Maya ICBG Project

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Maya ICBG Project Chiapas, Mexico
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Hoodia appetite suppressant
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Mamala Tree
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Territory Occupied by the James Bay Cree 375,000
square kilometers 9 distinct communities 300
territories under stewardship of the
elders Berkes conducted research in the
community of Chisasibi
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James Bay Cree

• Rely heavily on hunting and fishing beaver,
  bear, caribou, moose, martin, otter, cisco,
  whitefish, suckers
• Cree society organized around principles of
  community and reciprocity resources held in
  COMMON
• Hunting and fishing practices examples of
  successful adaptive management strategies
• Participated in fur trade for centuries settled
  in permanent communities in 1960s contact with
  industrial society in 1970s with construction
  of the James Bay hydroelectric project

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Adaptive Management

• Because environmental conditions are always
  changing, successful management systems must
  respond by adjusting and evolving
• Takes dynamic view of ecosystems, stresses
  resilience (buffering ability of the system to
  absorb change without breaking down or going into
  a state of equilibrium)
• Processes of social learning or institutional
  learning allow resource users to adapt management
  systems effectively, i.e. communities preserve a
  body of TEK that is passed down through
  generations

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Cree Hunting Practices

• Based on an animistic worldview both living and
  non-living entities are infused with spirits and
  must be treated with the same respect and moral
  worth afforded to human beings
• Animals, NOT people, control the success of the
  hunt
• Animals are aware of the hunters activities and
  must be treated with respect hunter must remain
  humble at all times
• Hunters must pursue, kill, and butcher animals
  according to proscribed rules and rituals in
  order to ensure future luck number of animals
  available in the future influenced by ceremonial
  regeneration
• Luck declines with age and is thought to be
  passed on to younger family members
• Divide territories into 3 or 4 sectors and hunt
  only one at a time while the others rest
• Utilize every portion of the animal
• Hunting returns divided among community members,
  i.e. potlatch ceremonies
• Rising and falling populations of prey
  explained as a change in the animals
  willingness to be caught understand long-term
  cycles not known to Western science

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Caribou Populations

• example of the adaptive nature of Cree hunting
  practices
• caribou populations fluctuate cyclically, but are
  not predictable
• traditionally hunted caribou in winter targeted
  groups of the animals
• no caribou from about 1905 until 1982, when herds
  recovered from earlier period of over-hunting
  following introduction of repeating rifles
• during 1982-1983 season, young hunters shot
  caribou recklessly with high power rifles and
  population began to decline again
• elders called community meeting and told the
  story of the caribous disappearance at the turn
  of the century and warned that caribou would be
  offended and go underground again
• Cree implemented a controlled hunt about two
  caribou per family designed plan without
  government assistance or intervention
• actual behavior debunks Noble Savage myth but
  self-control, social coercion, and wisdom
  preserved in oral history allow conservation to
  occur when it is in the communitys best
  interest
• Conservation ethic develops when resource is
  important or limiting, predictable and depletable

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Cree Fishing

• Staple resource but no rituals or ceremonies
  involving fish as there are for other animals
• BUT exhibit respect for fish, believe that they
  control success of the catch
• Fish on lakes, river estuaries, and the James Bay
  coast using gill nets and seines
• Three sets of management practices
• Concentration of effort in areas where fish are
  congregated (typical of subsistence systems,
  requires TEK to locate best areas)
• Rotational or pulse-fishing (helps maintain a
  population of large-sized fish optimizes catch
  per unit of effort)
• Use a mix of gill net mesh sizes (small-mesh nets
  within commuting distance of the village and
  large-mesh nets further away catch different
  sizes of fish which are out to different purposes
  )
• Socially enforced rules i.e. chastise fishers
  who use too small a mesh because they catch
  immature fish class of stewards regulates access
  and effort
• Deny any conscious conservation strategy claim
  to use whatever nets are available but Berkes
  notes a clear pattern (emic vs. etic)
• Seems contrary to modern rules for fisheries
  management because they seek to maximize catch at
  all times BUT has preserved age-class structure
  of the two species they harvest for over 50 years
  (since data have been collected) conserves
  population resilience