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| GENERAL DEFINITION OF THE TECHNIQUE |
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| Technique: |
SPECIFIC TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS FOR HUNTING AND FISHING |
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Definition characters description and diffusion
Various communities have evolved distinctive hunting traditions.
General characters description and diffusion
According to the chacu system found in the Andean and some peripheral areas, a group of wild animals is surrounded, and the sick, injured and old are identified and detained. The rest are left unharmed and set free. Indigenous perceptions of biodiversity are evident in social values, beliefs and practices that sometimes make reference to the importance of biodiversity, including reverence for some biological units such as forests, trees and animals. Many communities observed widespread cultural beliefs in abstinence from wanton killing of wild animals, especially those that the society held in contempt such as hyenas and monkeys, and also the young of all species. Fish were also protected, with some sites held sacred. Some communities, such as the Masai of East Africa, hold wildlife as a last-resort resource that must remain untouched in normal seasons. The Ila-speaking peoples of Zambia practised a well-known traditional wildlife management system, the chilla. This was a system of seasonal hunting expeditions either once a year or at intervals of two to three years, depending on the population of the animals. There were strict rules governing such hunts. Chiefs and elders were the only people with authority to sanction chilla and they could do so only after ascertaining that animal populations were not declining to extinction. Oral history further suggests that there was an element of selectivity in the actual hunt, with females and juveniles spared while males were targeted. Subsistence hunters trap, snare, shoot with bows and firearms, and spear their quarry. Fire is also used to drive animals from cover, and smoke to eject rodents from their holes. Trapping and snaring enable the animals to be caught alive so that slaughter can be delayed until an opportune moment. These methods, in general, cause relatively little disturbance to wildlife populations provided that techniques remain traditional and undue commercialisation has not crept in.
Advantages and sustainability
These techniques prevent animal populations from becoming too low. Specific tools and techniques use to actually carry out the hunting allow the animal to be captured alive so that the meat will be fresher upon eating.
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TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUE DATA
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