Title
English Summary
Author(s)
UZA, Tokumitsu
Citation
沖大論叢 = OKIDAI RONSO, 3(2): 109-110
Issue Date
1963-03-30
URL
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12001/10745
English Summary
Tokumitsu UZA
A cultural character, as often mentioned, is shaped out of the blending of heterogeneous elements, natural, sociological and historical So it is comprehensible to us that hardly any seperate fragments of eviden-ce tom out of their general setting can be so alive and fruitful as expected by the older historians.
As far as the studies of the Ryukyuan culture are concerned, however, this major premise seems to lose some of its hold. For the coll-ection of basic materials is so urgent and pressing in every field of the Ryukyuan studies. In this sense, Okinawa University Survey Team jum-ped up from the armchairs and set out for the field-work, ranging from archeology and folklore through economy to biology. Every member m the field, needless to say, made every faithful effort to be objective and free from any hypothesis so that all the informations obtained might be kept from the Procrustean violence and thus from the hasty. generalization. Our chief reason why we picked out the Iheya Islands for our first study was very simple; that is, the islands are located at the northe-rn end of Okinawa. Our hope was that it would be the first stepping-stone leading to our five-year program, ·at the end of which a unified picture of the Ryukyuan cultural life might or might not be given by approaching from several viewpoints.
This is a collection of the reports resulted from the eight-day preliminary investigation which was started on September 12, 1962. The active members who participated in the field-work and whose reports are included in this collection are as follows:
Mr. ~ Takamiya, leader of the Team, spent his first two days for making a rapid survey of the prehistoric sites apparently scattered on the islands. For the rest of his days he concentra-ted on the excavating of the Kusatobaru site of Maedomari.
Mr. Munekatsu Yaka was engrossed in the collection of the mytho-logical and religious practices by visiting all four villages arid the sacred grounds on the islands.
Mr. Tokumistu Uza devoted himself to the collection of proverbs and folksongs by means of answersheets and by talking with village elders.
Mr. ~ Minei's work included copying ecomomic data at the village office and collecting bare facts at the various types of household of the 'islands.
Mr. Tetsuo ~·s activity covered the widest areas, from the mountain-tops down to the rice fields, hunting for the myriapoda and the mollusca.
