CHAPTER 2 



NATURAL, CULTURAL, AND SOCIOECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT 



OF THE MAYA INDIANS IN QUINTANA ROO, MEXICO 



Introduction 



Subsistence hunting in the Neotropics, whether practiced by Maya Indians, peasants, or tribal 

 peoples, varies in response to different natural and cultural factors. Each group, for example, hunts a 

 wide range of wildlife, uses different techniques to locate and kill prey, and observes specific traditions 

 in the use of wildlife and exchange of game. An understanding of these natural and cultural factors 

 will help to explain specific hunting methods and results as well as help to analyze the variation in 

 subsistence hunting practices by these people. A key additional consideration to understanding hunting 

 is the nature and extent to which cultural factors break down when the group becomes involved with 

 market economies. For this dissertation, I will analyze subsistence hunting by Maya Indians in the 

 village of X-Hazil Sur, Ejido X-Hazil y Anexos, State of Quintana Roo, Mexico (the Spanish term 

 ejido is used to desaibe a geographic and administrative unit in Mexico, see below). 



The following summary describes published accounts as well as personal observations during 

 1987 and 1989-1990 of the natural, cultural, and socioeconomic environment of the Maya at the local 

 (village), state (Quintana Roo), and regional level (Yucatan Peninsula). While the personal 

 observations were made primarily in the village of X-Hazil Sur, trips also were made throughout the 

 region. The final section of this chapter is an extensive description of the study area. 



The term subsistence hunting, as contrasted with commercial hunting, will be used here to 

 describe hunting by Maya Indians at X-Hazil Sur as game rarely is sold in markets. However, as many 

 Maya hunters care for domestic animals or can purchase canned meat, this hunting has more of an 

 opportunistic quality than, for example, subsistence hunting practiced by Yuqui Indians in Bolivia (cf., 

 Stearman. 1989) or Siona-Secoya Indians in Ecuador (cf , Vickers, 1988). 



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