asia is needed— and also, of South China. A curious parallel to the Ryukyu situation is described by Arthur Waley. 13 T o him, the " N i n e Songs" of ancient South China are ritual connected with the dedication of a son or daughter of the early Chinese nobility to the shamanistic profession. The young man or woman, lavishly attired, went into the mountains and was visited at night by a goddess or a god. The divine lover never repeated the visit, but the brief mating with deity was sufficient to provide the person with shamanistic powers. In some parts of Ryukyu, notably the Amami Islands, the N o r o annually entertains a god as lover; in the secret rites in the mountains that precede the harvest festival, a quilt is provided for the god beside that of the

Noro. Some Okinawans stoutly deny that any such ideas are involved in the N o r o rituals; others insist that on certain nights the Noro sleeps with a g o d . " I conclude that in some districts this is a feature of the cult, while in others it is not. O n e may be rightly suspicious of offhand interpretations of customs as "survivals" but this caution need not preclude the search for more evidence. Certainly the concepts of unari-gami and the N o r o institution do not fit Chinese culture as the Ryukyuans knew it in historic times. Waley describes the gaining of shamanistic powers by either a man or a woman; this would not rule out something in common between Ryukyu and the protohistoric China that Waley discussed; the Ryukyuan bias in favor of the female would easily modify the ancient South China practice. Ryukyuan preference can be elastic; aged persons have told me that there has been talk about a brother-kami who could aid his sister. Perhaps times have changed even the Noro cult; but there may have been a precedent for the performance of Noro rites by a man in Uken-son on Amami Oshima in 1961. Fumitake Yamashita wrote me that on that occasion the family in which Noro-hood is hereditary (the N o r o office is inherited by females in the male line) had no eligible female. With some trepidation the male head of the family undertook to perform the rites. The kami must be served; and the rituals are a family duty. If Waley's interpretation should be verified it would be necessary to examine the evidence of possible derivation of the earliest Ryukyuan culture from ancient South China or Southeast Asia. HAROJI

As in Naichi, the Ryukyuan household is integral in a wider kin group that, unlike the hiki, counts relationship bilaterally. Roughly equivalent to the shinzoku of Naichi, in the Amami Islands this is variously called hardji, fardji, paraji, or haraji\ it includes consanguine kin w h o share common ancestors—in theory, to the seventh degree. It is truly bilateral and the same kin terms refer to corresponding relatives in either antecedent line. Family members not descended from family ancestors—as a bride married-in, an adopted person, or in-laws—are

51 called miharoji. A parent's miharoji are his child's hardji\ b o t h parental lines are his c o n s a n g u i n e kin. T h e geometrical increase in n u m b e r s of haroji when c o u n t i n g back into t h e past is limited by n u m e r o u s marriages between cousins and o t h e r kindred, by village e n d o g a m y , and t h e limits of m e m o r y . Except for Y o r o n Island, t h e Amatnian haroji does n o t o w n land; t h e haroji is t h e kin g r o u p u p o n which labor exc h a n g e and cooperative services in general are based. A saying current in U k e n - s o n o n A m a m i O s h i m a puts it neatly: " L a b o r for haroji, ritual

for hiki,"15 A f u r t h e r extension of t h e haroji provides status for t h e affectionate and durable intimacies of n o n - k i n that are c o m m o n in A m a m i : this is t h e shiribaroji (Active kin?), sensitively described in a letter f r o m M r . Y a m a shita: " T h o u g h n o b l o o d - l i n k is involved, a like-minded relationship engendered by tender intimacy that spans two generations of parents and children is called shiribaroji." In districts that are relatively undisturbed by m o d e r n i z a t i o n , families are so connected by i n - g r o u p marriages that hiki and haroji almost coincide. T h e haroji

FIG. 6. P h o t o copy of certificate of N o r o a p p o i n t m e n t , bearing faint seal of Shuri Court, dated 4 O c t o b e r , 1587. This a p p o i n t e d the next t o t h e last N o r o of D a i k u m a , Mikata-son, A m a m i O s h i m a , t o be a p p o i n t e d f r o m Shuri; after Satsuma took over in 1609, n o further a p p o i n t m e n t s were permitted. ( P h o t o courtesy of Rev. Earl R. Bull, f r o m d o c u m e n t preserved in O k i n a w a . ) In J a p a n e s e transcription this d o c u m e n t reads: Shuri no O n - m i k o t o Nase-magiri no T a i k u m a N o r o wa Moto-no Noro no Mei Hitori M a k u m o ni Tamawari m o s h i soro Shuri yori M a k u m o n o h o - e M a i r u M a n r e k i 15 N e n 10 G a t s u 4 ka (From d o c u m e n t by courtesy of Rev. Bull)

This may be translated: By order of Shuri K i n g , N o r o of T a i k u m a in Nase Village confers (the title of N o r o ) o n M a k u m o , niece of the former N o r o . M a k u m o is hereby notified of this a p p o i n t m e n t . 4 O c t o b e r , 1587 (Translation by D . G . Haring)

52 appears to be the basic indigenous kin group, like the shinzoku of Naichi; the hiki and Okinawa's mnnchu are constructs designed to carry out the Chinese patterns of ancestor ritual and consequently vulnerable to changing emphases and fashions. The Okinawan patterns of social organization, however, have been more deeply modified in the direction of Chinese practice than have those of Amami. My impression is that the Okinawan equivalent of the haroji is less distinguishable from the mnnchu and may be unimportant, especially in urban districts."' I conclude that the deeply established model of kin integration of both Naichi and Ryukyu may be characterized as patronymic but bilateral in consanguine terms, nonexogamous and functional for labor cooperation and mutual aid. In modern Naichi the tendency toward kin exogamy has been strongly supported by the public schools, where it has been textbookaxiomatic that inbreeding produces defective offspring. SUMMARY

The foregoing discussion suggests hypotheses and points to facts that prompted their formulation. T o summarize with emphasis on the obvious, Naichi and Ryukyu can be studied fruitfully as cognate cultures; they stem from an ancient heritage of common belief and practice and have evolved, each in its own way, through historic exposure to different circumstances and ideas. Perhaps the Amami Islands could be regarded as a third cognate culture; at least they constitute a marginal zone between Liu-Kiu and Naichi and their culture often sheds much light on both Liu-Kiu and Naichi history. For example, the Noro o f Amami may be close to ancient sister-^»//' usages and less modified by bureaucratic status under the LiuKiu kingdom. T h e fact that in Amami the Noro "went underground" increasingly after Satsuma gained control in 1609 and completely so during the Meiji and Taisho eras implies the possibility of Amamian preservation of aspects of the cult that have died out or been overelaborated in Okinawa. So, too, kinship patterns in Amami never were exposed to the intensive Chinese influence that modified Okinawan custom. In Amami the hiki

has died out in contrast to the continued vigor of the Okinawan munchu\ the ancient haroji survives in full vigor in Amami, but data are not available as to its vogue in Okinawa. As indicated, both mnnchu and hiki are social alignments adapted to Chinese family and ancestral rituals. Throughout Ryukyu the sister-^i/w/ institution appears to represent the most durable feature of the archaic culture; there are reasons for thinking that it was not unknown in protohistoric Naichi, but there is little reason to think tha; it could have been derived from any presently known feature of Chinese culture. This discussion lias dealt with selected items, not with the total cultures involved. If this selection involves bias, it is hoped that continued study of the region, plus critical comment from scholars who know the field more thoroughly, will define and correct the distortion. The general assumptions, largely verifiable historically, may be presented in tabular form to show the different circumstances of cultural diffusion in Naichi, Amami, and Liu-Kiu. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Pacific Science Board and the WennerGren Foundation for Anthropological Research supported my research in Amami Oshima from September, 1931, to April, 1952; the latter foundation, through a grant, enabled me to reacquaint myself with Japan proper from April through J u n e of 1952. Neither of these generous sponsors should be held responsible for any o f my statements. Subsequently the Rockefeller Foundation granted funds to aid in organizing the findings; this grant made it possible to write the present paper. Here again, I assume sole responsibility for what is written, while I continue gratefully to appreciate the support received. M y research assistant, Miss Momoyo Ise, has aided by providing summary translations of much material that would have consumed an undue share of my time otherwise. She is not to be held responsible for the use I have made of her work; wherever I have used material directly from a Japanese-language source I have repeated the translation independently. As a participant in the current Cross-Cultural

53 DONOR

AREA O F CULTURAL

J a p a n Proper (Naichi)

Amami Islands

AND

PATTERNS

ACCEPTANCE

HISTORICAL

AGENCY OF

PERIOD

TRANSMISSION

Sino-Buddhist culture from China and K o r e a

T'ang (618-907)

Priests, students, went to China to learn; immigrants to J a p a n when a Chinese dynasty collapsed

'Neo-Confucianism'

Late M i n g and Manchu

M o s t l y literary sources

Sino-Buddhist, attenuated and 'Japan-ized'

Post-Gempei (ca. 1185 and following)

Initially, refugees from Taira defeat; later, M i n a m o t o immigrants

Liu-Kiu kingdom

1266-1609

Direct rule

from ca. 1 3 0 0

L i u - K i u trading ships and official envoys; crews and traders lived in China (as at Fukien) for considerable times

M i n g and Manchu (1368 1872)

Emulation o f Chinese practices for sake o f recognition and trade

Liu-Kiu China and S. E. Asia (Chuzan k i n g d o m ) (sugar, sweet potato, M a layan l o o m , etc. at various later dates) Chinese " p r o p r i e t y " and family patterns

N o t e : A f t e r 1 6 0 9 , S a t s u m a reduced A m a m i t o slavery and m a i n t a i n e d effective u n d e r c o v e r c o n t r o l o f O k i n a w a . It is fair t o say, however, that S a t s u m a s h o w e d little interest in a c c e p t i n g f o r e i g n culture or in diffusing it t o A m a m i and O k i n a w a ; S a t s u m a c o n c e n t r a t e d o n e x p l o i t a t i o n o f t h e island p o p u l a t i o n (e.g., A m a m i a n sugar) and t h e profitable C h i n a trade via O k i n a w a . M o s t o f t h e a b o v e c a n b e verified f r o m a c o n v e n i e n t E n g l i s h - l a n g u a g e s o u r c e : K e r r ' s history o f O k i n a w a , cited in n o t e 7 b e l o w .

Research project o f the Maxwell Graduate S c h o o l o f Syracuse University, financed by a grant to the S c h o o l from the Ford F o u n d a t i o n , I have been able to devote half-time to R y u k y u studies during the past academic year. W h i l e this paper draws m o s t heavily on my 1 9 5 1 - 5 2 field research, I have benefited greatly by work d o n e for the M a x w e l l project. M i s s Ise, a graduate student in the M a x w e l l S c h o o l , has been supported by a fellowship from the same project. NOTES 1 Reischauer, J e a n and R o b e r t . Early Japanese History, Part A, p. 142. Princeton, 1937. 2 S o m e o f these are available on Folkways L P R e c o r d # F E 4 4 4 8 , " F o l k M u s i c o f the A m a m i I s l a n d s . " N e w Y o r k : Folkways R e c o r d s , 1954. T h e y are n o t arranged in geographical order on t h e record.

Reports o f this study include: The Island of Amami Oshima in the Northern Ryükyüs. S . I . R . I . R e p o r t § 2. Pacific Science Board ( m i m e o ) . W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . 1952. :l

" C o m m e n t on Field T e c h n i q u e s in E t h n o g raphy: Illustrated by a survey in the Ryükyü Islands." Southwestern Jul. of Anthropology 10 (1954): 255-267. " T h e N o r o Cult o f Amami O s h i m a : D i v i n e Priestesses o f the R y ü k y ü Islands." Sociologus (Berlin) n.s. 3 ( 1 9 5 3 ) : 1 0 8 - 1 2 1 . " J a p a n e s e National Character: Cultural Anthropology, Psychoanalysis, and H i s t o r y . " Yale Review 42 ( 1 9 5 3 ) : 3 7 5 - 3 9 2 . " A m a m i G u n t ö , F o r g o t t e n Islands." Far Eastern Survey 21 ( 1 9 5 2 ) : 1 7 0 - 1 7 2 . " A m a m i Archipelago: Reversion and A f t e r . " Far Eastern Survey 23 ( 1 9 5 4 ) : 1 5 6 - 1 5 8 . "Selected Aspects o f Chinese and Japanese Cultural Influences in the Northern R y ü k y ü Islands." Sociologus, n.s. 13 ( 1 9 6 3 ) : 5 6 - 6 7 .

