Environmental Paradoxes

Abstract

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Human-puma (Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771)) relations in the Dry Chaco of Córdoba, Argentina

“…In accordance with this tale, the reinterpretation of indigenous myths, techniques and practices is also common among the ( criollo ) peasants that live in the arid Chaco of northwest Córdoba (Manzano-García et al 2019; Costa 2022). Hence, hunting and consuming wild animals as medicine or food, taming cubs or keeping elements of their bodies as ornaments or trophies are part of the daily life in the region (Tamburini 2016; Manzano-García 2019; Costa et al 2022).…”

“…In accordance with this tale, the reinterpretation of indigenous myths, techniques and practices is also common among the ( criollo ) peasants that live in the arid Chaco of northwest Córdoba (Manzano-García et al 2019; Costa 2022). Hence, hunting and consuming wild animals as medicine or food, taming cubs or keeping elements of their bodies as ornaments or trophies are part of the daily life in the region (Tamburini 2016; Manzano-García 2019; Costa et al 2022). In this regard, here, we aim to explore the peasant-puma relations in this particular area of Córdoba –the southernmost portion of the Gran Chaco– through two lines of evidence: the ethnozoological information entangling humans and pumas as well as the study of the remains of a puma that has been hunted and consumed by current dwellers.…”

“…The first inhabitants of Córdoba also depicted felines in their rock art sites and pumas were portrayed in different artistic styles, from the North (Serrano 1945; Uribe & Ochoa 2008) to the South (Rocchietti 2013) of the province. Many of these scenes have been interpreted as hunting practices, a sort of relationship that also underwent transformations through time, although deeply accentuated when the first European settlers arrived in the area (Manzano-García et al 2019; Costa et al 2022).…”

“…Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera, the founder of Córdoba, once wrote that the region was “good land” to make farms and raise European cattle (Cabrera [1573] in Montes & Freytag 2008: 47). Cabrera's quote displays the beginnings of the capitalist transformations that arrived in the continent with the European settlers, altering livelihoods and the way people perceived and related to many local animals, such as pumas (Costa 2022). These changes were so profound that between 1750 and the first half of the 19 th century the province was divided into small independent agrarian units, and was completely inserted in a mercantile network formed by an indigenous or mestizo peasantry (Tell 2008).…”

“…Many of the people that we interacted with, worked as loggers between the decades of 1980s and 1990s, an activity that demanded lengthy periods in the forest, where hunting was important for nourishment, thus reinforcing the practice as part of the livelihoods of the peasant community (Manzano-García et al 2019; Costa et al 2022). Table 2 shows gender and age class profiles of our interviewees.…”