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

the Wapishana biological lexicon. This is particularly true of plants of liana habit, very
few of which are individually named, the remainder being subsumed under the large
residual category kazidaro. In Surinam, 25.6 percent of species fed upon by Ateles
paniscus were reported to be of liana habit (Roosmalen 1985b: 50). In interviewees
on this and other species, interviewees often reported that the fruits of several kinds
of lianas were eaten, but that the plants concerned did not have Wapishana names.
The same may well apply in the case of invertebrate foods, as many categories of
invertebrates appear to be highly clumped in the Wapishana classification (chapter
6.1.2). It may also be that observations on habitat use were lexically constrained,
given the limitations of the recorded classification of ecological zones in the
Wapishana language.
Further limitations on ethnoecological data are evident in certain subject areas
not covered in the majority of interviews, and not included among the data reported
here. My earliest phase of interviews included questions on group dynamics and
breeding rates. In the former case, answers given were invariably to the effect that
juvenile animals, on maturity, remain in the natal group to breed with either parents
or siblings. Such answers are clearly at odds with basic biological theories relating to
inbreeding avoidance, and in terms of biological science are of little value. In relation
to breeding rates, in almost all cases females were presumed to have young on an
annual basis. What appears to be happening here is that people are overgeneralising
from the individual to the species. It appears that most animal species exhibit birth
seasonality at the site of the present study, and at the species level can be
accurately considered to breed every year. Translating this to the species level on the
basis of an implicit assumption that individual females breed in every breeding season
leads to the answers given. It is unsurprising that these subject areas are not
accurately reported in ethnoecological enquiry, owing to methodological constraints
on the part of the informant. The collection of such information by biologists depends
on regular observations of particular animals recognised at either the group or the
individual level, sustained over extended periods of time. Clearly naturalists who do
not interact with animals in the same way are not going to be able to reproduce
results collected under such conditions.
7.14.2 Suggested methodological improvements
The data set in the present study also exhibits the consequences of methodological
constraints on the part of the researcher. In this case, however, it is possible to make
recommendations directed towards establishing the most effective methodology for