54 Cf. also pamphlet written to accompany phonograph record cited in note 2, above. 4 Basil Hall Chamberlain, "TheLuchu Islands and Their Inhabitants." The Geographical Journal 5 (1895): 290-319, 446-462, 534-545; esp. pp. 314-315. For his view of the two languages, see his "Essay in Aid of a Grammar and Dictionary of the Luchuan Language." Transactions, Asiatic Society of Japan, ser. 1, 23 (1895), Supplement, pp. 1-9- Chamberlain's mastery of the Japanese language and culture is attested by his position in Tokyo Imperial University as Professor of Japanese Language and Philology. 5 Cf. R. Tsunoda and L. C. Goodrich, Japan in the Chinese Dynastic Histories. Pasadena: 1951. P. D. & lone Perkins. 6 Professor Robert J . Smith has discussed this question in historical perspective. See his paper, Japanese Kinship Terminology: The History of a Nomenclature." Ethnology 1 (1962): 349 359. 7 George H. Kerr, Okinawa: The History of an Island People. Rutland & Tokyo, 1958: Chas. E. Tuttle Co. This contains good summaries of diffusion of Chinese culture via Kume; they are scattered throughout the book. Cf. the index: Kume Village, p. 529. 8 The rites have not vanished from Naichi; a well-educated Japanese lady, at a loss to reply accurately to my questions about individual status within the extended family, suddenly brightened up and said, "If you really want to know, find out where each person sits at the ancestral ritual!" 9 Holtom's translation of Motoori's definition is quoted below in extenso from his "Political Philosophy of Modern Shinto." T.A.S.J. ser. 1, 49, pt. 2 (1922): 140-143. The source citation in that book is garbled; Holtom gives the source correctly in his National Faith of Japan, London, 1938, p. 24. An excellent discussion appears in D. C. Holtom, "The Meaning of Kami," Monumenta Nipponica, 3, Nos. 1 and 2; and 4, No. 2 (1940-41). While Holtom's doctorate was in history, his command of the language, long stay in Japan, extensive and tireless field observation, and wide acquaintance among Japanese religious leaders, impart to his study of Shinto a degree of reliability not matched elsewhere. The following is the translated passage from Motoori: "I do not yet understand the meaning of the

term kami. Speaking in general, however, it may be said that kami signifies in the first place, the deities of heaven and earth that appear in the ancient records and also the spirits ('mitama) of the shrines where they are worshipped. It is hardly necessary to say that it includes human beings; also such objects as birds, beasts, trees, plants, seas, mountains, and so forth. In ancient usage, anything whatever which was outside of the ordinary, which possessed superior virtue, or which was awe-inspiring was called kami. Eminence here does not refer merely to the superiority of nobility, goodness or meritorious deeds, but evil or mysterious things, if they are extraordinary and dreadful, are called kami. It is needless to say that among human beings who are kami the successive generations of august emperors are all included. The fact that emperors are also called 'distant kami' (totsu kami) is because, from the standpoint of common people, they are far-separated, worthy of reverence and majestic. In a lesser degree, we find human beings, in the present as well as in ancient times, who are kami. Although these may not be accepted throughout the whole country, yet in each province, each village and each family there are human beings who are kami, each one in accordance with his proper position. The kami of the Divine Age were for the most part human beings of that time and, because the people of that age were all kami, it is called the 'Age of the Gods' ( k a m i y o ) . Furthermore, among things which are not human, the thunder is always called naru kami or kami nari ('sounding kami'). Such things as dragons, the echo (kodama), and foxes, in as much as they are conspicuous, wonderful and awe-inspiring, are also kami. In popular usage the echo is said to be the tengu, which in Chinese writings is referred to as a mountain goblin. . . . That which is called kodama (echo) in the present, in ancient times was called mountain-man ( y a m a - b i k o ) . . . . In the Nihongi and the Manyoshu the tiger and the wolf are also spoken of as kami. Again there are the cases in which peaches were given ("Augustthe name Okamu-dzu mino-mikoto T h i n g - G r e a t - K a m u F r u i t " ) and a n e c k l a c e of jewels was called Mi-kura-tana-no-kami ("August-Storehouse-Shelf-Ktf/«/"). There are also examples in which rocks, stumps of trees and leaves of plants spoke audibly. These were

55 all kami. There are also numerous examples in which seas and mountains are called kami. This does not have reference to the spirit o f the mountain or the sea, bur kami is here used directly o f the particular mountain or sea. This is because they are exceedingly awe-inspiring (,kashikoi mono nartt yue nari). " T h u s there are various kinds o f kami. Some are worthy o f honor, some are vile, some are strong, some are weak, some are g o o d , some are evil; and their hearts and acts vary accordi n g l y . " Motoori Norinaga Zenshu, ed. by M o t o o r i Hoei. T o k y o , 1901. B o o k 1: 1 5 0 - 1 5 2 .

tg

S3S1 r is »sew is J - M

K . Segawa in Amami: Shizen to Bunka, vol. I : 128 ff. K u g a k k a i R e n g o Amami Oshima kyod5 chosa Iinkai. T o k y o : 1959. 11 T h e only English-language discussions o f N o r o are Robert Steward Spencer, " T h e Noro, or Priestesses o f Loo C.hoo," T A.S.J, ser. II, 8 : 9 4 112, and my own paper, cited in note 3, supra. Spencer was an able scholar—born in J a p a n and at home in Japanese literature, but he spent a relatively brief time in Ryukyu and looked at the Noro through Japanese eyes, plus a background o f Frazer's Golden Bough. His work, widely quoted, has spread some misconceptions despite its scholarly virtues. Professor W . P. Lebra's forthcoming work on Okinawan religion should enrich our knowledge o f the whole subject. 10

12 See note 5, supra. See also J o h n Young, The Location of Yamatai. Baltimore: T h e J o h n s Hopkins Press, 1958. Y o u n g mapped out the Chinese sailing directions for reaching the Japanese capital. His maps do not show Ryukyu, but the Chinese specifications for the journey would need no more 'adjustment' to bring them to Amami Oshima than the maps already incorporate to arrive at Y a m a t o . Amami literati know these possibilities from their own reading o f the Chinese sources. 13 Arthur Waley, The Nine Songs: a Study of Shamanism in Ancient China. London: 1955. Another interpretation is offered by Ling Shunsheng, " N e w Interpretations o f the Decorative Designs on the Bronze Drums o f Southeast Asia," Annals of Academia Sinica II, part 1. Taipei: 1955.

" F o r example, Shimabukuro Genshichi, " O k i n a w a no Minzoku to S h i n k o , " Minzokugaku Kenkyu 15 ( 1 9 5 0 ) : 1 3 6 - 1 4 8 . K . Seki in Amami: Shizen to Bunka, vol. I, p. 340. 15

For a description o f Okinawan family and kin, see W . P. Suttles, "Family Life," Chapter V o f Post-war Okinawa, by F. R . Pitts, W . P. Lebra, and W . P. Suttles. Pacific Science Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1955. S . I . R . I . Report N o . 8. 16

Problems of Cultural History WAYNE

T H E P U R P O S E O F T H I S PAPER is t o e x a m i n e

SUTTLES

Japanese and of English, do not differentiate kin related through the father from those related through the mother. Grandparents, uncles and aunts, and cousins on the father's side are called by the same terms as those on the mother's side. In this respect the Okinawan system contrasts with the Chinese, which distinguishes father's and mother's kin. Like Japanese and Chinese but not English, the Okinawan system distinguishes by age within ego's generation, providing different terms for older and younger siblings; however, it provides nondifferentiating terms for brother and sister as well. Like Chinese but unlike Japanese and English, the Okinawan system also distinguishes by age within ascending generations. Moreover, unlike Japanese, Chinese, or English, the Okinawan system partly ignores the principle of lineality.

cer-

tain problems in the interpretation of Ryukyuan culture history and to offer toward their solution some hypotheses formed within a particular set of assumptions. The problems are most directly related to kinship and ancestor worship, subjects that interested me while I was on Okinawa in 1945 and again in 1953 and 1954. 1 The assumptions are "evolutionist" but I shall not try to present them here.2 The hypotheses are speculative but I hope admissible in this kind of survey. ANOMALY IN KINSHIP SYSTEM

Let us consider the Okinawan kinship system and its accompanying ceremonialism. Three major features of this system are: ( l ) a kinship terminology that is thoroughly bilateral, tends toward the generation principle, and tends to distinguish relative age within generation; (2) residence in small households as stem and blanch families; and (3) union of households in a system of rigidly patrilineal lineages, sibs, and phratries that have no exogamous rule and no overt "functions" other than the ceremonial ones of ancestor worship. I shall elaborate on each of these features. 1. The kinship terms fall readily into two divisions, terms used in reference and terms used in address. The forms of these terms, particularly those used in address, vary from one dialect area to another and even between social classes within the same area. But in every case recorded the structure o f the terminology is similar. The classification of kin thus seems to be everywhere the same, except perhaps as the terms are being replaced at varying rates by Japanese.

Looking at the terms of address for parents and parents' siblings, we find that there are for each sex two unanalyzable terms and two derivatives. In the Shuri gentry dialect, for males these are taarii, 'father,' 'father's brother,' (except for oldest and youngest); 'mother's brother' (with similar exceptions); 'ufu-taarit, 'father's oldest brother,' 'mother's oldest brother' i^ufu- 'great'); ivuncu, 'father's brother' (with exceptions noted), 'mother's brother' (same); ivuncit-gwaa, 'father's youngest brother,' 'mother's youngest brother,' 'any uncle younger than ego' (-gwaa 'little'). The corresponding terms for females are ayaa, 'iifn-ayaa, baa, baa-gwaa. These terms of address thus form a structure that is neither wholly of the lineal nor wholly of the generation type. The terms of reference for parents and parents' siblings are, however, purely lineal in type—parents and parents' siblings are referred to by different terms.

The Okinawan kinship terms, like those of 57

58 The terms for siblings and cousins are, in Murdock's usage, Hawaiian in address and Eskimo in reference. (See final section for fuller discussion.) 2. The household is the basic economic, social, and ceremonial unit. In its largest form, the main house (stem family), it consists of a married couple, all of their unmarried children, and wife and children of their oldest son. Ideally, and in most instances in reality, younger sons establish new households (branch houses) and daughters upon marrying enter the households of their husbands. With the death of the father the oldest son succeeds him as head of the house. If a household has no sons, it will adopt one. (I will return to this shortly.) The household has its own hearth, dwelling, yard, and lands, its name, its own fire god, and, unless it is a recently established branch house, its own ancestral tablets. 3. A main house and its branches are united by shared responsibilities toward the ancestors represented by the tablets and whose bones have been washed and placed in the common tomb. Members of branch houses must make offerings before the tablets at the main house from which they branched. This main house may be itself a branch of some more remote main house and those who worship in it will thus form only one of several lineages within a larger sib. There may be several such levels. Among the peasantry of southern and central Okinawa the larger units are called muricu (written with characters meaning "within the gate") and their subdivisions are identified as cakusibara ('first-son belly'), jinan-bara ('second-son belly'), etc. The muricu are usually named after the house name of the main house. Among the gentry the largest unit is called the up (also the Japanese word for a kin group) and it bears a Chinese surname, that is, a name written with a single character that is used as a surname in China. Its male members, though they have different Japanese-style surnames, generally have given names beginning with the same character. Its divisions are sometimes called cucooree ('one siblinghood'; if there were a Japanese form it would be hitokyddai) or icimun ('one gate') and they are named from what are now Japanesestyle surnames but were traditionally villages in which the lineage founders held office. These

lineages are also identified as caku'si-firugi ('firstson expansion'), jinan-firugi('second-son expansion'), etc., according to the order of their branching-off. The lineages and sibs rarely if ever have any common property other than their tombs. Their collective endeavors are rarely anything but joint worship of the ancestors and repair of the ancestral tombs. 3 Offerings must be made for the dead on a series of anniversaries of each death, the last being the 33rd, and for all the dead on a number of fixed holidays during the year. The dead are believed to be dependent upon the living and vice versa. A misfortune is readily attributed to failure to make offerings for all due them and so probably the most common reason fc r consulting a yuta, the female diviner and medium, is to learn if there is an ugwambusuki/, an insufficiency of worship. (But see Lebra in this volume.) As I have indicated, the Okinawan lineages and sibs are strictly patrilineal. Membership extends automatically to descendents through the male line and does not extend to descendents through the female line. For this reason, a man who has no son will adopt a brother's son or the son of a cousin related in the male line. Prewar Japanese law evidently insisted that a man with a daughter but no son transmit his surname and property to his son-in-law. But Okinawan patrilineal custom excluded such an "adopted son-in-law" from the lineage. A sonin-law may also, however, be an adopted son from within the lineage, for the lineage has no rule of exogamy. In fact some communities are said to have had a number of marriages within the lineage or sib. The combination of features that I have just described calls for an explanation. The occurrence of bilateral kinship terminology with kinship groups based on unilateral descent seems to be rare. So also is the occurrence of unilateral kin groups without a rule of exogamy; of 175 societies examined by Murdock (1949, p. 49) they occurred in only three. How do we account for this apparent anomaly? Morever, the statement that an institution has ritual functions only is not wholly convincing. What, we might ask, are the consequences of the kinship system and its ceremonies that have enabled it to spread and to persist?

