The Importance of Insects in Australian Aboriginal Society: A Dictionary Survey

The use of insects by indigenous societies is an understudied topic, but much useful information can be gleaned from field linguists' dictionaries. In this essay, we explore published and draft dictionaries of selected Australian Aboriginal languages to report on the scope of insect use by coastal and desert communities. 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 communities. The cultural importance of certain groups of insects can be correlated with a proliferation of associated vocabulary. We suggest that such groups may be regarded as cultural keystone taxa.