Large Mammals and a Brave People: Subsistence Hunters in Zambia

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Description

The Valley Bisa people inhabit the Luangwa Valley in central Zambia. Among them, the hunter, who tracks such large game as the lion, elephant, and buffalo, commands great respect and esteem from the other members of the lineage who traditionally rely on him for their subsistence and protection. Even supposing the social organization and technology of the Bisa people have undergone tremendous change in the last one hundred years, the role of hunter retains its social importance, and the legitimizing hunting rituals have their roots in local history. Drawing on data collected all over his fieldwork some of the Bisa continuing since the 1960s, Stuart Marks describes the changes that have occurred in hunting patterns, the sociological variables that govern an individual’s decision to change into a hunter, and the common cosmological convictions that hunters bring to their profession. To be had for the first time in paperback, the new introduction and afterword to this edition reflect on methodological and ideological changes in the anthropological study of African peoples in addition to updating the circumstances of the Bisa people since the book’s first appearance in 1976. Through the interventions of the larger national society the Bisa have lost much of their land and access to important portions of their resources even as experiencing repression in their struggles to deal with livelihoods with what local assets are left. On the other hand, Marks notes that they face their hardships with tolerance, integrity, persistence, and humility. The general reader, in addition to prehistorians and anthropologists concerned with human evolution and hunting societies, will find this volume useful. It’s going to also be of interest to wildlife managers and ecologists.

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