59 IMPORTANCE OF THE HOUSEHOLD

I suggest that the key to the peculiar configuration of the Okinawan kinship system is to be found in the importance of the household in Okinawan society. Let us first consider the apparent discrepancy of kin terms and affiliation. Bilateral kin terms do indeed seem inconsistent with unilineal affiliation. One group of uncles, aunts, and cousins belong with ego in ego's lineage and sib while another group is out, yet both groups of relatives are called by the same set of terms. Possibly a distinction is unnecessary because there is no exogamic rule and hence no difference between father's and mother's kin in marriageability. The only distinction is in joint worship of ancestors and ultimate place of burial and receiving worship. But another possibility worth considering is that the kinship terms themselves, as they are most frequently used, do not denote relationship to ego but status within a household. Most analyses of kinship terminologies assume implicitly that the point of reference is an individual. In languages where the kin term is invariably accompanied by a possessive pronoun, this assumption is undoubtedly correct. But where the terms as habitually used do not have this explicit personal reference, we may be entitled to wonder. Beardsley has recently (1959, pp. 245-247) suggested that the Japanese kinship terms, as often used, do not take ego as their point of reference but the household. RadcliffeBrown suggested (1948, pp. 54-55, 69-70) something of the sort for the Andaman kinship terminology. The Okinawan kin terms also often seem to take the household as their point of reference, though position within a lineage and age grading of the whole society may be involved as well. 4 Thus when a person addresses an unrelated old man by the term tammee, translated (improperly perhaps) as "grandfather," the term clearly does not denote a kinship relation between these individuals but simply means that the person so addressed is of the status "grandfather" in somebody's household or is of the generation of "grandfathers." Also when an unrelated old woman is referred to with a house name, as Yara-gwaa nu mmee 'the grandmother of the house Little Yara,' she is simply being

identified as "the grandmother" of that house. It might be argued that such terms are used " egocentrically when they are used for real kin. But this is certainly not always true. A man may, for example, call his mother "mother" when he is young, but after his first child is born he calls his mother "grandmother" and his wife "mother." As an Okinawan informant pointed out in discussing this, the system shifts " t o make the child its center." Actually, when a child calls the old lady next door "grandmother," it may not matter, or he may not even know, whether she is a lineal ancestor, a collateral relative, or no kin at all. She is just "the grandmother" of that house and fairly soon the child will learn the house names of his own and all the neighboring houses and the relationships among them as households. He will learn that Yara-gwaa is a branch house of Ufu- Yara (Great Yara) and that Yara-gwaa is in turn the main house of Mii-Yara-gwaa (New Little Yara). These are the important relationships. Some of these considerations regarding terms for grandparents are probably also applicable to Japanese terminology, which also merges lineal and collateral kin in the grandparents' generation. But in Japanese, lineal and collateral kin are distinguished in parents' generation and only the terms for collateral kin are extended to nonkin, so "the father" of an unrelated household is "uncle." But in Okinawan, fathers and uncles are differentiated more by seniority than by lineality; the uncle of a senior line is "father" or "great father" while the uncle of a junior line is "uncle" (again translating loosely). Okinawan usage thus places the uncle within a lineage but does not indicate whether it is ego's or not. (Unfortunately my data are unclear on the extension of these terms for parents and parents' siblings to non-kin, partly because the Japanese terms have largely replaced them for younger speakers. I would expect that a man who is "great father" in his lineage might be called this by non-kin, but am not certain.) CLASS STATUS

Class status as well as generation or household status may also be indicated. In the village of Yamada in Onna-son the descendants of the former gentry class use tammee for "grandfather"

60 while the descendants of the peasantry use usumee. An informant who had relatives in the second ascending generation, mainly of the gentry class but one line of the peasantry class, addressed her gentry grandparents' brothers as tammee but her peasant grandmother's brother as usumee. Therefore it would not be correct to say simply that tammee is the word in the gentry dialect for grandfather and usumee the word in the peasant dialect. In this village the dialect differences consist of little beyond this sort of difference, as far as I could tell. What tammee means here must be "male of grandparents' generation who is a member of the gentry class" or "male of status of grandfather in gentry household." In any case these terms are not relevant to the method of reckoning descent for the purpose of affiliating with the larger kin group. 5 At this point we might consider what can easily be inferred about the history of the Okinawan kinship system. Since the other Ryukyuan languages and Japanese all seem to have bilateral kinship terms, we may reasonably regard this feature as old, part of the common heritage. Also, since rigidly patrilineal kin groups are not common to all the Ryukyuans 6 or the Japanese, we may suspect that they are a recent development on Okinawa. Conceivably they could be an ancient feature surviving only here, but considering historic contacts with China, where patrilineal sibs are the rule, I find it far more likely that the Okinawan sib system is an import from China of no more than a few centuries' antiquity. It seems likely that Chinese-style ancestor worship by patrilineal kin groups was introduced into Okinawa without the usual accompanying features found in China—a bifurcate collateral kinship terminology, sib exogamy, and cross-cousin marriage. The acceptance of patrilineal affiliation need not have disturbed the seemingly bilateral kin terms if these terms are in fact not egocentric in their most common usage, or so I would argue. But why did the Okinawans accept the patrilineal kin groups while rejecting exogamy? R E J E C T I O N OF EXOGAMY

As for exogamy I can only make the rather obvious suggestion that they did not need it. Unilateral descent with exogamic units seems

to be a method a number of societies have used for ruling some biological kin out as social kin and thus making them marriageable. Unilateral descent, exogamy, and preferred marriage with cross-cousins (now culturally defined as nonkin) creates kin groups that stand in permanent affinal relation to each other. We may suspect that this system develops where the affinal tie has become or is in the process of becoming an important basis for exchange or cooperation among social units. Perhaps the Okinawans already had adequate forms of exchange and cooperation based on the local tie at the time when they accepted the principle of patrilineal sibs. Some particular advantages of exogamy in some areas of Chinese society may not have been present on Okinawa. Bernard Gallin, discussing (i960) maternal and affinal relationships— both called cti in ch'i—among Chinese villagers in west-central Taiwan, points to the advantages of having these relationships in other villages. Very important economic advantages come from the fact that even adjacent villages, because of differences in relation to the irrigation systems, may be weeks apart in their agricultural cycles. Differences in times of planting, transplanting, and harvesting rice enable ch'in ch'i in different villages to share seedlings and to exchange labor, which they could not easily do if all were on the same cycle. Gallin also describes other benefits, social and religious, political and mediatory. He concludes that these relationships provide a villager with additional security supplementing that provided within the village, especially by the sib. But he adds (pp. 641-642), "A major limitation in [maternal and affinal] relationships which must be noted is that by their very nature, [they] are seldom carried beyond two or possibly three generations." He does not mention the practice of cross-cousin marriage. But if marriage with mother's brother's daughter is practiced, as it often is in Chinese society (see Hsu, 1949), it would make maternal and affinal relationships identical and permanent." In contrast to the Taiwan plain, Okinawa probably has few if any irrigation systems extensive enough to include several villages and set them on separate cycles of planting and transplanting. Such variation in season that might

61 exist within the area of a few villages would be due only to minor differences in rainfall and soil. s Thus the economic advantage the Taiwanese gain by establishing affinal ties with other villages probably does not exist on O k i n a w a . The political advantages too would have been less available to the peasants of traditional Okinawan society, in which political power was largely in the hands of an e n d o g a m o u s upper class. At any rate, the fact seems to be that the Okinawan village as a whole has traditionally tended toward endogamy. Even recently in some places if a man's daughter married outside the village he had to share the bride price with his fe!low villagers. With local endogamy, sib e x o g a m y would perhaps have given no advantage at all. W h y then did the Okinawans accept patrilineal sibs merely as nonexogamous ceremonial units? Surely not just because ancestor worship was a comfort to them. To point to the relationship ancestor worship has at present to the individual's psychic structure, a relationship I do not doubt exists, would not adequately explain how the system originally took root and spread. T o this end I can only offer what is again a very speculative hypothesis. The requirement that y o u n g e r sons establish branch houses results in an increase in the total number of households in a village whenever this is demographically possible. T h e permanent link between main and branch houses—membership in lineage and sib—establishes an identity for each house and an order for the whole. T h e need felt for ancestor worship—a need largely produced by the enculturation process— provides a strong motivation for keeping the slots in the lineage, once established, filled as w e l l as possible. For example, a decline in the membership of a lineage m a y leave a house site unoccupied for as long as a generation, but if the lineage increases again then the old site will be reoccupied in the name of the former occupant and a tablet with his n a m e will be set up there before any " n e w " branch is established. This practice would have the effect of lessening the chance of loss of households from the village. The insistance that empty slots in the l i n e a g e be filled by replacements taken from the male line prevents the loss of males from the l i n e a g e and the village and provides for the

greatest degree of continuity of males on the same pieces of land. Local e n d o g a m y prevents loss of females. T h e whole system thus seems to have promoted a m a x i m u m stability in the number of persons and the number of households in the village and so in the relationship of men to land. Assuming that the household and the village are themselves efficient units for intensive farming on numerous small plots of land with simple tools, we might then reasonably infer that a kinship system that regulates these units may have developed as an adaptation to these ecological conditions. But of course ecological conditions are not the only determinants in the evolution of such an institution. There is also the total social environment. Perhaps the most important feature of this social environment was the land reapportionment system ( j ' n v a r i seiclo) of the R y u k y u kingdom. Under this system the land belonged in theory to the state, each village was held collectively responsible for a quota of produce as tax, and to ensure that this quota be met the villagers periodically reapportioned the land a m o n g themselves. The precise method of reapportionment varied from village to village, but the person receiving the land (the jincu) was apparently everywhere a house head. This reapportionment system could have stimulated conscious efforts to stabilize the number of households in a village. W a s the state-imposed land system also a determinant in the development of the kinship system? Or did the state simply adapt its policy to features of social organization that had already developed in response to ecological conditions? The land reapportionment system, whatever its ultimate origins, became vitally important to the R y u k y u government after the Japanese feudal state of Satsuma conquered the O k i n a w a n s in 1609 and imposed a tribute upon them. But just before the Satsuma conquest the sweet potato was brought to Okinawa from China; it soon became a staple and since it can be g r o w n in places otherwise less productive it probably contributed greatly to the gradual growth of population that Okinawa evidently experienced during the following centuries. T o what extent did the features of social organization I have described require a gradually growing population?

