The Historical Relationship between People and the Vicuña

YACOBACCIO, HUGO D.

The Vicuña. The theory and Practice of Community-Based Wildlife Management

Srpinger

Lugar: New York; Año: 2009; p. 7 - 20

The relationship between man and wildlife has changed over time in many ways (Woodroffe et al., 2005) . Today’s hunter-gatherers have sophisticated management tools, based on detailed knowledge of successional patterns and ecological interrelationships (Nelson, 1982) and many societies have taboos, rules or traditions that prevent overhunting by limiting the practice to certain events or seasons of the year. Restriction of overhunting is common in certain Amazonian peoples (Chicchón, 2000) , although there are cases of species driven to local extinction due to the spatial variation in limits to hunting control (Hitchcock, 1995) . Conservation behaviour in hunting societies is often embedded in religious beliefs and ritual practices which act to ensure the continuity of the populations (Loring, 1997) .