著者

須田 一弘

出版者

北海学園大学

雑誌

北海学園大学人文論集 (ISSN:09199608)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.1, pp.53-78, 1993-11-30

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This paper quantitatively examines time allocation and food consumption in the Kiwai-speaking village of Mawata on the southwestern coast of Papua New Guinea. The male villagers allocate 19.6% of day-time to food-getting activities, such as horticulture, coconut harvesting, fishing and hunting, which had constituted their traditional subsistence activities, 9.4% to sea cucumber processing, which starting in 1990 as a novel cash-earning activity, and 6.3% to the other productive actvities such as tool making and household maintenance, with the older males spending more time in food-getting activities than the younger. The female villagers allocate 17.5% of day-time to food-getting activities, 6.3% to sea cucumber processing and 17.4% to the other productive activities, with married females spending more time in household maintenance than unmarried females and elderly females. The difference in time allocation between sexes is markedly shown in the other productive activities and food preparation, to which females allocate more time. Nutrient intake per adult male per day of the villagers is estimated at almost the optimal level set by the standards of FAO/WHO. Although purchased foods make up over 70% of the energy and protein intake, traditional foods such as banana, taro, coconut, sago starch, fish, wild pig and wallaby, slightly exceed imported foods, such as rice, wheat flour, biscuits and sugar, as energy and protein intake. This means that in the Mawata village, the change in food consumption, caused by permeating cash economy, is due not only to the change of food items available but also to the change in the way of obtaining foods; the villagers purchase not only imported foods but also traditional ones. Comparing the Mawata villagers to the Gidra and the Mountain Ok in Western Province of Papua New Guinea, it is inferred that the former allocate some of their food-getting time to cash-earning activies, with the permeation of a cash economy. As a result, total time spent in productive activities differs little between the societies, whether they are based on a subsistence economy or partly influenced by a cash economy. Although a decrease in time spent in food-getting activities leads to a decline in the production of locally available foods, purchased foods are substituted for them.