2 

 Yucatan Peninsula for several thousand years. If it can be shown that garden hunting is compatible 

 with sustainable wildlife use, then biological and social scientists will have an important tool in 

 developing management plans diat balance the needs of both die hunters and the hunted. 



Uses of Wildlife 



The importance of wild animals to Uie Maya and other indigenous people in the Neotropics is 

 best appreciated by noting the benefits obtained from their use. While indigenous groups differ in the 

 species of game animals they take and taboo (prohibit taking for cultural reasons), several broad 

 patterns of wildlife use can be identified. Here I will consider three of the principal uses of game; 

 food, nonedible products, and live animals. 



Bushmeat, meat from edible wildlife, is one of the most important uses of wild animals 

 (Dufour, 1983; Flowers, 1983; Yost and Kelley, 1983). A wide variety of fishes, birds, mammals, 

 reptiles, amphibians, and insects are taken in a multitude of habitats by a broad range of people 

 (Beckerman, 1980, 1983; Chemela, 1985; Redford and Robinson, 1987, 1991; Robinson and Redford, 

 1991a, 1991b, 1991c; Stocks, 1983). Game taken by indigenous people in die Neotropics usually is for 

 subsistence (Lugo et al., 1987; Robinson and Redford, 1991a, 1991b), but meat and eggs of several 

 taxa frequendy are also taken for commercial purposes and are sold locally or outside the community. 

 Capybara (Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris) meat, which, because of its aquatics habits is actually considered 

 a "fish," is traded commercially in Venezuela during Lent (Ojasti, 1991). while eggs from sea turtles 

 and freshwater turUes (Order Testudines) are taken along die coasts and inland waterways in Brazil and 

 Honduras and sold in local markets (Cornelius et al., 1991; Lagueux, 1991; Smith, 1974). 



In addition to the nutritional aspects of meat, game is important for social reasons. 

 Investigators have shown that die type and amount of game obtained is important to a hunter's prestige 

 and die social cohesion of die family or village (Balee, 1985, 1989; Paolisso and Sacket, 1985; Siskind, 

 1973; Stearman, 1989, 1990). Occasions without meat often are perceived by indigenous people as 

 times of hunger even though plenty of food from plants is available (Werner, 1983). 



