108 

 the reason, 22 caliber rifles and 16 and 20 gauge shotguns and the corresponding ammunition were 

 more easily obtained than 12 gauge shotguns and larger caliber rifles. 



Among indigenous people in the Neotropics, shotguns, blowguns, and spears are widely used 

 to harvest game (Hames, 1979; Hill and Hawkes, 1983; Yost and Kelley, 1983). While contemporary 

 Maya Indians in the Mexican state of Chiapas mainly use rifles and shotguns (March M., 1987), 

 archeological studies and descriptions of Maya hunters at the time of the conquest suggested the that 

 pre-historic Maya used a broad array of weapons including dogs, blowguns, spears, atlatls, bows and 

 arrows, snares, traps, torches, whistles, nets, and slingshots to attract and kill game (Flores, 1984; 

 Hambhn, 1984, 1985; March M., 1987; Pohl, 1976). 



The type of weapon used will have a direct impact on the type of game taken by hunters. At 

 X-Hazil Sur, whereas hunters generally did not use a specific type of we^on to take a specific type of 

 game, shotguns generally were used to take the heaviest prey (e.g., deer and peccaries) and rifles and 

 traps were used to take the hghtest prey (e.g., pocket gophers and thicket tinamous; Figure 3-10). 

 These results differ somewhat from those presented in two studies of tribal peoples in South America. 

 Hames (1979) compared the efficiencies of the shotgun and the bow in Neotropical forest hunting by 

 the Ye'kwana and Yanomamo Indians along the upper Orinoco River in Venezuela. Hames (1979) 

 noted several differences between the two types of weapons (for example, mean prey weight and 

 number of individuals taken), but the most significant difference between the two types of weapons, 

 according to Hames, is the larger number of arboreal and volant animals killed by the Ye'kwana 

 (shotgun) hunters compared with the Yanomamo (bow) hunters. The arboreal and volant animals taken 

 by the Ye'kwana included birds (especially taxa in the Cracidae Family), monkeys (especially taxa in 

 the Cebidae Family), sloths (Bradypus tridactylus), and collared anteaters (Tamandua tetradactyla). In 

 the second study, Yost and Kelley (1983) compared the efficiency of shotguns, blowguns, and spears in 

 forest hunting by the Waorani Indians in eastern Ecuador. Yost and Kelley (1983) determined that 

 36% by weight of the prey was taken with blowguns, 51% with shotguns, and 13% with spears. 

 Blowguns were used almost exclusively for arboreal animals under 10 kg, the spear was used for large 