62 It seems to m e then that a satisfactory explanation o f the Okinawan kinship system would require more than simply a fuller description o f how it works today. It would require a historical reconstruction based on data provided by documented history, archaeology, and even linguistics. It would also require comparative study. For this the R y u k y u Islands are an excellent field, providing as they do a n u m b e r o f small social units that have been able to develop in partial isolation from one another in a series o f environments that are similar but vary slightly in physical features, such as temperature, precipitation, and soil, and in social features, such as size o f population and degree o f contact with the outside world. NOTES I was first on O k i n a w a from J u n e to D e c e m ber o f 1945 as a U.S. naval language officer attached to the military government. Later I did research there from September 1953 to J u n e 1954 together with F. R . Pitts and W . P. Lebra as part o f the S I R I program o f t h e Pacific Science Board. T h e data presented here were obtained on these two trips unless otherwise specified. I am aware that there is considerable relevant material published in J a p a n e s e that I have n o t yet adequately explored. 1

See for example M u r d o c k , 1956, and Beals and H o i j e r , 1959, pp. 2 4 9 - 2 5 2 . 3 W a t a n a b e ( 1 9 4 7 ) found the only functions o f the muriiu to be care o f the t o m b and worship o f the ancestors but he suggests that in villages where the majority o f the people b e l o n g to o n e muncu, as in Shikiya in Chinen-son, cooperation on a village level is m o r e successful. T h i s is probably correct but usually the village is composed o f several sibs and so any cooperative spirit within the sib c a n n o t serve the village as a whole. O n the o t h e r hand it is possible that m o s t villages were originally established by members o f a single sib (see Higa, 1 9 5 0 ) . 2

4 Service ( i 9 6 0 ) has offered a typology o f status terms that uses two dimensions, familistic/nonfamilistic and e g o c e n t r i c / s o c i o c e n t r i c . T h e s e distinctions are no doubt useful, as his subsequent argument demonstrates. B u t must a term be either " e g o c e n t r i c " or " s o c i o c e n t r i c ? " T o assume so may reflect a W e s t e r n individual-

istic bias. Okinawan and J a p a n e s e kinship terms, in the usages described here, m i g h t be called " f a m i l i c e n t r i c " or " d o m i c e n t r i c . " 5 It may be worth n o t i n g in this c o n n e c t i o n that for J a p a n e s e (but probably not O k i n a w a n ) pronouns the c o n n o t a t i o n s o f status sometimes overrule the denotation o f grammatical person. T h e pronoun boku means " I m e " and is generally used by boys and y o u n g men speaking to equals or inferiors. B u t I have heard a middleaged woman, a doctor, using boku for a small boy, reminding him o f her instructions. This usage is somewhat like that o f the patronizing " w e " o f the American primary school teacher for her class ( " W e must put on our t h i n k i n g c a p s " ) or the saleslady for her customer ( " M y , we look nice in that dress"). But in the American usage the speaker is singular and the pronoun plural and so the chance for misunderstanding is slight. In the J a p a n e s e usage it is the clear difference in status that makes the usage unambiguous.

For example, Trude Smith (1961, pp. 54 ff.) reports adoption o f matrilineal kin and adoption o f bridegroom in the village o f Kabira on Ishigaki in Yaeyama. 7 Hsu ( 1 9 4 9 ) discusses several possible reasons for the Chinese preference for marriage with mother's brother's daughter but these have mainly to do with individual motivation for such marriages rather than with the long-term consequences o f the practice. 6

8 Nuttonson (1952, p. 9 9 ) m e n t i o n s " t h e sometimes highly complex and dissimilar physical environment o f some o f the adjacent regions,'' but does n o t indicate how closely spaced such regions m i g h t be.

NOTES O N OKINAWAN KINSHIP TERMS

M y principal informants on kinship terminology were: IA, male, born ca. 1916 at Shuri, o f gentry ( y u k a c c u ) descent; and K Y , female, born ca. 1 9 2 0 at Y a m a d a in O n n a - s o n , in a gentry settlement ( y a a d u i ) . B o t h consulted their mothers on questions o f usage. T h e forms and usages given are Shuri unless otherwise indicated. T h e transcription used is not based o n any proper linguistic analysis. T h e values o f t h e symbols are roughly as in the usual romanization o f J a p a n e s e with the exceptions: s stands

63 word for daughter to the terms used for males, as: cakusi winaguygwa, 'first d a u g h t e r j i n a y winaguygwa, 'second daughter,' etc. There is a plural or collective term coodee 'siblings' (cf. SJ kyodai id.). Also wikii and wunai may be combined as uikiwunai, 'two who are related as brother and sister.' To the question "How manychildrenhave you?" theanswer "uikiwunai" would mean "Two, a boy and a girl." A child of any sibling of either parent is referred to as icuku, 'cousin' ( J itoko id.) and a parent's cousin's child as mata icuku, 'second cousin' ( J mata-itokn id., mata, 'again, further'). Ego's Generation. In reference siblings may be Throughout the system, persons older than differentiated by sex or by age with the terms: ego are addressed by kinship terms, generally u-ikii, 'brother' (cf. uikiga, 'male'), wunai, 'sister' different from those used in reference, and per(cf. uinagu, 'female,' J onna, onago id.), siija, sons younger than ego are addressed by name. 'senior' (cf. J sugureru, 'be superior'?), uiittu, An older brother is called yaccii, an older sister 'junior' (cf. J utoto, 'younger brother,' otaru, 'be mmii. Several older siblings of the same sex are inferior'?). The first two are clearly kin terms. distinguished as: ? ufu-yaccii, 'oldest brother' The second two need not imply kinship; they ('uju-, 'great,' cf. Jo-),jinaij-yaccii, 'second oldest may be used in distinguishing the older and brother,'yaccii-gwaa,'youngest of older brothers' younger of any two persons. Each of the four (-gwaa, 'little,' cf. J ko-), ~>ufu-mmii, 'oldest sismay be used alone to indicate the relationship ter,' etc. In Yamada the gentry use yaccii and of one sibling to another. They may also be mmii but the peasants use different terms, appi used in certain combinations. The Shuri informand abua. IA (but not K Y ) gave an additional ant IA differentiated older siblings as siijaivikii, term of address ?umanii for an older sister after older brother,' and 'siijaivunai, 'older sister,' but her marriage. did not differentiate younger siblings. On the K Y used yaccii and mmii as terms of reference other hand the rural informant K Y differentiated as well as address but IA gave them as terms of older siblings in reference by the terms IA used address only. I suspect that, as with Japanese in address (see below) and differentiated younger terms, since the terms of address are respectful, siblings with the forms ikiga^uttu, 'male junior' properly one ought not to use them in reference (sibling), and inagiPuttu, 'female junior' (sibto one's own kin when speaking with outsiders; ling), commenting that these last two terms but since they are the first terms one hears as a would be used only in identifying someone to a stranger, otherwise simply ~>uttu (Shuri wuttu) or child one tends to use them indiscriminately and must be taught otherwise. the name would be used.

for sh and c for ch; / represents a voiceless bilabial fricative before all vowels; w is roughly as in English when initial but medially becomes a voiced bilabial fricative; >j is the final nasal, which is generally at k position; 5 is a glottal stop. Lengthened sounds are indicated by doubling the symbol. Tone is undoubtedly phonemic but since I did not record it consistently I have omitted it here. The abbreviation J is for Japanese words of native origin and SJ for Sino-Japanese words, that is, Chinese loans in Japanese.

Several siblings of the same sex may be identified by birth order. For brothers the terms are: cakusi, cocci, 'first son' (cf. SJ chakushiid.), jinay, 'second son' (S) jinan), sannay, 'third son' (SJ sannan), yunay, 'fourth son' ( J yonan), gunay, 'fifth son' (SJ gonan), rukunay, 'sixth son' (SJ rokunan). In J the more common term for first son is chonan. In this and in the subsequent terms the -nan is the SJ reading of the character for male and so for daughters -jo, 'female,' is substituted, giving chojo, 'first daughter,' jijo, 'second daughter,' etc. In Okinawan, however, birth order for sisters is indicated by adding the

Cousins older than ego are addressed by the same terms used for older siblings and cousins younger than ego are addressed by name. K Y said that two cousins born in the same year would address each other by name.

First Ascending and Descending Generations. In reference, there are only two basic terms indicating lineal kinship: ~>uya, 'parent' (cf. J oya), and ">kwa, 'child' (cf. J ko). These may be modified as: wikiganu>uya, 'father,' winagumPuya, ' m o t h e r , ' wikigaygwa, 'son,' winaguygwa, 'daughter.' The two kin terms may also be combined to indicate the relationship, uya~>kwa,

64 'parent and child.' The term uarabi, 'child' (cf. J warabe), probably refers primarily to age rather than kinship. (Terms for children by birth order are given above.) In reference, a brother of either parent is xvujasaa, 'uncle' (cf. J fly/), and a sister uubamaa, 'aunt' (cf. J oba). A child of any sibling is miPkwa. A further distinction may be made between wikiga miPkwa, 'nephew,' and winagit miPkwa, 'niece.' ( J has oi, 'nephew,' and mei, 'niece.' Since o- and me- indicate sex the stem must be /. The mii- of miPkwa may possibly be related to J mei, 'niece,' but I think it mote likely that it is mii-, 'new,' an element commonly occurring in house names and probably the same as J «/'/'-, 'new.')

of address would be used with descriptive qualifiers such as house names; this is the practice in Yamada. In address, the fathers and uncles (except for oldest and youngest) of both parents are called tammee and the mothers and aunts (except for oldest and youngest) are called mmee. The oldest brother of either parent is called ''uju-tammee (as is great-grandfather) and the oldest sister ?ufu-mmee. The youngest brother of either is tammee-gwaa and the youngest sister mmee-gwaa. In Yamada the gentry terms are also tammee and mmee but the peasant terms are usumee and haamee. The Shuri commoners are said to use usumee and haamee and the Naha commoners tammee and han'sii.

Cousins of parents are referred to as icuku wujasaa and icuku ivubamaa, children of cousins as icuku miPkwa. In address, there are four terms used alone or with modifications for parents and parents' siblings. Father is addressed as taarii, mother as ayaa. The oldest of the brothers of either parent is addressed as ''ufu-taarii. Other uncles are called either taarii or wuncu, but the youngest of several or any uncle younger than ego is called wuncu-gwaa. The sisters of either parent are similarly called ''ufu-ayaa, ayaa or baa, and baagwaa. Children and children of siblings are addressed by name. Corresponding to the four Shuri terms taarii, ayaa, wuncu, and baa, K Y gave as Yamada gentry terms suu, ammaa, wuzasaa, and baacii. For the first two the Yamada peasants use caca (cf. J chichi, tete, 'father'?) and ammaa. The Shuri commoners are said to u s e » » and ammaa, the Naha commoners caacaa and ann>iaa, and the gentry of Kume-mura in Naha (supposedly of Chinese descent) taarii and ayaa.

More Remote Consanguineal Kin. The term faafuji, 'giandparent' may also be used to mean simply ancestor, but to be more precise one may say sandeemee nit faafuji, 'third generation ancestor' (i.e., great-grandparent), etc. More general terms are ityafaafuji, 'ancestors' (literally, parent-grandparent) and kwa'mmaga, 'descendants' (literally, child-grandchild). ( K Y also gave uyafujias 'first ancestor,' i.e., the founder of a lineage in a particular village.) IA also gave: wujifuji-tammee 'great-grandfather,' mata-tammee 'great-great-grandfather,' mata'mmaga 'greatgrandchild,' and ficPmmaga 'great-great-grandchild.' He was unsure whether the first two have feminine counterparts. The most general term is iveeka 'relative.'

Second Ascending and Descending Generations. The two terms indicating lineal kinship are faafuji, 'grandparent' (cf. J ojiP), and ? mmaga, 'grandchild' (cf. J mago). Grandparents are distinguished as wikiga faafuji, 'grandfather,' and winagu faafuji, 'grandmother,' but my informants did not distinguish grandchildren in this fashion. My Shuri informant gave miPmmaga as sibling's grandchild but no terms of reference for grandparents' siblings. I assume that the terms

Affinal Kin. In reference spouses are wutu 'husband' (cf. J otto) and tuji 'wife' (no J cognate?). Two diadic terms occur: miitunda 'husband and wife' and tujpkwa 'wife and child'. There are no terms of address meaning "Husband" or " W i f e . " A wife may call her husband by the polite second person pronoun unju and he may call her by the familiar pronoun ~>yaa or by name. But after the birth of a child they are more likely to use "Father" and " M o t h e r , " at least in the child's presence. In reference, spouse's first degree kin are: "sitiPuya 'spouse's parent,' wikiisitu brother,' wunai'situ 'spouse's sister' (cf. J shuto 'father-in-law,' shutome 'mother-in-law,' kojuto 'husband's sibling'). ( K Y gave situygwa 'husband's sibling'; she believed wife's sibling was formerly different but could not produce a term.)

