Caution must be used in collecting such
to be reasonably sure that they are a
true
daily rations
representation.
Misunderstanding and a misguided desire to please on the part
of some individual Rongelapese
can easily
lead to merely a
collection of miscellaneous food items rather than actual daily
rations of prepared food.
It was felt that a few samples which
were witnessed to be composed of the items and portions actually
being consumed were
origin.
preferable to
Consequently,
many
samples of
uncertain
some samples proffered by individuals
were discarded.
In spite of the care used there are obvious discrepancies.
Sample number 3
lously low in
(Table 1),
for example,
total amount of
appears
food consumed.
to be ridicuThere can be
little doubt that there must have been some "snacking,"
for
which there is no accounting because eating habits of the
Rongelapese are irregular and it was impractical to follow each
individual throughout the day.
Therefore,
all of the samples
collected (Table 1) should probably be considered as erring
toward the
low side for total consumption.
However,
there does
appear to be a reasonable agreement with quantities listed by
Murai
(1953)
from a study at Majuro Atoll.
Catala
(1957) has
pointed out the difficulties of obtaining quantitative data in
these areas.