Hunting in lowland, tropical rain forest: Towards a model of non-agricultural subsistence

Dwyer, Peter D.; Minnegal, Monica

doi:10.1007/bf00888745

Cited by 59 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Furthermore, according to Headland (1997), modern-day hunter-gatherer societies have lived with long histories of trade and interaction with the dominant societies around them. In contrast, Bahuchet et al (1991), Brosius (1991), Dwyer and Minnegal (1991), Endicott and Bellwood (1991), and Stearman (1991) countered the hypothesis based on their own fieldwork in Africa, Borneo, Papua New Guinea, the Malay Peninsula, and the Amazon in a special issue of Human Ecology on the 'wild yam question.' Elsewhere, from the ecological viewpoint, Colinvaux and Bush (1991) mentioned that the primary habitants in rainforests, especially the Amazon forest, were likely to have been hunter-gatherers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Addressing the wild yam question: how Baka hunter-gatherers acted and lived during two controlled foraging trips in the tropical rainforest of southeastern Cameroon

Sato

Kawamura

Hayashi

et al. 2012

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We designed observational surveys of controlled foraging trips of Baka hunter-gatherers in Cameroon to verify the 'wild yam question'-i.e. is it possible for human beings to live without agricultural products in a tropical rainforest?-and to examine their foraging lifestyle. We observed two 20-day trips during which no agricultural or commercial food except salt and pepper could be used. The first trip was conducted by six married couples in August, the short dry season, of the year 2003, and the second one by eight married couples in October, the rainy season, 2005. The Baka cooperators obtained 22 species and 43 vernacular names of food in all during both survey periods. No cooperators lost weight from any food shortage in both seasons. Energy intake per consumption-day was estimated at 2528-2865 kilocalories in the dry season, and at 2479-2777 kilocalories in the rainy season. Providing more than 60% of estimated energy intake in both seasons, wild yam tubers proved to be an essential food to enable a foraging life in tropical rainforests. From this survey we could find no evidence that it is impossible to live independently of agriculture in a tropical rainforest although it seemed that the cooperators paid a high energy cost to secure food, especially wild yam tubers. This study implies that a Paleolithic foraging lifestyle in the African tropical rainforest was very likely, although not easy, and that Paleolithic foragers may have been the ancestors of the present 'pygmy' hunter-gatherers.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Addressing the wild yam question: how Baka hunter-gatherers acted and lived during two controlled foraging trips in the tropical rainforest of southeastern Cameroon

Sato

Kawamura

Hayashi

et al. 2012

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“…Para Bailey e Headland (1991), assim como para uma série de outros pesquisadores que se propuseram a refutar a hipótese (Bahuchet et al, 1991;Bennett, 1991;Brosius, 1991, Dwyer & Minnegal, 1991Endicott & Bellwood, 1991;Ludvico et al, 1991;Stearman, 1991;Zeleznik & Bennet, 1991), a questão se sociedades não agricultoras viveram ou não em floresta tropical úmida era importante, pois remetia a questões fundamentais concernentes às relações entre populações humanas e meio ambiente, aos processos que contribuem para a formação e manutenção das dinâmicas mudanças que ocorrem nas florestas tropicais úmidas, e aos recursos essenciais para sobrevivência e reprodução humana nessas regiões.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Contribuição para a cronologia da colonização amazônica e suas implicações teóricas

Kipnis¹,

Caldarelli

Oliveira

2005

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ResumoNeste artigo apresentamos datações radiocarbônicas inéditas referentes a ocupações humanas durante o Holoceno Inicial e Médio na região de Carajás, Pará. Escavações recentes de várias cavidades localizadas em Carajás, juntamente com pesquisas realizadas nos últimos vinte anos, revelam um rico registro arqueológico, com grande potencial informativo sobre a história cultural da Amazônia, assim como um grande potencial para gerar dados para testar e refinar modelos antropológicos sobre sociedades de caçadores-coletores em regiões de floresta tropical úmida.Palavras-chave: Povoamento das Amé-ricas, Datações radiocarbônicas, Caça-dores-coletores. AbstractIn this paper we present new radiocarbon dates pertaining to human occupations during the Early and Middle Holocene in Carajás region, State of Pará. Recent excavations of several caves and rockshelters located in Carajás, together with research done in the past twenty years, reveal a rich archaeological record, which has great informative potential about

