The Cultural Connections of Urban and Periurban Indigenous Communities to Tropical Forest through Bushmeat Networks in Leticia (Colombia)

The Cultural Connections of Urban and Periurban Indigenous Communities to Tropical Forest

through Bushmeat Networks in Leticia (Colombia)

Blanca Yagüe, Nathalie van Vliet, Daniel Cruz, Maytik Avirama Pavón

Food from the forest...

… and from the market

Amazonian inhabitants had originally obtain their food from the forest and the rivers

Nowadays, the region is under intense transformation:

huge extractive projects, migration and urbanization, access to new markets, globalization...

Major impact in indigenous populations

Global value chains: industrialized products from all around the world

Food transition

How are food habits changing in the Amazon?

Our research questions are:

Indigenous families still consume forest products in urban contexts?

What role do forest products have in urban and periurban indigenous households?

How do forest products link these people to the forest?

Bushmeat as a model

• Food security- Nutrition: source of protein- “Safety Net”

• Economic resource: contributes to household income

• Social and cultural implications- Traditional foods and rituals- Local knowledge of territory and resources- Social relationships

Important multifuntional role in indigenous communities:

Leticia: a city in the Amazon tri-frontier

- 38000 inhabitants

- migration: colonos and urban indigenous

- connected by river and daily flights

Methods

Ethnography

Participant observation

Interviews

Network building (GenoPro)

Household 1

• 14 members

(5 females, 9 males)

• Ocaina-uitoto

• Periurban indigenouscommunity (Leticia)

• Chagra and garden

• Pluriactivity

• Hunter

Household 2

• 5 members

(1 female, 4 males)

• Muninane, miraña

• Urban area Leticia

(maloca CAPUIL)• Politically active

• Urban chagra

• Traditional medicine

• Pluriactivity

Household 3

• 7 members

(5 female, 2 males)

• Cocama – non indigenous

• Urban area (Leticia)

Relationship with communityof origin

Chagra

Household

Main place where bushmeat is shared, exchanged andconsumed • Bushmeat brought directly

from the forest

• Preparation proccess

• Cooking

• Sharing with guests→ Hunting tales

Exchange scenarios

Forest• Hunting activity (males)

• Alone or in group

• Consumption→ share with companions

(family, friends, tourists and scientists)

Deep knowledge of theterritory and its resources

Maloca

Socialization:Bring together kins and people from different ethnic groups

Share of food → bushmeat

Dance rituals orfestivals

Market

• Sales out of the market

• - by order

- door by door

• Monetary transition

• Confidence based

• Social relationships

Restaurants and food sands

• Monetary transition

• Social relationships

• Urban / rural

• Hidden sales

• Most common: paca

Other households

Less common among these families -

• they offer bushmeat in their households

Urban families eat bushmeat in urban and rural indigenous households

Airport

Network expands in territory and number of actors:

- connection with distant territories

- intermediaries

Need to contend with authorities andairlines

Type of exchange

Immediate exchange

Long-term exchange

Meal sharing

Mediated by money (buy/sale)

Reciprocity

Bushmeat networks

Bushmeat participates in networks that connect indigenous people with:

The forest

The rural territories

Their inhabitants

What connections does the urban indigenous have with the tropical forest?

• It means the maintenance of knowledge about the territory, forest and its resources

What role does bushmeat have in urban and periurban indigenous households?

• Socialization -“making kins”

• Reproduction of rituals –traditional dance festivals

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

- Local people: Food sovereignty

- To incorporate the social and cultural dimensions of

bushmeat and other forest products that play a similar role

when designing management programs

Acknowledgements

All the photos were taken by Blanca Yagüe

Special thanks to all the members of the five families thatare the center of this study, and also to all the personsinvolved in their networks, for sharing their daily life andopening their houses and kitchens to us