Resumo

VILLANUEVA ESCARELA, Samantha Nazaret; AGUILAR CORDERO, Wilian de Jesús  e  CHABLE SANTOS, Juan. Traditional Hunting and Cultural Valuation of Wildlife in the Mayan Community of Xul, Oxkutzcab, Yucatán. Estud. cult. maya [online]. 2024, vol.63, pp.191-220.  Epub 26-Ago-2024. ISSN 0185-2574.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.ecm.63.2024/00171s0xw37.

Hunting is part of the biocultural heritage of the Maya people of the Yucatán Peninsula because it has been part of their strategy of multiple use of resources and their cosmovision since pre-Hispanic times. The study of knowledge and practices on the uses of natural resources can help to improve the resilience of biological and human communities to disturbances. The aim of this study was to characterize the biocultural knowledge associated with traditional hunting in the Mayan community of Xul, Yucatán. From September to December 2020, 42 mixed questionnaires and seven semi-structured interviews were applied to local hunters. It was found that 23 species of vertebrates (35 mammals, 6 birds, and 1 reptile) are hunted in Xul and are used mainly for food. The species with higher cultural importance (IIC) were the red brocket deer (Mazama temama), collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), and ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata). The dry season is their favorite season for hunting (71.4 %) and hunters prefer the milpa (92.9 %) and forest (83.3 %) as hunting sites. The most practiced techniques are the “batida” (flushing by hunting teams, p’uuj; 92.9 %), “caminar por el monte” (walking through the woods, xíimbal ts’on; 73.8 %), and “lampareo” (hunting with flashlights, ts’on; 69 %). In Xul there are beliefs such as virtues, the owners of animals and the winds (Ik’). These results show the continuity of biocultural knowledge related to hunting and its importance in the management and conservation of wild fauna in rural communities.

Palavras-chave : Traditional Hunting; Biocultural Knowledge; Mayan People; Cultural Importance of Wildlife; Hunting Patterns; Beliefs.

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