Why Pumé foragers retain a hunting and gathering way of life

Abstract

Much of our success as a species derives from the ability to adapt hunting and gathering to diverse ecologies and incorporate a wide range of food resources. Throughout their history foragers have been making strategic decisions about whether to incorporate new resources and technologies. This appears to be both the strength and resilience of hunter-gatherer lifeways. Despite recognition that hunting and gathering includes broad-spectrum subsistence options, an assumption is commonly made that the incorporation of domesticates leads to a directional shift toward greater reliance on food production. In this chapter we consider instead how the adoption of some horticultural practices supports the continued viability of, and primary reliance on, hunting and gathering. Although the Pumé live in close proximity to and interact with their horticultural relatives, they have not assimilated into their communities or become sedentary and increasingly reliant on horticulture. We explore how a combination of both economic and social factors are critical to their retention of a mobile foraging way of life and helps to explain why hunting and gathering remains a viable, and even desirable subsistence choice in the twenty-first century.