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

CHAPTER 8: APPLICATIONS OF ETHNOECOLOGICAL
KNOWLEDGE
This chapter considers practical applications of ethnoecological knowledge, both in
existing subsistence practices and in novel situations. The first section describes how
ethnoecological knowledge is currently incorporated into the methods used to
procure animal foods, in hunting, gathering and fishing. This thus substantiates the
claim made earlier in this thesis, that such knowledge has an adaptive value in
increasing the effective availability of animal foods. The second section describes an
analysis of the ecological relations of subsistence, in which ethnoecological data is
incorporated into a theoretical framework based upon biological ecology, in order to
illuminate some of the secondary ecological relationships involved in human
subsistence. The third section further explores the linkage between ethnoecological
knowledge and ecological science, but in a practical sense. It describes the outcome
of a collaborative research project in which Wapishana hunters sought to apply their
skills to the collection of ecological data.
8.1 Applications of ethnoecological knowledge in subsistence
A variety of species-specific strategies are employed in Wapishana hunting, mostly
broadly similar to those that have been described for other Amazonian hunting
groups predominantly reliant on bows as a weapon (e.g., Hill and Hawkes 1983).
Those of five major game species are presented here, being those which I was able to
document reasonably via a combination of the following methods: observation of
hunts, hunters accounts of the details of a hunt as related within a short time interval
afterwards, and repeated mention of particular hunting techniques by different
informants. All demonstrate, in differing respects, detailed knowledge of the
behaviour and ecology of the animal species concerned. I thus present them both for
the sake of ethnographic documentation and as examples of the direct application of
ethnoecological knowledge in subsistence pursuits. Further sections following these
describe the employment of ethnoecological knowledge in the gathering of animal
foods and in fishing. Overall, the accounts suggest that ethnoecological knowledge is
a crucial aspect of appropriation of animal food, and provide strong evidence for its
adaptive value in this respect.