'spouse's

65 Before the birth o f a child one is likely to address his or her spouse's father, mother, brothers, and sisters by the terms used by the other. B u t after the birth o f a child all terms change with the child as the new center; both parents and parentsin-law become " G r a n d f a t h e r " and " G r a n d m o t h e r , " siblings-in-law become " U n c l e " and " A u n t " (designated variously), and husband and wife become " F a t h e r " and " M o t h e r . " (IA's wife calls his mother " G r a n d m o t h e r " on all occasions; he calls her " G r a n d m o t h e r " when his children are present but may still call her " M o t h e r " when they are alone.) Children's spouses are referred to as muuku 'son-in-law' (cf. J muko) and yuumi 'daughter-inlaw' ( c f . ) yome) and addressed by name. Spouses o f siblings and other kin are evidently just described by reference to kinship, as "oldest brother's wife," or to household, as "grandmother o f such-and-such a h o u s e " (for a greataunt by marriage); if older than ego they are addressed by consanguineal terms commensurate with the consanguineal relative, the husband o f an older sister as yacc/i, the wife o f father's oldest brother ufu-ayaa, etc. Burd (1952, pp. 6 8 - 7 2 ) gives the kinship terms used in Karimata on Miyako, and Smith ( I 9 6 0 , p. 156) describes the terminology used at Kabira on Ishigaki. In both instances the structure o f the terminology seems similar to that o f Okinawa. M o s t o f the M i y a k o terms appear to be cognates o f the Okinawan terms, the exceptions being grandfather, older brother, and older sister, possibly all three primarily terms o f address. An unpublished list o f Amami terms compiled by Douglas G . Haring also appears largely similar, allowing for phonetic correspondences, except for grandfather, grandmother, father, older brother, and older sister. Comparing the Okinawan ( O ) terms with modern standard Japanese ( J ) terms, we find that they fall into three categories: ( l ) O terms with cognates a m o n g the J terms o f native origin, (2) O terms with Sino-Japanese cognates, and (3) O terms apparently without J cognates. T h e first group includes parent, child, cousin, grandchild, husband, parent-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and probably uncle, aunt, grandparent, and younger sibling. T h e s e are all terms o f reference. They are probably part o f the ancient common heritage, which need not have

been greatly different from the present J system. There are, however, two incongruities. There is a surprising lack o f agreement in sibling terms; there are no J counterparts o f O wik'ti 'brother' and wunai 'sister' and no O counterparts o f J ani 'older brother' (ref.) and ane 'older sister' (ref.). Also, there is an underlying symmetry in J among the two trios o f related terms—chichi 'father,' oji 'uncle,' and ojii or j i j i i 'grandfather'; and haha 'mother,' oba 'aunt,' and obaa or babaa 'grandmother'—a symmetry that is lacking in O . T h e second group o f O terms, those with SJ cognates, include only the term " s i b l i n g s " and the terms distinguishing brothers by birth order, "first son, second s o n , " etc. T h e forms o f these suggest that they have been borrowed from J and necessarily in historic times, certainly after the introduction o f Chinese characters into Japan but possibly before their introduction into Okinawa. T h e third group, the O terms evidently without (modern standard) J cognates, includes older brother, older sister, older married sister, father/uncle, mother aunc, grandfather, grandmother, wife. All but the last are terms o f address. Moreover, these are the terms that vary the most with region and social class. Further, these are the terms that are extended to include collateral as well as lineal kin. T h e only one o f these for which I have heard a popular etymology is suu 'father,' which is identified with the character for master ( J shu/nushi, Mandarin chu). This may also be the second syllable o f usumee 'grandfather' (peasant), the first being the honorific u- ( J 0-). T h e final -mee o f this and other grandparental terms is identified as mee 'before' ( J viae), also an honorific element, but the initial elements have no popular explanation known to me. Is it possible that these terms o f address are loan words? Borrowed directly from China? O r from a medieval Japanese source? Were they imported along with the sib system and ancestor worship? Let us hope that serious linguistic research will answer some o f these questions. REFERENCES BEALS, RALPH L., a n d H A R R Y HOIJER. 1 9 5 9 .

An

Introduction to Anthropology, 2nd ed. New Y o r k , Macmillan. BEARDSLEY, RICHARD K . , J O H N W .

HALL,

and

66 ROBERT E. WARD. 1959- Village J a p a n . Chicago, Univ. o f Chicago. BURD, WILLIAM W .

1952. Karimata,

A

Village

in the Southern Ryukyus. S I R I R e p o r t W a s h i n g t o n , Pacific Science Board. GALLIN, BERNARD. I 9 6 0 . M a t r i l a t e r a l and

3.

Affi-

nal Relationships o f a Taiwanese Village. American Anthropologist 6 2 : 6 3 2 - 6 4 2 . HARING, DOUGLAS G . 1958. K i n s h i p and Family

Relations in the Amami Archipelago. published M S . ) HIGA,

SHUNCHÖ.

1950.

Okinawa

no

(Un-

Sonraku

Soshiki ( " S t r u c t u r e o f the Ryukyuan Rural C o m m u n i t y " ) . Saishin ni okeru Okinawa K e n k y ü G a i k a n ( " A Survey o f Ryukyuan R e s e a r c h " ) , pp. 63 66. T o k y o , M i n z o k u g a k u K y ö k a i ( J a p a n e s e Society o f E t h n o l o g y ) . Hsu,

FRANCIS

L.

K.

1949.

Observations

Cross-Cousin Marriage in China. Anthropologist 4 7 : 8 3 103.

on

American

MURDOCK, G . P. 1949. Social Structure. N e w York, Macmillan. 1956. H o w Culture Changes. In M a n ,

Culture, and Society, ed. by Harry L. Shapiro, pp. 2 4 7 - 2 6 0 . New Y o r k , O x f o r d Univ. Press. NUTTONSON, M . Y . 1952. E c o l o g i c a l Crop G e o g r a p h y and Field Practices o f the R y u k y u Islands, Natural V e g e t a t i o n o f the Ryukyus, and Agro-climatic Analogues in the Northern Hemisphere. American Institute o f Crop Ecology. Washington. RADCLIFFE-BROWN, A. R . 1948. T h e Andaman Islanders. T h e Free Press, G l e n c o e . SERVICE, ELMAN R . I 9 6 0 . K i n s h i p T e r m i n o l o g y and Evolution. American Anthropologist 6 2 : 747-763. SMITH, ALLAN H. I 9 6 0 . T h e Culture o f Kabira, Southern Ryukyu Islands. Proc. o f the American Philosophical Society 1 0 4 : 1 3 4 - 1 7 1 . SMITH, TRUDE. 1961. Social Control in a Southern Ryukyuan Village. Research Studies 29: 51 76, 1 5 1 - 2 0 9 . W a s h i n g t o n State University, Pullman. WATANABE, MASUTARO. 1947. R y u k y u no

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zokudan K o s e i . O k i n a w a B u n k a Sosetsu, ed. by Y a n a g i d a , K u n i o , pp. 253- 268. T o k y o , Chuo-Koron-sha.

Primitive Fishing Methods ASAHITARO N I S H I M U R A

KURUSHIMA, originally called "4>u-syima"* (Lucky Island), is a small island composed of a coral reef covering 13.73 square kilometers, located 6 nautical miles south of Ishigaki Island. As of August 31, 1956, the island supported 196 houses and 1,233 inhabitants. The inhabitants are divided into five communities: namely, ar^is'iN, nakantu, m'endzatu, ur'i, and iku. The people of iku live by fishing; those of 4>ur'i half by fishing and half by farming; and those of the other communities exclusively by farming. In addition, in t h t junta recorded below there is the name of uk'i village which, since 1917, has not existed as a separate community. 1 The junta which I discuss here belongs to the category of dz'iraba-junta.- This kind of song is usually sung by people engaged in cultivating the soil in a dz'iraba (private farm) in a community with the 4>uN-system, a mutual aid system involving the reciprocal exchange of labor. The song is, therefore, not accompanied by dancing. The text of the /«»to entitled "pyengaN turyejo" is as follows. 3

3. ar'is'iN m'ijarab'i jo \ sur'i p'i:nasaki nu gisikuN ko:s'~ejo: suri tuiirukaraja gisikuN ko :s'ejo: mataN b'ik'ir'eta:jo sur'i jubusaN nu irabutsi tur'ejo: sur'i tuiirukaraja irabutsi tur'ejo: 4. ikumura m'ijarab'i jo\ sur'i jamadumari nu s'innama sukiuja.jo tuiirukaraja sinnania sukuija'.jo mataN b'ik'ir'eta: jo sur'i nubarumut'i nu makigaN tur'ejo-. sur'i tuiirukaraja maktgaN tur'ejo: 5. ur'imura m'ijarab'i jo\ sur'i ir'ipidza: nu tamam'ina p'isya\jo\ tuiirukaraja tamam'ina p'isya.jo\ mataN b'ik'ir'etajo\ sur'i suri nu irabun'i sikijo: sur'i tmirukaraja irabun'i sikijo: 6. 4>ukyimura m'ijarab'i jo: sur'i mura nu kus'i nu sindam'i pyisya:jo: sur'i tmirukaraja sindam'i pyis'a :jo: mataN byik'ir'etajo: sur'i iripyidza: nu ukurabyi sikijo: sur'i tmirukaraja 4>ukurabyisikijo:

pyengaN turyejo

This song may be translated into English thus, the native terms being explained in notes:

1. myendzatu m'ijarab'i jo: sur'i mai nu p'i: nu p'engaN tur'ejo: suryi tuiirukaraja pyengaN turyejo: mataN byikyiryetajo: suryi pyi: nu ptika nu fiu:mutsi uts'ejo: sur'i tuiirukaraja $u:mutsi uts'ejo: 2. nakantu m'ijarab'i jo: sur'i utsipata nu myi:gakyi turyejo: suryi tuiirukaraja myi:gakyi turyejo: mataN byikyiryetajo\ sur'i mab'iutsi nu bo:da makyijo sur'i tiuirukaraja bo\da mak'ijo * D u e t o unavailability of t y p e for s o u n d s usually

1. Maidens of m'endatu village, there! Catchp'engan-czabs in the lagoon in front of the village, there! If you try to catch some, do not fail to catch pyengan! N o w lads! D o fish for $u:mutsi at the outside of the lagoon! If you try to catch some, do not fail to catch fiu:mutsi! n o t e d b y a cedilla, a s u p e r i o r y has b e e n s u b s t i t u t e d .

