海南黎族社会历史调查是民族识别工作的一部分。从20世纪 50年代开始,对于海南岛黎族地区进行了多次调查。调查的成果主要体现在两个方面:第一,按照方言,将黎族划分支系;第二,发现在部分的村子保留了一种特殊的耕作制度,学者讨论之后为这种耕作制度定名为“合亩制”。如追溯近代海南五指山黎族地区的历史发展,注意到从刀耕火种到水田开发的生态转变与冯子材“开路”以及当地地方势力的转变相关。在这个过程中,传教士、民俗学家以及民国政府的官员,展开了对“黎”作为少数民族的认知与分类的过程;抗日战争、白沙起义等事件,又影响着学术以及社会改革实践中对于黎族社会耕作制度“合亩制”的认识。

Social and historical surveys were carried out among the Li (黎) people in Hainan Island (海南岛) as part of the process of ethnic identification. From the 1950s, many surveys were conducted. These surveys focused on two aspects: Firstly, the Li population was divided into a number of clans based on their dialects; and secondly, a special tillage system was discovered in some villages which scholars referred to as “collective tillage system” (合亩制). In tracing the history of the Li people in the Five-Finger Mountains (五指)山, this essay finds out that the transformation from swidden farming to paddy farming took place from the time when Feng Zicai (冯子材) led the people in “building roads” in the mountainous areas. This process was related to the changes in the power structure of the Li ethnic group. Subsequently, missionaries, ethnographers and government officials of the Republic of China initiated the process of identification and classification of the Li people as an ethnicity. Such historical events as the War of Resistance against Japan and the Baisha Uprising (白沙起义) led by Wang Guoxing (王国兴) in 1943, also influenced the understanding of the collective tillage system of the Li ethnic society in the academic context and the practice of social transformation.