Introduction

Access to wild meat plays vital nutritional, cultural, and socioeconomic roles in most rural rainforest communities in West and Central Africa (Coad et al., 2010; Fa et al., 2003, 2005; Lupo & Schmitt, 2017; Muchaal & Ngandjui, 1999; Wilkie & Carpenter, 1999). Wild meat, or bushmeat, is often pursed for income and represents the only dietary source of animal protein and fat because few individuals maintain domestic livestock due to the high economic costs and risks (disease, predation) associated with animal husbandry in tropical forests (Coad et al., 2010; Fa & Brown, 2009; Wilkie et al., 2005). As such, regional faunal (especially mammalian) communities are suffering increasingly negative impacts from overhunting and the threats of expanding human populations, pervasive wild meat markets, and habitat and biodiversity fragmentation and loss have been investigated by many studies (e.g., Abernethy et al., 2013; Bennett et al., 2002; Coad et al., 2013; Deith & Brodie, 2020; Fa & Brown, 2009; Hema et al., 2019; Hending et al., 2023; Ingram et al., 2015; Thibault & Blaney, 2003; Wilkie et al., 2000, 2011). Given the inherent complexity of evaluating human foodways and ecological change, the merit of many of these studies is in the use of multidisciplinary methods and datasets to assess ecological integrity and conservation through different lenses and at different scales (van Vliet et al., 2010). In this paper we repurpose ethnoarchaeology, a long-standing archaeological tool, to offer a novel and effective lens for examining biotic community change.

Ethnoarchaeology is the study of the relationship between observed contemporary dynamic human behavior to its static material consequences to help interpret archaeological remains (O'Connell, 1995). While ethnoarchaeological questions, observations and applications are varied (Lyons & Casey, 2016; McCall, 2012; O’Brien & Surovell, 2017; O'Connell, 1987), many center on foodways and employ modern analogs to investigate past human prey selection, acquisition tactics, and/or food processing and disposal (e.g., Binford, 1978; Bird & Bird, 2000; Gifford-Gonzalez, 1989; Lupo & O'Connell, 2002; O'Connell et al., 1988; Yellen, 1991). By its nature, ethnoarchaeological inquiry is interdisciplinary and can provide deep, indeed intimate views of local ecology and human well-being, and offers a functional methodology for measuring and evaluating sustainability and conservation issues (Lupo, 2012). The use of archaeological and paleontological faunas is recognized for providing diachronic wildlife information that can inform conservation and management policies and practices (e.g., Fossile et al., 2020; Grayson, 2001; Lyman, 2006; Rick & Lockwood, 2012; Rowe & Terry, 2014; Schmitt, 2004; Wolverton & Lyman, 2012), and we propose ethnoarchaeological inquiry can be similarly applied to inform ecology, and biological conservation and management practices. The value of ethnoarchaeology is that it can provide firsthand observations coupled with material consequences that offer unique information on local prey diversity, hunting technology and offtake, socioeconomics, and wild meat consumption.

Between 1999 and 2022, a series of ethnoarchaeological investigations in the northern Congo Basin rainforest in the southern Central African Republic collected data on Obanguien (Bofi) forest forager hunting strategies and diet in the village of Grima. Employing observations and focal person follows and interviews, these investigations have documented hunting techniques and target prey and its processing (Fancher, 2009; Lupo & Schmitt, 2002, 2005; Lupo et al., 2013; Lupo, 2011a; Schmitt & Lupo, 2008), meat sharing and exchange (Lupo & Schmitt, 2004, 2017), and forest forager-farmer economic and sociocultural relationships (Lupo & Schmitt, 2023; Lupo, 2011b, 2016). Data collection included quantitative measurements of hunting technology and offtakes, prey bones from house activity areas and middens, and household inventories of material goods to examine general prosperity. These observations afford unique longitudinal datasets and methodology for investigating socioeconomic change, biodiversity loss, and wild meat overexploitation in tropical Africa.

