Abstract
This chapter reviews the interface between humans and howler monkeys based on evidence from the archaeological record and the ethnography of contemporary indigenous societies. The record of howler monkeys interconnections with humans may be traced back to the Pre-Hispanic period. Data suggest that Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Mayans and Aztecs interacted with howlers. Also, members of societies from northern South America established relationships with howler monkeys before the Contact period. Among current indigenous societies, howlers are not only eaten, but also figure in mythic, sacred, and social symbologies. As large-sized atelines, howler monkeys are among the preferred primate prey for a number of cultures in the tropical Americas. However, some groups avoid them as prey. Cultural taboos on howlers as food are often linked to magical contagion whereby ingestion of howlers is believed to pass on their undesirable traits, such as lethargy. In addition, due to other behavioral features, such as vocalizations and ideas of human similarity, howler monkeys are common characters in the cosmologies of contemporary indigenous societies. For example, in native mythologies of lowland South America, the creation of howlers is often related to human body transformation. Thus, it can be argued that howler monkeys are/were subjects of different social representations among the native societies of the Neotropics.
Resumen
Este capítulo revisa la interface entre humanos y monos aulladores basado en la evidencia arqueológica y la etnografía sobre sociedades indígenas contemporáneas. La evidencia de interconexiones entre monos aulladores y humanos puede retrotraerse hasta el período prehispánico. Los datos sugieren que civilizaciones mesoamericanas como los Mayas y Aztecas interactuaron con araguatos. Igualmente miembros de sociedades del norte de Suramérica establecieron relaciones con monos aulladores antes del período de contacto. En las sociedades indígenas actuales, los aulladores no son sólo consumidos, sino también aparecen en simbologías míticas, sagradas y sociales. Al ser primates de gran tamaño, los araguatos están entre los primates preferidos como presas por parte de varias culturas en la América tropical. Sin embargo, algunos grupos humanos los evitan como presas de cacería, en tanto que se considera tabú cultural la ingesta de monos aulladores como alimento, al asociarse regularmente con el contagio mágico de atributos no deseados como el letargo. Adicionalmente, debido a sus características comportamentales como la vocalización, así como las ideas en torno a su similitud con los humanos, los monos aulladores son personajes comunes en las cosmologías contemporáneas de las sociedades indígenas. En este sentido, por ejemplo, en mitologías de las tierras bajas de Suramérica, la creación del araguato habitualmente se relaciona con la transformación del cuerpo humano. En resumen, se puede sugerir que los monos aulladores son y fueron sujetos para ser representados socialmente de forma diferencial por las sociedades originarias del Neotrópico.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the other editors of this volume for their encouragement during the writing of this chapter. Thanks to the reviewers for their comments that helped to improve this work. To Manuel Lizarralde and Martín Kowalewski for their communications. B. Urbani appreciated the support of the personnel of the library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for their collaboration.
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Urbani, B., Cormier, L.A. (2015). The Ethnoprimatology of the Howler Monkeys (Alouatta spp.): From Past to Present. In: Kowalewski, M., Garber, P., Cortés-Ortiz, L., Urbani, B., Youlatos, D. (eds) Howler Monkeys. Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1960-4_10
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