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Open Final Draft Corrected.Pdf The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts HUNTING AND SUBSISTENCE AMONG THE MAYANGNA AND MISKITO OF NICARAGUA’S BOSAWAS BIOSPHERE RESERVE A Thesis in Anthropology by Jeremy M. Koster © 2007 Jeremy M. Koster Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2007 The thesis of Jeremy M. Koster was reviewed and approved* by the following: Stephen J. Beckerman Associate Professor of Anthropology Thesis Adviser Chair of Committee Kenneth G. Hirth Professor of Anthropology Jeffrey A. Kurland Associate Professor of Anthropology Katriona Shea Associate Professor of Biology Nina G. Jablonski Professor of Anthropology Head of the Department of Anthropology *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ABSTRACT This dissertation examines livelihoods and subsistence in the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve, Nicaragua, focusing in particular on hunting but also extending to horticulture, fishing, and time allocation to subsistence labor. It is based on thirteen months of fieldwork in two communities on the Lakus River, a tributary of the Coco River in northern Nicaragua. The communities, Arang Dak and Suma Pipi, are home to the Mayangna and Miskito, two of Nicaragua’s most populous indigenous groups. Field methods employed in this study include focal observations of hunters, instantaneous scan sampling of household members, and considerable work with indigenous research assistants, who helped to monitor the harvest of fish and game, record daily food consumption in households, and map the locations of fields and kill sites. Results of this research indicate that hunting in Bosawas is similar in many respects to hunting elsewhere in Neotropical rain forests. Hunting is primarily a male-oriented activity, kill sites are clustered near the communities, and mammals contribute most of the biomass in the harvest. However, the hunters in Arang Dak and Suma Pipi are unusual in their heavy reliance on hunting dogs, which contribute to 85% of the kills of mammalian prey. From an optimal foraging perspective, hunting with dogs includes costs that cannot be analyzed with the basic diet breadth model, and a modified model is presented that addresses these costs. Overall, hunters generally pursue prey types that conform to predictions derived from optimal foraging theory. However, they regularly bypass a few species that apparently belong in the optimal diet set, and possible explanations for these suboptimal decisions are discussed. In total, the residents of Arang Dak and Suma Pipi caught 1,090 animals during the study period. The composition of the harvest varies seasonally and geographically, and some species are also closely associated with certain hunting technologies. Most of the animals are captured in a core hunting zone of 77.6 km2, and many kill sites are close to anthropogenic habitats. Overall, the harvest of many species is lower than it is elsewhere in the Neotropics, but a sustainability assessment indicates that a few species might be hunted unsustainably in the core hunting zone. The continued survival of some species in the Lakus River watershed might depend on the maintenance of lightly-exploited tracts of forest outside the core hunting zone, and the implications of this possibility for wildlife management are discussed. In general, the Mayangna and Miskito are diverse in their economic and subsistence strategies, and this iii dissertation highlights the role and importance of hunting in household economies. Finally, data on time allocation and fishing are presented in light of recent debates about subsistence activities across the lifespan. iv Table of Contents List of tables . vii List of figures . ix Acknowledgements . x 1. Introduction . 1 2. Theoretical and ethnological background . 7 2.1 Introduction . 7 2.2 Anthropological research on hunting in the humid Neotropics . 7 2.3 Optimal foraging theory and the diet breadth model. 16 2.4.1 Anthropological applications of the diet breadth model in the Neotropics . 18 2.4.2 Hunting with dogs in the humid Neotropics . 20 2.5 The Mayangna and Miskito in ethnological perspective . 28 2.6.1 The Post-Contra War Situation . 33 2.6.2 External interests in Arang Dak and Suma Pipi . 35 2.7 Biophysical aspects of the Bosawas region . 36 3. Optimal foraging perspectives on hunting in Bosawas . 39 3.1.1 Ethnographic Literature on Hunting in the Bosawas region . 39 3.1.2 An Ethnographic description of hunting with guns in Bosawas . 41 3.1.3 An ethnographic description of hunting with dogs in Bosawas . 44 3.2.1 Focal follow methods . 60 3.2.2 Observer effects and representativeness of the sample . 64 3.3.1 Results: Time allocation on intentional hunting trips . 66 3.3.2 Guns versus dogs . 67 3.4.1 Optimal foraging analysis: Defining terms . 69 3.4.2 Optimal foraging analysis of hunting with dogs . 73 3.4.3 The question of simultaneous search . 78 3.4.4 Additional costs of hunting with dogs . 81 3.4.5 “Recognition constraints” in optimal foraging models . 84 3.4.6 A model of hunting with dogs in Neotropical rain forests . 87 3.4.7 Optimal foraging analysis of the expanded model . 90 3.4.8 Hunting with dogs but without steel tools in the pre-contact Neotropics . 93 3.5.1 Concluding thoughts on the costs of hunting with dogs in the Neotropics . 97 3.6.1 An optimal foraging analysis of hunting with rifles in the Bosawas Reserve . 99 3.6.2 Partial preferences for capuchin and howler monkeys . 105 3.7.1 Explaining suboptimal decisions by Mayangna and Miskito hunters . 108 3.7.2 Revisiting the “Ecologically Noble Savage” hypothesis. 109 3.7.3 The adequacy of the diet and the importance of taste to prey choice decisions 112 3.7.4 The role of uncalculated social costs in suboptimal foraging decisions . 116 3.7.5 Concluding thoughts on suboptimal foraging decisions in Bosawas . 118 v 3.8.1 A comparison of hunting with dogs and rifles . 119 3.8.2 Comparative methods . 119 3.8.3 Results: Reporting biases . 121 3.8.4 Hunting yields by technology . 123 3.8.5 The pros and cons of dogs and guns . 126 3.8.6 A cross-cultural perspective on hunting returns in Bosawas . 129 3.9.1 Conclusion . 132 4. Characterizing the harvest: Technology, geography, and sustainability . 133 4.1.1 Methods: The harvest data . 134 4.1.2 Methods: Sketch mapping and GIS . 137 4.2 Characterizing the harvest . 141 4.3 Harvest data by technology . 147 4.4 Seasonality in the harvest . 152 4.5 Cross-cultural perspectives on the harvest of mammals in Arang Dak and . 157 Suma Pipi 4.6.1 Indigenous agriculture and the hunting landscape . 163 4.6.2 The geographic distribution of the harvest . 169 4.7 The sustainability of subsistence hunting in the Neotropics . 177 4.8.1 The sustainability of the harvest in Arang Dak and Suma Pipi . 180 4.8.2 Sustainability assessment . 186 4.8.3 Tapirs and source-sink hunting . 190 4.8.4 Discussion of hunting sustainability . 191 4.9 Conclusions . 195 5. Time allocation and fishing across the lifespan . 198 5.1 Theoretical background . 198 5.2 An overview of time allocation in Arang Dak and Suma Pipi . 201 5.3 Time allocation methods . 206 5.4.1 Time allocation results . 211 5.4.2 Significance testing: Fisher’s exact test . 214 5.4.3 Sex-related differences in time allocation . 215 5.4.4 Age-related differences in time allocation . 218 5.5 Discussion of time allocation results . 221 5.6 An ethnographic description of fishing in Bosawas . 223 5.7.1 Age-specific and sex-specific fishing patterns . 232 5.7.2 Discussion of age-related fishing patterns . 238 5.8 Conclusions . 241 6. Conclusions . 243 Appendix A: List of large mammals in Kipla Sait Tasbaika . 249 Appendix B: Household structure data for participating households . 250 Bibliography . 257 vi List of Tables 2.1 Aversions to wild game meat in a cross-cultural sample of indigenous . 15 Neotropical societies 2.2 Key with references for Figure 2.1 . 24 3.1 Coding scheme for hunters’ activities . 62 3.2 Modifiers to the “pursuit-under” code . 63 3.3 Time allocation by focal hunters on observed hunts . 68 3.4 Pursuit times and outcomes used to estimate the profitability of prey types . 74 3.5 Calculation of the optimal diet breadth for hunters with dogs . 77 3.6 Prey pursued by hunters when their dogs were elsewhere . 80 3.7 Episodes of catching up to the dogs that did not result in positive . ..
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