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Conservation or resource maximization? Analyzing subsistence hunting among the Achuar (Shiwiar) of Ecuador

The Ethics of Anthropology and Amerindian Research: Reporting on Environmental Degradation and Warfare, Vol: 9781461410652, Page: 311-360
2012
  • 14
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 18
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    14
    • Citation Indexes
      14
  • Captures
    18

Book Chapter Description

This study tests the idea that indigenous hunters employ selective prey and patch choice to augment the sustainability of their long-term foraging returns. In other words, do Achuar (Shiwiar) hunting patterns maintain the group's harmony or balance with nature behaving as conservationists, or do they act as resource maximizers acting in ways predicted by optimal foraging theory? Analysis of indigenous hunters' prey choice in light of patch selection and optimal diet breadth models indicate that the Achuar (with few exceptions) are overharvesting local populations of various species of Neotropical wildlife. Significantly, this research documents differential species vulnerability to indigenous hunting pressure which, in turn, affects the sustainability of Amazonian wildlife harvests. Additionally, this research illustrates how a relatively isolated egalitarian and autonomous Amerindian group of subsistence hunter-horticulturalists, who maintain many of the traditional beliefs about wildlife population dynamics, are fully capable of overhunting several species of Neotropical wildlife. As such, the overharvesting of various types of wild game by the Achuar cannot be considered as being an artifact of Western contact. Lastly, this work examines some of the ethical issues raised by these findings.

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