CHAPTER 7 

 SYNTHESIS AND CONCLUSIONS 



In this dissertation I have presented information about subsistence hunting by Maya Indians at 

 Ejido X-Hazil y Anexos, Quintana Roo, Mexico. These Indians have hunted and planted gardens in the 

 Yucatan Peninsula for several thousand years. That both of these practices continue today, after 50-100 

 y of acculturation, indicates that hunting and gardening are important elements of Maya culture. 

 Maya subsistence hunting was studied to test the hypothesis of garden hunting. Linares (1976) 

 described garden hunting as a game-procurement system where hunters specialized in certain species of 

 terrestrial mammals whose population density was greater in the vicinity of gardens than in forested 

 areas without gardens. According to Linares (1976), the densities of these species were greater 

 because they ate garden crops and they were tolerant of human disturbances. As a consequence of their 

 eating crops, these terrestrial mammals tended to occur through out die year in the vicinity of gardens 

 planted by the hunters. This behavior resulted in a higher biomass of these species in the vicinity of 

 the gardens than in the adjacent forest. In view of this higher density of game in the vicinity of 

 gardens than in the forest, hunters shifted their hunting practices from sites in tropical forests to garden 

 sites in order to focus primarily on those species of terrestrial mammals that occurred in the vicinity of 

 gardens. Garden hunting, according to Linares (1976), resulted in the substitution of a naturally 

 occurring wildlife community present in the area on a seasonal basis for a culturally created community 

 of terrestrial mammals present in the area throughout the year. 



Garden hunting, according to Linares (1976) was based on several premises: one, wild animals 

 taken as game by hunters occurred in gardens and the garden-forest ecotone; two, hunters focussed 

 their harvest of game on those species of wild animals that used gardens; Uiree, the densities of these 

 game species were greater in the vicinity of gardens tlian in forests without gardens; and four, these 

 wild animals consumed crops from gardens. This study was designed to test each of these premises. 



223 