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“…People at Gwaimasi obtained, by New Guinea standards, a large amount of protein from wild animals -a minimum of 40 grams per person per day from vertebrate animals alone in the 13 months of the survey (Dwyer & Minnegal 1991a;cf. Domstreich 1973;Dwyer 1985a;Hyndman 1979;Ohtsuka 1983;Townsend 1969).…”

Section: Hunting and Fishingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One house (dotted outline) was begun in late October. Minnegal 1991aMinnegal , 1992a, the residents of Gwaimasi spent less time at dispersed bush houses than they would have in the past. Apparently, however, they disliked the loss of privacy that longhouse living entailed (cf.…”

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confidence: 96%

Fishing at Gwaimasi: the interaction of social and ecological factors in influencing subsistence behaviour

Minnegal¹

Self Cite

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Fishing at Gwaimasi: the interaction of social and ecological factors in influencing subsistence behaviourThis treatise describes fishing behaviour of people living at the village of Gwaimasi in the interior lowlands of Papua New Guinea. The concern is not with fishing as such but wdth the way in which social and ecological factors interact to influence behaviour. Iargue that an adequate explanation for behaviour must incorporate both dimensions, and suggest a conceptual basis for achieving this. The study then illustrates how at least one aspect of social organization, the size of resource-sharing groups, could be incorporated within a frame of analysis -evolutionary ecology -that has typically focussed on the explanatory significance of ecological factors.The primary thesis asserts that the probability of a particular pattern of behaviour being reproduced depends on both social and ecological factors. Variation in either domain can be expected to affect the kinds of behaviour observed, but the two domains do not affect behaviour in the same way. Ecological factors constrain production, the material outcome of action; social factors constrain consumption, the use that can be made of that outcome. The two domains are complementary, not contradictory, in their influence; in as much as production and consumption themselves are two facets of any action, ecology and society should be seen as mutually constitutive systems mediated by the actor.Evolutionary ecologists have tended to analyse constraints on production, particularly extrinsic constraints on production, in explaining behavioural variability.While constraints on consumption are not ignored, they are usually discussed only in terms of the intrinsic requirements of the actor. I argue that consumption, like production, is subject to extrinsic constraints; the use that an individual can make of a particular outcome of action may depend on the actions of others. In particular, where a resource has declining marginal value, the amount that is likely to be received from others will limit the amount that an individual can usefully procure; as a corollary, the iii expectation of having to distribute produce among others will increase the amount that can be usefully procured. In each case, the effect will depend on the size of the resourcesharijig group.These arguments are illustrated by analyses of the fishing behaviour of people atGwaimasi over a period of 57 weeks, Eariy chapters set the scene for those analyses, introduce the actors and position fishing within their broader subsistence arrangements.The community was small and isolated, the people hunter-horticulturalists using about 50km^ for subsistence. Skulls of neariy all fish caught within that area during the survey were purchased, and details recorded of fisher, technique, location and context of capture.In addition, records were kept of where individuals were based within the local area each day. Analyses of these data indicate that whether people chose to fish, as well as where and how they fish...

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Hunting in lowland, tropical rain forest: Towards a model of non-agricultural subsistence

Cited by 59 publications

References 20 publications

Addressing the wild yam question: how Baka hunter-gatherers acted and lived during two controlled foraging trips in the tropical rainforest of southeastern Cameroon

Addressing the wild yam question: how Baka hunter-gatherers acted and lived during two controlled foraging trips in the tropical rainforest of southeastern Cameroon

Contribuição para a cronologia da colonização amazônica e suas implicações teóricas

Fishing at Gwaimasi: the interaction of social and ecological factors in influencing subsistence behaviour

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