The importance of insects in Australian Aboriginal society: A dictonary survey

Abstract

The use of insects by indigenous societes is an understudied topic, but much useful informaton can be gleaned from field linguists' dictonaries. In this essay, we explore published and draft dictonaries of selected Australian Aboriginal languages to report on the scope of insect use by coastal and desert communites. We found a number of insect orders exploited for food, medicine, and other uses, as well as a clear trend towards more reliance on edible insects among desert communites. The cultural importance of certain groups of insects can be correlated with a proliferaton of associated vocabulary. We suggest that such groups may be regarded as cultural keystone taxa.