Indigenous people of the Lower Amur basin and Sakhalin are now officially classified into the following eight ethnic groups: the Nanais, Ul’chi, Orochi, Udegey, Negidals, Oroks, Evenks, and Nivkhi. However, such a classification was established only in the 1930s. Pre-viously the people had been classified and named in various ways both by ethnologists and administrators. The purpose of this paper is to clarifythe history of ethnic classification and categorization of the people of these regions. In previous historical and ethnological studies ethnologi-cal ethnic classification and administrative ethnic categories were often confused, and this confusion has been one of the obstacles to the progress of historical study of the indigenous people. In this paper I will strictly distinguish the two and focus on the relation between them and the ethnic identity of the people.

Key Words: ethnic classification, ethnic category, indigenous people, Lower Amur, basin, Sakhalin

This paper describes and analyzes the fishing activities and house-hold economy of Vezo fishermen on the southwestern coast of Madagascar.Through qualitative data on fishing methods and distri-bution of harvests, as well as quantitative ones on labor inputs and yields, the following points are clarified.(1) The character of the coral reef as a fishing ground affects the fishing activities in several ways, the form of the monthly fishing cycle for example. (2) Fishing parties often consist of male members of the same &ldquo complex household. &rdquo while households which seldom join the fishing party always share the harvest, they go fishing when required, thus achieving a flexible division of labor.(3) While many fishermen acquire a large cash income through seasonal catch of shark fins and sea cucumbers in remote areas, their fishing activities near the village tend to aim at self-consumption rather than profit. It is the stable cash income in remote areas, paradoxically, that has strengthened the self-sufficient tendency of fishing near the village.

Key Words: fishing activities, fishermen’s household economy, self-consumption, Vezo, Madagascar

This paper is designed to outline Gyarong grammar.Many schol-ars have paid attention to this language because some lexical items are very close or sometimes identical to those of Written Tibetan ( WT ) . Looking into its grammatical systems carefully, however, has led many to recognize that the language is far from WT and in fact rather closer to Proto-Tibeto-Burman ( PTB ) both in terms of phonological shapes and morpho-syntax. There have been only a limited number of grammatical descriptions of this important language, and this small paper is an attempt to improve the situation.

Key Words: Gyarong, Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman