Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Defaunation Through the Eyes of the Tsimane’

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Hunter-gatherers in a Changing World

Abstract

Defaunation is one of the most critical challenges faced by contemporary hunter-gatherers worldwide. In the present chapter we explore how this global anthropogenic phenomenon is being explained by a hunter-gatherer society: the Tsimane’ of Bolivian Amazonia. First, we briefly review the historical context of contemporary Tsimane’, with a special focus on defaunation trends in their territory. We then draw on ethnographic accounts to understand how this society explains the drivers of defaunation and integrates them in their understanding of the world, and specifically in their mythology. The Tsimane’ perceive widespread defaunation in their territory, which they tend to largely interpret as a result of both natural and supernatural forces, with intertwined arguments. The Tsimane’ think that supernatural deities control animals and, consequently, they largely associate wildlife scarcity with punishments by the spirits in response to disrespectful conducts. As such, defaunation is interpreted as a consequence of (a) direct harm to wildlife populations by the inappropriate hunting and fishing behaviour; and (b) the discontentment of the animal deities for not respecting certain established cultural norms. In the Tsimane’ view, the latter is also aggravated by their recent relative inability to communicate with the spirits, due to the disappearance of shamans. Considering that the way people interpret environmental change can determine their behaviour towards proposed conservation actions, understanding the symbolic dimensions of defaunation is of direct relevance to any initiative aiming for sustainable wildlife management in areas inhabited by hunter-gatherers.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alvard, M. S. (1993). Testing the “ecologically noble savage” hypothesis: Interspecific prey choice by Piro hunters of Amazonian Peru. Human Ecology, 21, 355–387.

    Google Scholar 

  • Århem, K. (1996). The cosmic food web: Human-nature relatedness in the Northwest Amazon. In P. Descola & G. Pálsson (Eds.), Nature and society: Anthropological perspectives (pp. 185–204). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berkes, F., Colding, J., & Folke, C. (2000). Rediscovery of traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management. Ecological Applications, 10(5), 1251–1262.

    Google Scholar 

  • Califano, M. (1975). Noticia sobre la prospección etnográfica a los chimane del rio chimane. Scripta Etnologica (Buenos Aires), 3, 195–196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cañas, C. M., & Pine, W. E., III. (2011). Documentation of the temporal and spatial patterns of pimelodidae catfish spawning and larvae dispersion in the madre de DiosRiver (Peru): Insights for conservation in the Andean-Amazon headwaters. River Research and Applications, 27(5), 602–611.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castello, L., McGrath, D. G., Hess, L. L., Coe, M. T., Lefebvre, P. A., Petry, P., Macedo, M. N., Renó, V. F., & Arantes, C. C. (2013). The vulnerability of Amazon freshwater ecosystems. Conservation Letters, 6(4), 217–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chicchón, A. (1992). Chimane resource use and market involvement in the Beni Biosphere Reserve, Bolivia. PhD dissertation, University of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cormier, L. (2006). A preliminary review of Neotropical Primates in the subsistence and symbolism of indigenous lowland South American peoples. Ecological and Environmental Anthropology, 2(1), 14–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daillant, I. (2003). Sens dessus dessous. Organisation sociale et spatiale des Chimane d’Amazonie bolivienne. Nanterre: Société d’Ethnologie.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denevan, W. (1980). La geografía cultural aborigen de los llanos de Mojos. La Paz: Juventud.

    Google Scholar 

  • Descola, P. (2004). Las cosmologías indígenas de la Amazonía. In A. Surrallés & P. García (Eds.), Tierra Adentro. Territorio indígena y percepción del entorno. Lima: IWGIA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Descola, P. (2005). Par-delà nature et culture. Paris: Gallimard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Díaz-Reviriego, I., Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Howard, P. L., Molina, J. L., & Reyes-García, V. (in press). Fishing in the Amazonian forest: A gendered social network puzzle. Society and Natural Resources. Submitted 20.10.2015.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dirzo, R., Young, H. S., Galetti, M., Ceballos, G., Isaac, N. J. B., & Collen, B. (2014). Defaunation in the Anthropocene. Science, 345(6195), 401–406.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doughty, C., Lu, F., & Sorensen, M. (2010). Crude, cash and culture change: The Huaorani of Amazonian Ecuador. Consilience. The Journal of Sustainable Development, 4(1), 18–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, R. (1996). A taste for movement: An exploration of the social ethics of the Tsimane’ of lowland Bolivia. PhD dissertation, St Andrews University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Endo, W., Peres, C. A., Salas, E., Mori, S., Sánchez-Vega, J. L., Shepard, G. H., Pacheco, V., & Yu, D. W. (2010). Game vertebrate densities in hunted and nonhunted forest sites in Manu National Park, Peru. Biotropica, 42(2), 251–261.

    Google Scholar 

  • Espinosa, S., Branch, L. C., & Cueva, R. (2014). Road development and the geography of hunting by an Amazonian indigenous group: Consequences for wildlife conservation. PloS One, 9(12), e114916.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fausto, C. (2007). Feasting on people: Eating animals and humans in Amazonia. Current Anthropology, 48(4), 497–530.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fausto, C. (2008). Too many owners: Mastery and ownership in Amazonia. Mana: Estudos de Antropologia Social, 14, 329–366.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Díaz-Reviriego, I., Luz, A. C., Cabeza, M., Pyhälä, A., & Reyes-García, V. (2015a). Rapid ecosystem change challenges the adaptive capacity of local environmental knowledge. Global Environmental Change, 31, 272–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Díaz-Reviriego, I., Guèze, M., Cabeza, M., Pyhälä, A., & Reyes-García, V. (2015b). Local perceptions as a guide for the sustainable management of natural resources: Empirical evidence from a small-scale society in Bolivian Amazonia. Ecology and Society, 21(1), 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Méndez-López, M. E., Díaz-Reviriego, I., McBride, M. F., Pyhälä, A., Rosell-Melé, A., & Reyes-García, V. (2015c). Links between media communication and local perceptions of climate change in an indigenous society. Climatic Change, 131(2), 307–320.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fessler, D. M. T., Barrett, H. C., Kanovsky, M., Stich, S., Holbrook, C., Henrich, J., et al. (2015). Moral parochialism and contextual contingency across seven societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1813), 20150907.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finer, M., Babbitt, B., Novoa, S., Ferrarese, F., Pappalardo, S. E., De Marchi, M., Saucedo, M., & Kumar, A. (2015). Future of oil and gas development in the western Amazon. Environmental Research Letters, 10, 024003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Franzen, M. (2005). Huaorani resource use in the Ecuadorian Amazon: hunting, food sharing and market participation. PhD dissertation, University of California, Davis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, K. (1989). Yanomami hunting patterns: Trekking and garden relocation as an adaptation to game availability in Amazonia, Venezuela. PhD dissertation, University of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guèze, M., Paneque-Gálvez, J., & Luz, A. C. (2014). El ambiente natural y la degradación forestal. In V. Reyes-García & T. Huanca (Eds.), Cambio global, cambio local. La sociedad tsimane’ ante la globalización (pp. 65–89). Barcelona: Icaria Editorial.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herrera-MacBryde, O., Dallmeier, F., MacBride, B., Comiskey, J. A., & Miranda, C. (2000). Biodiversity, conservation and management in the region of the Beni biological station biosphere reserve, Bolivia SI/MAB Ser. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huanca, T. (1999). Tsimane’ indigenous knowledge, Swidden Fallow management and conservation. (PhD Dissertation), University of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huanca, T. (2008). Tsimane’ oral tradition, landscape and identity in tropical forest. La Paz: Imprenta Wagui.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huanca, T. (2014). La cosmovisión Tsimane’ tradicional en un contexto global. In V. Reyes-García & T. Huanca (Eds.), Cambio global, cambio local. La sociedad tsimane’ ante la globalización (pp. 331–353). Barcelona: Icaria Editorial.

    Google Scholar 

  • IUCN, International Union for the Conservation of Nature. (2014). The IUCN Red List of threatened species. Version 2014.3. http://www.iucnredlist.org. Accessed 3 Mar 2014.

  • Junk, W. J., & Wantzen, K. M. (2004). The flood pulse concept: New aspects, approaches and applications – An update. In R. L. Welcomme, & T. Petr (Eds.), Proceedings of the second international symposium on the management of large rivers for fisheries, volume I (pp. 117–149). Bangkok, FAO-RAP Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, R. L. (1995). The lifeways of hunter-gatherers. The foraging spectrum. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lu, F. (2001). The common property regime of the Huaorani indians of Ecuador: Implications and challenges to conservation. Human Ecology, 29(4), 425–447.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luz, A. C. (2013). The role of acculturation in indigenous people’s hunting patterns: Implications for wildlife conservation. The case of the Tsimane’ in the Bolivian Amazon. PhD dissertation, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luz, A. C., Guèze, M., Paneque-Gálvez, J., Pino, J., Macía, M. J., Orta-Martínez, M., & Reyes-García, V. (2015). How does cultural change affect indigenous peoples’ hunting activity? An empirical study among the Tsimane’ in the Bolivian Amazon. Conservation and Society, 13, 382.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martínez-Rodríguez, M. R. (2009). Ethnobotanical knowledge acquisition among Tsimane’ children in the Bolivian Amazon. PhD dissertation, University of Georgia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maru, Y. T., Smith, M. S., Sparrow, A., Pinho, P. F., & Dube, O. P. (2014). A linked vulnerability and resilience framework for adaptation pathways in remote disadvantaged communities. Global Environmental Change, 28, 337–350.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mena, P., Stallings, J. R., Regalado, J., & Cueva, R. (2000). The sustainability of current hunting practices by the Huaorani. In J. G. Robinson & E. L. Bennett (Eds.), Hunting for Sustainability in Tropical Forests (pp. 57–78). New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MMA, Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Agua de Bolivia. (2009). Libro rojo de la fauna silvestre de vertebrados de Bolivia. La Paz: Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Agua.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nordenskiöld, E. (1924). Exploraciones y Aventuras en Suramérica. Santa Cruz de la Sierra: APCOB, Apoyo para el Campesino-Indígena del Oriente Boliviano.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oldekop, J. A., Bebbington, A. J., Truelove, N. K., Holmes, G., Villamarín, S., & Preziosi, R. F. (2012). Environmental impacts and scarcity perception influence local institutions in indigenous Amazonian Kichwa communities. Human Ecology, 40, 101–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paneque-Gálvez, J., Mas, J. F., Guèze, M., Luz, A. C., Orta-Martínez, M., Pino, J., Macía, M. J., & Reyes-García, V. (2013). Land tenure and forest cover change. The case of southwestern Beni, Bolivian Amazon, 1986–2009. Applied Geography, 43, 113–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pauly, A. (1928). Ensayo de etnografía Americana. Viajes y exploraciones. Buenos Aires: Casa Jacobo Peuser.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peres, C. A. (1997). Primate community structure at twenty western Amazonian flooded and unflooded forests. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 13(3), 381–405.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pérez, E. (2001). Uso de la ictiofauna por dos comunidades Tsimane’: San Antonio y Yaranda (T. I. Tsimane’, Depto. Beni) bajo diferente influencia de Mercado. Bachelor thesis, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pérez-Díez, A. (1983). Etnografía de los Chiman del Oriente Boliviano. Buenos Aires: University of Buenos Aires.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pérez-Llorente, I., Paneque-Gálvez, J., Luz, A. C., Guèze, M., Macía, M. J., Domínguez-Gómez, J. A., & Reyes-García, V. (2013). Changing Indigenous cultures, economies, and landscapes: The case of the Tsimane’, Bolivian Amazon. Landscape and Urban Planning, 120, 147–157.