67

68 2. Maidens of nakantu village, there! Gather myi\gakyi at the edge of the deep, there! I f you try to take some, gather myi:gakyi, there! Now lads! Encircle bo:da in the mabi completely with net, there! If you try to catch some, do encircle bo:da! 3. Maidens of aryis>in village, there! Crush rocks and take oysters at p'i.nasaki, there! Now lads! Try to catch wrasses in ajubusaNnet, there! If you try to catch some, do catch wrasses! 4. Maidens of iku village, there! Scoop i-innama at jamadumari, there! If you try to catch some, do catch s'innama! Now lads, there! Try to catch the makigaNcrab in the field around nubaru, there! If you try to catch some, catch the makigaNcrab! 5. Maidens of uryimura village, there! Gather tar>iamyina shellfish on the western fringe of the reef, there! Now lads, there! Try to spear irabun-i! If you try to catch some, do spear irabun'i! 6. Maidens of ukurabyi in the western part of the lagoon, there! If you try to catch some, spear ukurabyi, there! In the above junta, note the division of labor between the sexes, women being mainly engaged in catching maritime products merely by hand, while men are occupied in angling, net-fishing, and spearing. Here I wish to discuss several types of primitive fishing gear used in the Ryukyu Islands, which I observed during my recent field trip, and to distinguish thereby the several fishing activities referred to in the above junta. Moreover, I wish to explain the ethnological significance of these types of fishing gear. By "primitive fishing gear" I refer to traditional simple fishing gear mainly used in the barrier reefs (p'i), fringing reefs (p y idza), and lagoons {¡no) around the islands. The reason for concentrating on fishing gear is that it comprises the material aspects of the various patterns of fishing activities, and its study constitutes an essential and

fundamental antecedent to study of fishermen's culture. In fact, fishing gear is greatly affected by fishing methods, while fishing methods are closely connected with ( l ) oceanographic conditions and (2) the habits of fish. With regard to oceanographic conditions, in the Ryukyus, where the islands are encircled by coral reefs, dragnets were not developed, but entangle nets or round haul nets like jubusaN are used in the lagoons. Concerning fish habits, the case of spearing mukubu in Hendza Island may be taken as a good example. Islanders are amazingly aware of the habits of various fish: for example, they know that mukubu habitually rest from 3 to 4 p.m. against a reef which is covered with seaweed on the sea bed. Taking advantage of this fact, fishermen spear them from an angle outside of the fish's line of vision with an implement called kaju-iguN, which is made of dzac-its'a, wood heavy enough to sink. Next I shall turn to an explanation of the most primitive fishing methods suggested in the above junta. CATCHING BY HAND AND FOOT

In this case the hand or the foot itself is the fishing gear. T o this category belong crab catching by the myendzatu maidens (1st verse), gathering of myi:gakyi by the nakantu maidens (2nd verse), oyster gathering by the aryisyiN maidens (3rd verse), and gathering of tamamyina by the uryimura maidens (5th verse). Kurushima islanders seize octopus, which are called "kudaku," sitting on the seaweed ukura, while engaging in idzarama 'fishing during the night' in the village of ar'is'iN. On the other hand, in Oogami Island ear shells are caught by hand; and in Hendza Island, when Corsican weeds are gathered, seed oil is usually sprinkled over the surface of the water as a hydroscope. Oil thus used is called "water-smoother," vakamaravu ni wai, in the Fiji Islands. The gathering of Corsican weeds is called "its-agwami" on Hendza Island. Fish are also caught by hand in the Ryukyus. On Taketomi Island (originally tak'iduN) at early dawn on the seventh of every month when the tide is at its lowest ebb, women go to the seashore carrying a basket, called "anku" or "mad'inna," which they hang around their neck.

69 Each picks up a stone a m o n g those scattered in the lagoon and turns it round and round over the basket, so that small fish hiding in the many holes of the stone fall out into the basket. O n this island, such a way of fishing is called 4>ukurakatsyi. At N a g o on the main island of Okinawa, children dive into the sea where the water is up to their neck and dig a hole about 20 cm deep and 70-80 cm in diameter in the sandy bottom. They then catch by hand fish which happen to enter the hole. The fish caught in this way is the so:dzyigwa. The " N a n t o Zatsuwa" (Chat about the Southern Islands), published 133 years ago, mentions that irabunyi {.Laticauda semifasciata Reinwardt) were caught by fishermen in their left hand as they swam in theseaaround theRyukyus (Nagoshi 1933:141). In the Yaeyama archipelago, a strange phenomenon occurs in January or February, when the temperature of the water suddenly changes. Then fish swimming in the ino (lagoon) float on the water and are driven ashore. They are, therefore, easily caught by hand. This kind of fish is called "cyikku7iju" in the Amami archipelago (Iwakura 1941:168). An example of catching marine animals by foot is the crab-catching called "tsungan-fum," practiced by women in Hisamatsu village on Miyako Island. It is said that if a man catches crabs in this way, he is certain to be ridiculed by everyone. This way of catching crabs is practiced between the fifth and eighth m o n t h of the lunar calendar. Since crabs hide rapidly in the sandy sea bed if they feel someone approaching, a woman walks into the water breast-deep and tries to pinch a crab between the big and middle toes of one foot while searching for the crab with the sole of the other foot. In connection with these primitive fishing methods, the question of the ownership of a fishing ground is of great interest. O n Taketomi Island as well as at Hisamatsu village on Miyako Island, fishermen individually own their octopus hole, which is hereditary. Conflicts sometimes arise over the ownership of fishing grounds. Concerning these difficulties, a proverb relates: "Trouble about a woman is temporary, but trouble about a fishing ground is permanent" (myiduN f3a nadza fia nutsi tu kugama, iN fia nadza nutsi ga pad a). O n Okinoerabu Island in the Amami archi-

pelago, the location of an octopus hole is kept strictly secret from all except the owner's successor, his son. When the owner goes to catch octopus, he is so cautious that he never approaches it whenever he feels someone is coming close to it (Kashiwa 1954:84). O n Kikaijima in the same archipelago, the ownership of an octopus hole is said to be inherited matrilineally (Iwakura 1941:104). It is the same in the case of J a p a n : on Tobishima in Japan such a hole is regarded as household property, and in case the owner's daughter marries, it is transferred to her. In the early period of the Sakai Clan, the owner of an octopus hole used to present eight dried octopuses to the daimyo or feudal lord every year (Nagai 1951:43). At Kitakoura of Sado Island, a takose (octopus hole) is inherited from generation to generation (Yanagita 1939:23). Again in the Ryukyus, exclusive fishing rights exist on a particular ledge in Kasi on Irabu Island west of Miyako Island, while in Hisamatsu village hereditary individual ownership of reefs ( j a t s i ) is admitted. According to Nippold (1954:12), supplying labor and the discovery of valuable natural products are prerequisites to the acquisition of ownership a m o n g the most primitive gatherers of natural products. It is therefore quite natural that the discovery of a favorable fishing ground should result in the establishment of ownership rights, and such a primitive form of ownership has remained for a long time both in Japan and in Okinawa where living space is limited and fishing techniques are very poor. It is naturally quite difficult to indicate ownership of underwater sites. Consequently their ownership is kept secret by the owner and is inherited from generation to generation. O n the contrary, distinct indication of ownership on land is quite easy, so one finds many ownership signs, ukyi or saN is placed next to or on the body of a sick person or a child to avert the "evil eye." This usage shows that the ukyi or saN not only indicates ownership, but also has a magico-religious effect. Personally, I doubt the opinion of Nippold that a mark of ownership has no magico-religious meaning, but is "eine völlige rationale Angelegenheit" (Nippold 1954:10). It may be concluded, therefore, that underwater ownership must be kept secret owing to the difficulty of making it clear, while on land it must be made known to the public so as not to be infringed 011 by others. F I S H I N G G E A R U S E D AS A H A N D

EXTENSION

Ethnologists K . Birket-Smith (1956:76) and K . Dittmer (Adam and Trimborn 1958:211) regard a tool as a "Projektion" of a human organ. From the viewpoint of the history of thought, the origin of this opinion may be traced back to Kapp's Grundlinien eitler Philosophie der Technik (Stein 1906:24). However, at the transitional stage of development of fishing gear, some implements are not yet completely independent of the human organ and remain combined with it. In other words, such fishing gear cannot be regarded as a perfect objectification of a particular function of a human organ. An example of this may be seen in the mugamyi operation in Hisamatsu village on Miyako Island. In mugamyi, mu means "seaweed" and gamyi "gathering." The gamyi procedure is practiced by two persons in the lagoon as follows: one person drives fish towards a round basket made of grass fibers called kadza, which is held by another person standing about 50 meters ahead in the lagoon. In this case the fish driver, by grasping a bundle of Miscanthus as long as his arm (90 cm. long and 10 cm. in diameter) in both hands, increases the length of his own arm so as to facilitate the catching. Miscanthus is used because fish are frightened of land grass. An additional instance of fishing gear in a transitional stage of development relates to worn-out tools utilized as fishing gear. This use of worn-out tools is in accordance with Wundt's principle of "Heterogonie des Zweckes." In the Ryükyüs, a worn-out tool is often used as fishing gear. For example, Oogami islanders use

zyupyira, an agricultural tool of a spatula form, for beating fish to death. On the other hand, the inhabitants of simtidzi of Aragusuku Island employ a knife called jamaN^arasi while torchlight fishing at night (idzari), and those in ar'is'iN do the same (idzarama). Taketomi islanders cut fish named Ntsiba with a knife (jarjarast). This way of fishing is called kira, and is also practiced on Udo Peninsula in Kyushu. In the case of night fishing, they cut at the back of fish with a worn-out kitchen knife while the fish are napping under water. This primitive fishing method, called "jogiri," is also practiced in various other areas: for example, at Uvea in Melanesia (Burrows 1937:103), at Rupatal Lake near Pokhala in Kathmandu, and among the Kadan tribe of southern India (Ehrenfels 1952:35).' All these cases belong to the category of "la peche a l'assommoire" according to G. Montandon (1934:239). Attention may now be given to the spear used on Kurushima. As seen in the phrase "irabuiji sikijo" in the fifth verse of the junta, Kurushima fishermen spear fish in the lagoon and call spearing "tsikhvadza." tsiki derives from the words tsikiN 'to spear' and uadza 'art.' The spear used in ikumura is called "i:guN," and has a head of iron and a wooden shaft of paper mulberry. The spear, about 5 m. long, is also called "syi:mye-u:giN," which is supposed to reflect the native idea that the spearhead is, as it were, an extension of the human nail, since syi:?uye means "nail." On the other hand, the spear shaft is called kabi-i\guN (kabi 'paper mulberry'). An elastic cord is fastened at its end. When a fisherman uses the spear, he pulls the cord up to a point about 0.6 m. from the end of the shaft and grasps the shaft with the cord at that point and then swiftly releases it aiming at the fish. This kind of a spear is used in Japan as well. Although it might have been devised recently, the idea itself reminds us of a rudimentary form of spear gun. Although the spear is also called "iguN" in Hendza Island and Kudaka Island near the Okinawa mainland, it is noteworthy that it is called "juN" in aryisyiN and nakantu on Kurushima. Since juN means 'bow,' we are led to suppose that fish may have been shot with arrows in early times. Reference may be made to the magical power

71 o f rhe spear shaft. In simudzu Island the shaft is called "ti:yguN." The shaft, which has a length o f 0.75 meters is made of dasike wood, which has a strong magical power. When beaten by an adz-i (a subsidiary tool of a loom) made of this wood, for example, a man is supposed to be killed instantly. The art of spearing requires a high degree of dexterity. According to a fisherman on Hendza Island, he spears fish while they are bending their bodies in order to eat seaweed. The fish then rise up to the surface of the water with the spear still in them, turning their bodies round and round. In connection with these primitive fishing methods, the use of oil before the adoption of the hydroscope should be mentioned. We have already noted its use in the case of seaweed gathering on Hendza Island. There are other similar cases: on Ikema Island (near Miyako Island) lard, colza oil, and later petroleum were used until a hydroscope was made of sisiki wood 8 0 years ago. (This hydroscope is 7.4 cm long and 4.2 cm in diameter, and has a 3-cm hole in the center.) Also in Japan at Minamigyotoku near TSkyo, rotten fish intestines were put in a bamboo tube, sipped into the mouth, and blown upon the surface of the water by fishermen to make spearing easy. The use of oil, both vegetable and animal, as a substitute for the hydroscope is found in various places in Japan: e.g., in Sado, San'in, Kanto, and Kyushu. This way of fishing with the aid of oil is called "torase," "toraji," "toraciki," or "abura-naga\i" in Japan (Yanagita and Kurata 1937:226; Yanagita 1949:136). A similar procedure is followed in Oceania: the Fijians spread oil cr chewed co conut over the surface of the sea water (Deane 19'21:169). The spreading of oil over the water for the above purpose is effective especially on the coral reef where the water is clear. ANGLING

