Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

if any, they are generally conceived to have remained obscure. I also heard the term
picha used more generally to refer to figures similar in appearance, but with no
apparent association with peccaries, and assumed to embody some physical danger
to humans who might encounter them. Some people also conflated the concept of
the picha with those of other dangerous nature spirits such as kanaima and bush
daidai, the latter being a semi-human forest-dwelling entity common to both
Amerindian and non-Amerindian Guyanese folklore.
The peccary master himself is highly anthropomorphised, and is considered to
direct the wanderings of his herd based upon his knowledge of the forest and
according to his own mysterious agenda. He is reported to lead the herd partly by
means of whistles, which are often audible at night - a further link with the concepts
of kanaima and jumbie, to whom mysterious nocturnal whistles are also attributed.
The picha's control over the movement of peccary herds provides a basis for
influence over the latter by the marunao, who is able to communicate with the
picha and thus negotiate the movements of the herds as desired. Informants in
Maruranau related to me how a now-deceased marunao used this method to effect
the return of collared peccaries to their hunting area after a period of many years in
which they had scarcely been encountered. Some years after that, he was able to
cause a violent herd of peccaries that had attacked people on several occasions to
disperse from the area.
The picha is greatly concerned with human hunting of his flock, an activity he is
said to relish, as their shooting with arrows and shotgun cartridges provides him with
a supply of ammunition for his own hunting of maams (Tinamus major). The exception
to this is the case of the lead animal in any herd, called ikuwi, upon which the picha
rides (referred to by some people as his horse): any hunter who shoots and wounds
or kills this individual will suffer an identical fate himself. A further practice shared
with human hunters is the use of dogs - the picha is reported to take the spirits of
dogs killed by peccaries and employ them as his own hunting dogs.
I was able to record somewhat less information about the spirit master of the
collared peccary. According to one informant, this spirit's activities limit hunting of its
charges - a hunter who wipes out an entire herd rather than leaving some animals as
prescribed, is likely to suffer a potentially fatal nighttimes attack. The same informant
also reported that he had suffered the death of a hunting dog whose spirit had been
taken by the abuya master while it was in pursuit of a herd.