    Google Scholar 

  • Posey, D. A. (1985). Indigenous management of tropical forest ecosystems: The case of the Kayapo Indians of the Brazilian Amazon. Agroforestry Systems, 3(2), 139–158.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pringle, H. (2015). In peril. Science, 348(6239), 1080–1085.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. (1976). Cosmology as ecological analysis: A view from the rain forest. Man, 11(3), 307–318.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. (1999). A view from the headwaters. The Ecologist, 29(4), 276–280.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reyes-García, V. (2001). Indigenous people, ethnobotanical knowledge, and market economy. A case study of the Tsimane’ Amerindians, Bolivia. PhD dissertation, University of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reyes-García, V., Ledezma, J. C., Paneque-Gálvez, J., Orta-Martínez, M., Guèze, M., Lobo, A., Guinart, D., & Luz, A. C. (2012). Presence and purpose of Nonindigenous peoples on Indigenous lands: A descriptive account from the Bolivian lowlands. Society and Natural Resources, 25(1–3), 270–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reyes-García, V., Paneque-Gálvez, J., Guèze, M., Luz, A. C., Macía, M. J., Orta-Martínez, M., & Pino, J. (2014a). Cultural change and traditional ecological knowledge: An empirical analysis from the Tsimane’ in the Bolivian Amazon. Human Organization, 73(2), 162–173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reyes-García, V., Paneque-Gálvez, J., Bottazzi, P., Luz, A. C., Guèze, M., Macía, M. J., Orta-Martínez, M., & Pacheco, P. (2014b). Indigenous land reconfiguration and fragmented institutions: A historical political ecology of Tsimane’ lands (Bolivian Amazon). Journal of Rural Studies, 34, 282–291.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riester, J. (1976). En busca de la Loma Santa. La Paz: Los Amigos del Libro.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ringhofer, L. (2010). Fishing, foraging and farming in the Bolivian Amazon. Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roca, J. L. (2001). Economía y sociedad en el oriente boliviano (siglos XVI–XX). Santa Cruz de la Sierra: Editorial Oriente.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, E. B., Arnott, M. L., Basso, E. B., et al. (1978). Food taboos, diet, and hunting strategy: The adaptation to animals in Amazon cultural ecology. Current Anthropology, 19(1), 1–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salo, M., Sirén, A., & Kalliola, R. (2014). Fishing in and fishing out the Amazon. In M. Salo, A. Sirén, & R. Kalliola (Eds.), Diagnosing wild species harvest (pp. 93–110). London: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schweitzer, P. P., Biesele, M., & Hitchcock, R. H. (2000). Hunters & gatherers in the modern world. Conflict, resistance, and self-determination. New York: Berghahn Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepard, G. H., Jr. (2002). Primates in Matsigenka subsistence and worldview. In A. Fuentes & L. Wolfe (Eds.), Primates face to face: Conservation implications of human and nonhuman primate interconnections (pp. 101–136). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Undurraga, E. A., Cruz-Burga, Z., & Godoy, R. A. (2014). Demografía y territorialidad de la población tsimane’ actual. In V. Reyes-García & T. Huanca (Eds.), Cambio global, cambio local. La sociedad tsimane’ ante la globalización (pp. 91–120). Barcelona: Icaria Editorial.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vadez, V., & Fernández-Llamazares, Á. (2014). De la agricultura de subsistencia a la comercialización. In V. Reyes-García & T. Huanca (Eds.), Cambio global, cambio local. La sociedad tsimane’ ante la globalización (pp. 147–175). Barcelona: Icaria Editorial.

    Google Scholar 

  • Virtanen, P. K. (2009). Shamanism and indigenous youthhood in the Brazilian Amazonia. Amazônica: Revista de Antropologia, 1(1), 152–177.

    Google Scholar 

  • Virtanen, P. K. (2016). The death of the master of peccaries: The Apurinã and the scarcity of forest resources in Brazilian Amazonia. In A. Pyhälä & V. Reyes-García (Eds.), Hunter-gatherers in a changing world. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Virtanen, P. K., Saarinen, S., & Kamppinen, M. (2012). How to integrate socio-cultural dimensions into sustainable development: Amazonian case studies. International Journal of Sustainable Society, 4(3), 226–239.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weatherhead, E., Gearheard, S., & Barry, R. G. (2010). Changes in weather persistence: Insights form Inuit knowledge. Global Environmental Change, 20(3), 523–528.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zycherman, A. (2013). The changing value of food: Localizing modernity among the Tsimane’ Indians of lowland Bolivia. PhD dissertation, University of Columbia.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement nr. FP7-261971-LEK to V. R.-G. Á.F.-LL was also supported by the Finnish Academy (grant agreement nr. 292765). We thank all the Tsimane’ who shared their knowledge and myths with us, the Gran Consejo Tsimane’ and CBIDSI for all their support, V. Cuata, S. Fraixedas, S. Huditz, P. Pache, M. Pache, and I.V. Sánchez for all their help during fieldwork, and M. Cabeza, T. Huanca and A. Pyhälä for insightful comments and ideas.This work contributes to the “Maria de Maezter Unit of Excellence” (MDM-2015-0552).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Metapopulation Research Centre (MRC), Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares

  2. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares & Isabel Díaz-Reviriego

  3. Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

    Isabel Díaz-Reviriego

  4. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain

    Victoria Reyes-García

  5. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Victoria Reyes-García

Authors
  1. Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Isabel Díaz-Reviriego
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Victoria Reyes-García
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain

    Victoria Reyes-García

  2. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Aili Pyhälä

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Díaz-Reviriego, I., Reyes-García, V. (2017). Defaunation Through the Eyes of the Tsimane’. In: Reyes-García, V., Pyhälä, A. (eds) Hunter-gatherers in a Changing World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42271-8_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42271-8_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-42269-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-42271-8

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation