CHAPTER 5 



CONSUMPTION OF GARDEN CROPS BY GAME ANIMALS 



IN QUINT ANA ROO, MEXICO 



Introduction 



As a game-procurement system, garden hunting has been described as more similar to 

 harvesting vegetable products and marine resources than to hunting in tropical forests (Linares, 1976). 

 Basing her conclusions on an archeological study of a group of indigenous people in northwestern 

 Panama who practiced shifting cultivation, Linares (1976) described the garden hunting system and 

 determined that it focused on specific taxa of terrestrial mammals. One element of this system, it is 

 hypothesized, is that many of the mammals taken are dependent upon crops found in gardens. A 

 second element of this hunting system, it is hypothesized, is that those mammals, as a consequence of 

 consuming crops, are found at greater population densities in forested areas with gardens than in 

 forested areas without gardens. In response to the higher densities of these mammals around gardens, 

 hunters have shifted their methods for pursuing wild animals from tropical forest hunting, where a wide 

 variety of arboreal and terrestrial birds and manmials are harvested, to garden hunting, where a narrow 

 range of terrestrial mammals are taken. 



Although Linares (1976) did not present corroboration for either hypothesis, the model of 

 garden hunting has been applied to game harvest practices by hunters in other areas. It has been 

 suggested, for example, that Maya hunters in Mexico practice garden hunting (Greenberg, 1992; 

 Nations and Nigh, 1980). Given that many of the species taken by the Maya also were reported for 

 Panama (see Chapter 3), it may be possible to use the example of subsistence hunting by Maya Indians 

 in Mexico to support the model of garden hunting. 



The data about food habits of game animals must be considered within the context of the 

 overall study. In Chapter 3, data were presented about the distribution of game kills in the various 



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