Abstract
The Barí, an Amerindian society in the Sierra de Perijá between Venezuela and Colombia, have a mixed subsistence economy that integrates horticulture with fishing and hunting. Hunting produced just a quarter of the meat consumed in the 1970s, and although monkeys accounted for less than 6% of that amount, they still play an important cultural role. In the Barí territory, four species of monkey are known to exist: white-bellied spider (Ateles hybridus), red howler (Alouatta seniculus), white-fronted capuchin (Cebus leucocephalus), and gray-handed night monkeys (Aotus griseimembra), all of which are quite abundant. In an ethnobotanical study in Barí homeland, out of all trees censused (N = 3664) in 5.4 hectares of forest, 2476 individual trees (67.8%) provide food for monkeys. One hundred and two species of tress provided food for many animals, including monkeys. As humans “anthropogenically” create “cultural forests,” primates must be doing something very similar, by making their forest a “primatogenical” one. Therefore, most Neotropical forests are primatogenical since monkeys and humans disperse fruits of most trees, but monkeys still do most of it. Therefore, the preservation of these monkeys is key to the future of this forest, which could support larger fauna. Based on this research, primates are likely to be essential species in the reproduction of two-thirds of the Barí forest.
Resumen
Los Barí, una etnia indígena de la Sierra de Perijá entre Venezuela y Colombia, tienen una subsistencia mixta que integra horticultura, pesca y cacería. La cacería produce sólo un cuarto de la carne consumida en 1970s, si bien los monos representan menos del 6% de tal cantidad, éstos aun juegan un rol cultural. En el territorio Barí existen cuatro especies de primates: el mono araña norteño (Ateles hybridus), el aullador rojo o araguato (Alouatta seniculus), el capuchino cariblanco (Cebus leucocephalus) y el mono nocturno (Aotus griseimembra). Este pueblo indígena tiene un conocimiento muy detallado de la dieta de estos animales. De todos los árboles estudiados (N = 3.664) en 5.4 hectáreas de selva, existen 2.476 árboles (67.8%) que proporcionan alimentos a los primates. De los 227 taxones de árboles en estos sectores, 102 especies son alimenticias para muchos animales, incluyendo los primates. Como los humanos crean selvas “antropogénicas” que se suelen llamar “selvas culturales”, se podría decir que los monos hacen algo muy similar, al convertir la selva en “primatogénica” por jugar un rol significativo en el repoblamiento forestal. Por lo tanto, la preservación de los monos es clave para el futuro de estas selvas que, a su vez, pueden alimentar a un gran número de otras especies de animales. Esta investigación argumenta que los primates pueden ser unas especies primordiales en la reproducción de dos tercios de la selva Barí.
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Acknowledgments
I am very thankful to all the Barí people for allowing the author to conduct research and reside in their cultural and natural environment and for providing prodigious amount of information and support for this research, especially from Akirihda, Iribi, Arukbá, Sarukbá, Abuyokba, Abokoré, Abohkín, Ataktabá, Mandabó, Ashkoró, Oroksá, Elizabeth Asigbera, and Emilio Aleobaddá. The help of Andres Achirabu, David Aleobaddá, and all their family members, in particular, made this work possible. Without their generosity and kind support, this chapter could not have been written. Funding for research was provided by Connecticut College (R. F. Johnson Faculty Development Fund). I want to thank my friend Jorge Cruz, anthropologist and writer, for reviewing and correcting my abstract in Spanish, Christopher Cobalth for editorial suggestions, my former student Zoe Diaz-Martin’14 and my mentor/padrino Dr. Stephen Beckerman for making many useful suggestions and corrections. I am also very grateful to Gerardo Aymard (PORT) because he corrected the botanical and taxonomical nomenclature of trees in this chapter and Paul Berry for the identification of my vouchers. Finally, I am extremely grateful to my wife, Anne-Marie, for her meticulous editorial assistance with this chapter. I am very grateful for all the helpful comments that Leslie Sponsel and William Balée provided in this chapter to improve it and the other editor of this volume, Bernardo Urbani, for all the work involved in the production of it.
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Lizarralde, M. (2020). Frugivorous Monkeys Feeding in a Tropical Rainforest: Barí Ethnobotanical Ethnoprimatology in Venezuela. In: Urbani, B., Lizarralde, M. (eds) Neotropical Ethnoprimatology. Ethnobiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27504-4_6
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