In angling (idzu-ho\st), the term "uts'ejo" in the first verse of the above junta means "fishing with a line" according to Kurushimans. If the principle of line fishing is drawing up fish by usang a line, a particular fishing method called "Ndzi-bura" in Taketomi Island and "nudzyijubyi" or " nudz> iko-jub-i" on Hendza Island may

be one of the most primitive ways of line fishing. nudzy iko-juby i is a fishing method in which a string or cord, through which several byigyiburas (male bura shell) are passed and fastened, is cast into the water, and when the shell is seized by Octopus ocellatus, the string is carefully pulled until the octopus can be caught by hand. Noteworthy in this connection is the stone widely used as a sinker in the Ryukyus. Angling which needs a stone as a sinker is called "isyimatsya" on Ishigaki Island, "is'imatja" in Nago, and ")Nmidz y ikt" on Hendza Island. In this method of fishing, a piece of meat, cuttlefish, or jururu (Stolephorus delicatulus Benett) is used as bait. A line with baited hook is wound around a stone and cast into the water. When the stone reaches the sea bottom, it is shaken off the line. Fishing in this way is practiced not only in the Ryukyus but also on Okinoerabu Island (Kashiwa 1954:72), on Kikaijima (Iwakura 1941: 47) in the Amami archipelago, in the Solomon Islands (Ivens 1927:384), and on Tahiti (Legand 1950:148 149). In Japan, it is called " makikobo\i" 'scattering and shedding of pasted bait,' and is prevalent along the western coast of Izu Peninsula (Fishery Bureau, 1912:254 255). 5 But, in the case of makiknbo\i, besides the bait attached to the hook, bait is pasted on the stone so that it scatters in the water when the stone is dropped. The same is true in Tahiti and on Ishigaki Island. F1SHWEIR

O f great ethnological interest is the fishweir of piled-up stones. The phrase "makyiutsi nu" in the second verse of the above junta is translated by Toso Miyara (1954:128) as "within the fishing ground." However, my informant avers it should be translated as "within the fishweir," for early times several stone fishweirs existed along the coast of aryisyin and iku villages on Kurushima, though they cannot be found there at present. I believe there were many fishweirs in former times in the Ryukyus, even though they were smaller than the present ones. As a matter of fact, the use of fishweirs is very old. This is proved by the article recently published by J . D. Clark stating that one of the oldest fishweirs can be traced back to the Pithecanthropus phase of hominid evolution in

72 Africa (Clark 1960:317). If so, this African example is incredibly ancient in comparison to the weir remains at Boylston Street in Boston, presumed to be 4,000 years old (Johnson 1942, 1946). According to Erhard Rostlund, the weirs may have evolved more than once, and "because of relative simplicity of principle and chance of direct copy from nature, very great age can be assumed" (Rostlund 1952:103). The fishweir built of piled stones in the Ryukyus has diverse appellations according to the district: namely, kakion Ishigaki and Kurushima; katsi on Taketomi; kaki in Karimata on Miyako Island; kasi on Iriomote (originally iri-muti) Island; katsi in Shiraho; kasi on Aragusuku; kumii on Yonaguni; kats-i on Hendza Island, etc. In general, the kaki is semicircular in shape, 70-200 meters in diameter; it projects out from the shore with or without an opening about 2 meters in width at the farthest edge. One type of kaki found in Karimata has a square outermost part, where fishermen fish with a net like the sadyi or ukuruaN, and where they have exclusive fishing rights. This type of kaki has a wall 660 meters long, 1 meter high, and 0.54 meter deep. Most noteworthy is the weir called "nagaki" on the main island of Okinawa. It is square in shape with one side facing the sea 4.5 meters long and its lateral sides 3.6 meters in length. From the end of each side projects a wall about 82 meters long at an angle toward the coast. In general, the nagaki occur in pairs, one for major tide (hetanamasi) use and the other to serve on minor tide (utsi-namasi) occasions. Usually several pairs are constructed at one place, one of them habitually owned by a nuru (priestess) (Yanagita 1947:297 if). In view of this last fact, a close relationship may be recognized between kaki—primitive fishing gear from the technical viewpoint—and religion. This relationship is also endorsed by the fact that, on Taketomi Island, an ugaN (sanctuary) stands facing katsi, and a ni:raN stone, reminiscent of the batupemali in Indonesia, is erected in front of the ugaN on the shore. Also in Japan, a stone fishweir called "sukki" has a close connection with the worship of Ebisu, a god of fishery. It is of great interest that on Shimabara Peninsula in Kyushu, which is largely affected by the outer sea from the oceanographic view-

point, the coast line, extending over 47 kilometers, has many sukki in a row, not a few having an area of 6 to 7 acres and a height of 3 meters. Several others exist at Yue, Udo Peninsula, and at Tobase Island in Kyushu. Without doubt, the economic role played by these sukki prior to the development of the modernized and mechanized fishing is worthy of note. For example, in 1881 a sukki covering a space of 7.2 acres in Ariake village was filled with a huge number of grey mullets. For this reason the owner of this sukki, named Matsurnoto, has been called "Bora D o n , " meaning " M r . Mullet," and a monument has been constructed for the consolation of the souls of the dead mullets. Stone weirs are also found in Formosa (formally named "shih-hu") (Taiwan Suisan Kai 1933:39; Boko Cho 1936:82 ff), Melanesia, and Polynesia: for example, in East New Guinea (Neuhauss 1911:294), Futuna (Burrows 1936: 146), Samoa (Krämer 1903:188), Tahiti (Legand 1950:177), Fiji and also on the south coast of Korea (named "sok-pany-jon") (No-Sho-Ko-Bu 1908:635). According to Professor Yoshida of Nagasaki University, the stone fishweirs on Shimabara were introduced from Korea. However, even if diffusion of the weir between these two areas is proved historically, the facts seem to be that the course of this diffusion was from Shimabara to Korea. FISHING N E T

In the third verse of the above junta, there appears the word "jubusaN." In reference to jubusaN, Eijun Kishaba, a native scholar in Ishigaki Island, has analyzed the word as follows: ju 'night,'pus'i 'drying,' and aN 'net.' Therefore, jubusaN means "net used during ebb tide at night" (Kishaba 1934:310). It seems, however, that the word is composed of ju, 4>u:sa (tide), and aN. The jubasaN consists of the uta (covering net), ukuruaN (bag-net), bagiaN (inner wing), and ti:aN (outer wing). This net is laid on the sunken bottom of the lagoon in order to catch fish which seek food during the daytime in the lagoon and go back to the deep sea in the evening. In general, this fishing method is practiced during the season from November to April. The kinds of fish caught by this net are

73 auju, irafyutsi, and is'inmi. Besides this net, there are other nets on Kurushima: e.g., waryidzyikai, syinakakyija (called "tsyinakakyija" in Nago on Okinawa mainland), anbus'i, and jatsuramyi. Concerning the origin of the fish net, a man of 70 years of age in iku village told me the following story. In ancient times there lived a man named amawar-i who had been suffering from daja (polio) since he was 12 or 13 years old, and was therefore left alone in the mountains to live in a cave. However, this gave him a fortunate opportunity to invent a net for catching fish, since he was taught by spiders in the cave how to catch insects with their webs. It is said that he first tried to catch fish with a net at jonabaru seashore. However, the first net may not have been an artificial one made by man copied after a spider's web, but rather a spider's web itself. This seems to be revealed by the fact that spider's webs are used as fishing lines in Nue (Loeb 1926:96) and as a net in the Fiji Islands (Liversidge 1921:135). Liversidge describes this natural net as follows. "He [the native] took a piece of reed and bent it at a circular form and tied it. Then he fixed a handle which he held. Then he went to the bush and beat or waved the circle in the strong spider webs there until he had it covered. The trap thus made was laid on the top of water. . . . The fish would come up and would be caught by the dorsal and swimming fins." In view of this, it seems logical that the spider's web was used as a natural net in early cultural history. FISH POISONING

Finally the fish poisoning (idzube\syi) practiced on Kurushima may be briefly discussed, although no reference to it appears in the above junta. As is well known, this fishing method is widespread in the Old World as well as in the New World, and the kinds of poison used for this purpose are in fact numerous. In Indonesia, for example, 345 kinds of poison are used in this manner, according to M. Greshoff (Stibbe 1921:384). 6 Fish poisoning is called "be\syi" or "idzubesyi" (idzu 'fish' and besyi 'intoxication') in iku village. For poisoning fish, leaves of myidzo\sa are pounded and scattered on the surface of sea water. In some cases water in which black tre-

pang (kur y idziky ira in ikumura; 4>uimura: community located in the western part of the north coast of Kurushima. iryipyidza: ir'i 'west'; pyidza 'fringing reef.' tamamyina: a species of shellfish. Eaten boiled. pyisyajo:: imperative of p'isuN 'to gather.' sunyi: shallow underwater reef. irabun'i: Laticauda semifasciata Reinwardt. sikijo:: imperative of siktN 'to spear.' 4>ukyimura: community which has not existed since 1917. sindamyi: snail. 4>uk//rab'i: Alonacaiithus cirrhifer Temminck & Schlegel. REFERENCES ADAM, L . , a n d

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Lehrbuch der Völkerkunde. Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke. ALOCH, A. 1952. A naturalist in Indian Seas; or, Four years with the Royal Indian Marine Surveyship "Investigator." London: John Murray. ANONYMOUS. 1935. Iro Setsuden. Translated by Seibin Shimabukuro, from the Chinese. Tokyo: Gakugei Sha. BIRKET-SMITH, KAJ. 1956. G e s c h i c h t e der K u l -

tur. Translated by Hans Dietschy from the Danish. Zürich: Mouton. BOKO CHO [The Pescadores Agency] (Editor). 1936. Boko Cho Yoran (An outline of the Pescadores Agency). Taipei. BURROWS, E. G. 1936. Ethnology of Futuna. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 138. 1937. Ethnology of Uvea (Wallis Island). Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 145. CLARK, J . DESMOND. I960. Human ecology during Pleistocene and later times in Africa south of the Sahara. Current Anthropology 1:307-324.

76 DARWIN, C. 1 8 9 1 . J o u r n a l o f researches i n t o the natural history and g e o l o g y o f t h e c o u n t r i e s visited d u r i n g t h e v o y a g e s o f H. M . S. " B e a g l e " r o u n d t h e w o r l d ( 1 0 t h e d i t i o n ) . Sir J o h n L u b b o k ' s H u n d r e d B o o k s (2). DEANE,

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AND COMMERCE (Editor). 1 9 1 2 . N i p p o n suisan hosai-shi (Fishing m e t h o d s and fishing gear in J a p a n ) , V o l u m e 2. T o k y o : Suisanshoin. GILL, W . W . 1 8 8 5 . J o t t i n g s f r o m t h e Pacific. R e l i g i o u s Tract Society. L o n d o n . IVENS, W . G . 1 9 2 7 . M e l a n e s i a n s o f t h e S o u t h east S o l o m o n Island. L o n d o n : K e g a n Paul. IWAKURA, ICHIRO. 1 9 4 1 . K i k a i j i m a g y o g y o m i n z o k u (Folk fishery o n K i k a i Island). K i k a i j i m a C h o s a S h i r y o , N u m b e r 4. T o k y o : Attic Museum. JOHNSON, F. (Editor). 1 9 4 2 . T h e B o y l s t o n street fish weir. Papers o f t h e R o b e r t S. P e a b o d y F o u n d a t i o n f o r A r c h a e o l o g y , V o l u m e 2. 1 9 4 6 . M a n in N o r t h e a s t e r n N o r t h A m e r ica. Papers o f t h e R o b e r t S. P e a b o d y F o u n d a t i o n f o r A r c h a e o l o g y , V o l u m e 3. KASHIWA, T. 1 9 5 4 . O k i n o e r a b u - t o M i n z o k u s h i ( F o l k w a y s o n O k i n o e r a b u Island). O s a k a : Ryosho Bunko Kankokai. KISHABA, EIJUN. 1 9 2 8 . T r a d i t i o n a l fishery Y a e y a m a . S h i m a (Island) 2 : 2 9 9 - 3 2 2 . KRAMER, AUGUSTIN.

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in

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E n t w u r f einer M o n o g r a p h i e m i t b e s o n d e r e B e r i i c k s i c h t i g u n g D t s c h . S a m o a s , Bd. 2. Stuttg a r t : E. S c h w e i z e r b a r t i s c h e V e r l a g s b u c h handlung. KUROIWA, K . 1 8 9 5 . M a k k a n n o t o r i k a t a ( H o w t o catch " m a k k a n " ) . D o h b u t s u g a k u zasshi (Journal of Zoology) 7 : 3 9 5 - 3 9 6 . LEGAND, M . 1 9 5 0 . C o n t r i b u t i o n à l ' é t u d e des m é t h o d e s de p ê c h e dans les Territoires Français du P a c i f i q u e sud. J o u r n a l de la S o c i é t é des O c é a n i s t e s 6 : 1 4 1 - 1 8 4 . LEROI-GOURHAN,

ANDRE.

