Age, Religion, and Taboos Influence Subsistence Hunting by Indigenous People of the Lower Madeira River, Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Subsistence hunting is an essential livelihood strategy of Indigenous people in the Amazon. The present study examines the aspects influencing hunting practices by the Indigenous Maraguá people in the central Amazon, Brazil. We used a Generalized Additive Model to test the effects of economic (breeding of domestic animals), demographic (individual age), cultural (preference for hunting vs. fishing), and religious (Adventism, an Evangelical denomination vs. other Christian beliefs) factors on the frequency of hunting. We used a Principal Coordinate Analysis to assess how religious taboos associated with Adventism determine the composition of target taxa. The average hunting frequency of the 26 interviewees was 10.2 trips per month. Sixty-five percent (n = 17) of the interviewees were non-Adventists, and 35% (n = 9) were Adventists. Both younger and older people hunted less frequently than those in the middle age group (c. 50 years old). We found no influence of religious affiliation or breeding of domestic animals on the frequency of hunting. Ten taxa were cited as favorite game by the informants, and while Adventists avoided eating several mammalian taxa, non-Adventists did not declare any religious dietary restrictions. This study is one of the first to approach the influence of modern Christian belief systems on hunting habits of Indigenous Amazonian people. We highlight the importance of considering of cultural and religious particularities in research on subsistence hunting and design of management plans for Indigenous lands in Amazonia.

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