1954.

Évolution

et

t e c h n i q u e s : M i l i e u et techniques. Paris: A l b i n Michel. LIVERSIDGE, A . 1 9 2 1 . V a n i s h i n g c u s t o m s in the Fiji Islands. M a n 2 1 : 1 3 5 .

1 9 5 4 . G e i n o k a to shite n o kani (The crab as a p e r f o r m e r ) . K o k u g a k u i n zasshi ( J o u r n a l of K o k u g a k u i n University) 55: 124-132. 1 9 5 5 . M a n n y o - s h u to R y u k y u n o k a y o ( M a n n y o - s h u p o e t r y and s o n g s in R y u k y u ) in M a n n y o - s h u shusei (The C o m p l e t e M a n n y o s h u ) , Ed. by Hisataka S a w a g a t a et al. V o l u m e 1 1 , pp. 3 0 7 - 3 2 8 . T o k y o : H e i b o n Sha. MONTANDON, G . 1 9 3 4 . L ' O l o g é n è s e c u l t u r e l l e : T r a i t é d ' e t h n o l o g i e c y c l o c u l t u r e l l e et d'erg o l o g i e s y s t é m a t i q u e . Paris: P a y o t . NAGAI, S. 1 9 5 1 . T o b i s h i m a shi ( D e s c r i p t i o n o f T o b i s h i m a Island). Y a m a g a t a : K o b u n d o . NAGOSHI, SAGENTA. ( D i e d in 1 8 2 8 ) 1 9 3 3 . N a n t o z a t s u w a (Chats a b o u t t h e S o u t h e r n Islands). Edited by R y u i c h i Nagai. K a g o s h i m a : N a g a i . NEUHAUSS, R. 1 9 1 1 . D e u t s c h - N e u G u i n e a , B d . l . Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. NIPPOLD, W . 1 9 5 4 . D i e A n f ä n g e der E i g e n t u m s bei den N a t u r v ö l k e r n und die E n t s t e h u n g des Privateigentums. 's-Gravenhage: M o u t o n & Co. NO-SHO-KO-BU,

SUISAN K Y O K U

(Fishery

Bu-

reau, D e p a r t m e n t o f A g r i c u l t u r e , C o m m e r c e and I n d u s t r y ) (Editor). 1 9 0 8 . C h o s e n n o suisan (Fishery in K o r e a ) , V o l u m e 1. Seoul. OHSHIMA, HIROSHI. 1 9 3 5 a . O k i n a w a san n o shok u y o n a m a k o n o shurui t o g a k u m e i ( K i n d s o f e d i b l e t r e p a n g and t h e i r scientific designat i o n s ) . B u l l e t i n o f the Faculty o f A g r i c u l t u r e , K y u s h u Imperial U n i v e r s i t y 6 : 1 3 9 - 1 5 4 . 1935b. Yaeyama no dobutsu (Animals in Y a e y a m a ) . D o b u t s u o y o b i s h o k u b u t s u ( A n i m a l s and plants) 5 : 9 6 3 - 9 7 6 . ROSTLUND, ERHARD. 1 9 5 2 . Freshwater fish and fishing in N a t i v e N o r t h A m e r i c a . U n i v e r s i t y o f C a l i f o r n i a P u b l i c a t i o n s in G e o g r a p h y , V o l u m e 9. STEIN, L U D W I G .

1906. Die Anfänge der

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77 schlichen Kultur. Aus Natur und Geisteswelt S a m m l u n g wissenschaftlich-gemeinverständlich Darstellungen 93 B d e n . Leipzig: D r u c k und Verlag von B . G . T e u b n e r . STIBBE, D . G . 1921. Encyclopaedic van Nederlandsch-Indie, V o l u m e 4. s'Gravenhage: Martinus N i j h o f f and Leiden: N . V . v H. E. J . Brill. TAIWAN SUISAN KAI (Formosan Society o f Fishery) (Editor). 1933. Taiwan Suisan yoran (An outline o f Formosan Fishery). Taipei. TASHIRO, Y . 1888. M a k k u h a n - g a n i n o setsu (A view o f the M a k k u h a n - c r a b ) . D o b u t s u gaku zasshi ( J o u r n a l o f Z o o l o g y ) 1 : 7 6 - 8 2 . UCHINO, J . K a n k y o goi ( R e g i o n a l glossary:

U d o and its vicinities), M i n z o k u , 14. T o k y o . YANAGITA,

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Bunrui kaison goi (Classified glossary maritime villages). T o k y o : Iwanami.

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YANAGITA, KUNIO (Editor). 1939. K i t a k o u r a minzokushi (Folkways in K i t a k o u r a ) . Zenk o k u M i n z o k u s h i S o s h o , N u m b e r 1. T o k y o : M i n z o k u g a k u K e n k y u j o (Institute o f Folklore). 1947. O k i n a w a bunka sosetsu (Essay on Okinawan culture). T o k y o : C h u o K o r o n Sha. 1949. K a i s o n seikatsu no kenkyu (Studies on life in maritime villages). T o k y o : Nihon Minzoku Gakkai.

Spiritual Predominance of the Sister TOICHI MABUCHI

THE

BELIEF IN T H E SPIRITUAL

l i v i n g or d e a d , has the p o w e r to protect her b r o t h e r f r o m evil influences. T h e sister herself, as well as her spirit, p o s s e s s e s the p o w e r to bless a n d curse her brother. O l d m e n still r e m e m b e r that, in f o r m e r d a y s when they were still y o u n g , a b o y w a s i n s t r u c t e d by his parents n o t to b e h a v e r o u g h l y toward his sister lest her spirit, if not the sister herself, b e c o m e a n g r y and b r i n g s o m e m i s f o r t u n e t o the b o y . O n t h e o t h e r h a n d , t h e girl w a s t a u g h t t o m a i n t a i n a friendly relat i o n s h i p with her b r o t h e r , o n w h o m s h e w o u l d rely in v a r i o u s ways in her a d u l t life. T h e eldest s o n inherits t h e greater part o f the f a m i l y property, b o t h secular a n d ritual, to c o n t i n u e the stem family line, a n d y o u n g e r s o n s start b r a n c h f a m i l i e s . S t e m f a m i l y a n d b r a n c h families c o l l a b o r a t e at least for a few g e n e r a t i o n s , especially with regard to the a n c e s t o r cult. M e a n while, the sisters usually marry o u t o f their natal f a m i l i e s a n d b e c o m e m o r e or less incorp o r a t e d into t h e f a m i l i e s o f their h u s b a n d s . N e v e r t h e l e s s , t h e b r o t h e r s , especially the eldest brother, are r e g a r d e d as o b l i g e d to help their sisters in e c o n o m i c affairs w h e n they are in need.

PREDOMINANCE

o f the sister over the brother, a l o n g with s o m e a s s o c i a t e d c u s t o m s a n d tales, was a favorite o b j e c t o f d i s c u s s i o n a m o n g a n u m b e r o f historians, f o l k l o r i s t s , a n d e t h n o l o g i s t s o f J a p a n in the 1920's a n d early 1930's. By t a k i n g into a c c o u n t a few d o m i n a n t traits (e.g., that m e n are usually e x c l u d e d f r o m i m p o r t a n t rituals at the sacred g r o v e or shrine, and that r e l i g i o u s l e a d e r s h i p is a l m o s t m o n o p o l i z e d by w o m e n ) m o s t o f t h e s e s c h o l a r s tried to find in them the " v e s t i g e s " o f the matriliny or matriarchy they t h o u g h t o n c e existed after the m a n n e r o f 19th century e v o l u t i o n a l i s m . 1 O n the other hand, s o m e s c h o l a r s , a b o v e all K u n i o Y a n a g i t a (1940), e n d e a v o r e d t o correlate s u c h traits with f o l k beliefs a n d c u s t o m s f o u n d in rather fragmentaryf o r m in b o t h t h e historical d o c u m e n t s and the present-day f o l k culture o f J a p a n p r o p e r . 2 H o w ever, the R y u k y u a n m a t e r i a l s referred to by all t h e s e s c h o l a r s were t o a l a r g e extent the historical d o c u m e n t s m a i n l y o f the Shuri a n d N a h a areas, the political or cultural center o f the R y u k y u s , while field research o n local areas l a g g e d b e h i n d . T h i s p a p e r i n t e n d s , first, to fill this v a c u u m in R y u k y u a n e t h n o g r a p h y by s u m m a r i z i n g the results o f the survey m a d e by the p r e s e n t writer in 1954 a n d I 9 6 0 , 3 a n d , s e c o n d , t o d i s c u s s s o m e s o c i o - a n t h r o p o l o g i c a l t o p i c s with a view t o p a v i n g t h e way for a m o r e e l a b o r a t e c o m p a r a t i v e s t u d y in the future.

Roles of Sister and

Brother

G e n e r a l l y s p e a k i n g , sisters a s s u m e the role o f spiritual p a t r o n for their b r o t h e r s , w h i l e the brothers are e x p e c t e d t o p r o t e c t their sisters in secular life. H o w e v e r , the spiritual p a t r o n relat i o n s h i p r e m a i n s rather latent in daily life. It b e c o m e s m a n i f e s t in an e m e r g e n c y a f f e c t i n g the brother, s u c h a s a l o n g v o y a g e or warfare. O n s u c h an o c c a s i o n t h e sister g i v e s a w o v e n o b j e c t , usually a towel (in f o r m e r d a y s w o v e n by herself], or a bit o f her hair, with a view to p r o t e c t i n g her brother in crisis. O r , in her dream, her spirit flies t o r e s c u e her b r o t h e r s o m e w h e r e far away

T H E S I S T E R SPIRIT

T h r o u g h o u t t h e R y u k y u a n chain o f islands, i n c l u d i n g the A m a m i I s l a n d s where culture and l a n g u a g e are b a s i c a l l y R y u k y u a n , the belief is w i d e s p r e a d that the spirit o f the sister, either

79

80 from her h o m e . T h e brother in turn sees her spirit appear in the form o f a butterfly or white bird. T h e s e visions are not only often referred to in oral traditions, but are also told as personal experiences a m o n g the less sophisticated people. T h e use o f the sister's towel or hair as a sort o f talisman was c o m m o n also in World War II, though these possessed a " p s y c h o l o g i c a l " significance rather than a magico-religious meaning to the younger people w h o went to the front.

ever, a folk song o f a southern village on the M i y a k o main island suggests the former existence o f the custom o f the sister giving her textiles, such as her towel, to her brother when he departed for the main island o f O k i n a w a in earlier days by a sailing vessel o f local type. But contemporary M i y a k o a n s do not k n o w what t h e song implies.

W h i l e the kinship system o f the R y u k y u s is basically the same as that o f J a p a n proper, b e l o n g i n g to the Eskimoan or lineal type, specific terms for " b r o t h e r " (female speaking) and " s i s t e r " (male speaking) are found only in the Ryukyus. T h e s e may be exemplified by t h e following terms from more or less dominant dialects o f the Amami Islands, the main island o f O k i n a w a , the M i y a k o Islands, and the Y a e yama Islands respectively: wiiri, wikiyi, bigizi, and bigiri for " b r o t h e r , " and wunari, wunayi, bunazi, and bunari for " s i s t e r . " Because the u sound in Ryukyuan corresponds to the o sound in Japanese, such a word as bonari or onari in J a p a n proper would possibly be cognate to these Ryukyuan words for the " s i s t e r . " T h o u g h this word is now rather obsolete in the folk culture o f J a p a n proper, it is interesting that it designated a girl playing an important role in the ritual associated with transplanting rice seedlings in s o m e localities o f western J a p a n , and even the shamaness in northeastern J a p a n (Yanagita 1940:33-36).

In contrast to the general emphasis placed on the spiritual patronage o f the sister over her brother, there are tales relating a sort o f antagonism between sister and brother. Here, too, it deserves n o t i c e that, while tales from O k i n a w a and Yaeyama refer to the curse o f the sister against her brother, M i y a k o a n tales are devoid o f such references.

Referring presumably to its mystical influence, the spirit o f the sister is called, for instance, wunayi-gami (< wunayi-kami) on the main island o f O k i n a w a and bunari-gan (