Here, we compare ethnoarchaeological information from selected houses in Grima collected in 1999–2005 (largely 1999–2000), and again in 2021–2022. The most recent data were collected as part of a separate study initiated with some of the same village inhabitants who had relocated to a new village (New Grima) next to a major road approximately 5.2 km west of the original village (Old Grima; Fig. 1). By comparing aggregates of household wild meat prey, types and frequencies of material goods, and the size of agricultural plots, our goal is to identify material and behavioral consequences of any temporal changes in local ecology, especially prey availability, and the foodways and livelihoods of forest foragers. Additional data from their ethnically distinct farmer neighbors are included to present a more comprehensive view of local forest fragmentation and wild meat offtake.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Plan showing the location of Oldand New Grima and vicinity in the southwestern Central African Republic. Image template from Google Earth (imagery date: 13 December 2015). Circles approximate burned/cleared areas and plantations observed in 2022

Full size image

Context and Methods

The northern Congo Basin is characterized by high annual average temperatures (∼25 °C), extreme humidity, and annual rainfall that often exceeds 150 cm, most of which falls during the ~ May–November wet season. Floristically, the Grima vicinity is located along the border of White’s (1983) Guineo-Congolian rainforest centre of endemism. Regional seasonally inundated floodplains and peatland swamps are covered by a mixture of open Raphia sp. (palm) swamps and Uapaca sp. (Phyllanthaceae)-dominated riparian forests. Sandy soils on the massifs separating the river valleys support semi-deciduous forests containing Manilkara mabokeensis (Sapotaceae) and Ongokea gore (boleko nut), as well as mosaics of wooded savannas and gallery forests where Celtis mildbraedii (Natal white stinkwood) and Musanga cecropioides (African corkwood) are abundant. Major watercourses in the village vicinity include the Mbaeré and Bodingué rivers that flow east/southeast into the Lobaye River.

The study villages (Fig. 1) are in the Lobaye Prefecture of the southwestern Central African Republic (~ 4º 1′ 40" N, 17º 3′ 10" E) approximately 170 km west of Bangui. Old Grima was abandoned in 2007 when the inhabitants relocated west to New Grima (Fig. 2) along the main road connecting Nola in the southwest to Boda and Bangui that support larger markets; the initial work was conducted in Old Grima (Lupo & Schmitt, 2002, 2005) and the recent project was undertaken in New Grima in 2021–2022. The Yaya River is the primary water source for village inhabitants, both old and new, with a current round-trip from New Grima encompassing nearly 8 km on a forest trail. Both villages housed semi-nomadic forest foragers and farmers that practice swidden agriculture and share the same Obanguien (Bofi) language. Farmers live predominantly along the main road and forest foragers tend to cluster in a series of separate, neighboring camps behind farmer houses. Old Grima supported some 450 individuals and New Grima’s total population in 2022 was about 1000. This project is unique because some of the Old Grima foragers, farmers, and descendants who live in New Grima that were part of the initial 1999–2005 sample are encompassed in 2021–2022 research.

Fig. 2
figure 2

Overview of southern New Grima looking southwest, April 2022

Full size image

Wild meat was and continues to be sold to commercial vendors and in local markets for money, and for generations has served as a traditional medium of exchange in barter relationships within a larger social framework involving forest foragers and their farming neighbors (Bahuchet, 1990; Joiris, 2003; Kitanishi, 1995; Lupo & Schmitt, 2004, 2023; Noss, 1997). Common wild prey taken by foragers (and farmers) are generally small-bodied taxa (< 10 kg; Table 1) reflecting the size spectrum of locally available prey (Bugir et al., 2021). They consist primarily of blue duiker (Philantomba monticola), brushy-tailed porcupine (Atherurus africanus), African pouched rats (Cricetomys emini), monkeys (Cercopithecidae) and an occasional pangolin (Manidae), forest hinge-back tortoise (Kinixys erosa), mouse (Muridae), or snake (Serpentes) (Lupo & Schmitt, 2002, 2005). Medium-sized prey, specifically Bay and Peters’ duikers (Cephalophus dorsalis and C. callipygus), were uncommon in and around Grima but taken on occasion. Similarly, larger-sized (> 25 kg) yellow-backed duiker (C. silvicutor) and river hog (Potamocherus porcus) have been uniformly uncommon for decades. Additional important forest foods include honey (from multispecies of stinging and stingless bees), several species of caterpillars (Lepidoptera), termites (Isoptera), land snails (Gastropoda), African jointfir (Gnetum africanum;, know across the region as koko), mushrooms (Cantharellus sp.), and various forest fruits and nuts.

Table 1 Live body weights of common bushmeat prey in the Grima vicinity
Full size table

In Old Grima, most forest foragers did not grow domesticated crops or keep domesticated animals except dogs (Canis familiaris), which were often used in hunting forays (see Lupo, 2011a). Only a handful of Bofi foragers maintained manioc (cassava; Manihot esculenta) fields and these were quite limited in size and productivity. Consequently, Old Grima foragers subsisted on forest products and manioc derived from exchanges with farmer neighbors. Farmers exchanged manioc and other village products (such as cooking oil and soap) for wild meat, forest products, and/or labor provided by forest foragers. Although many New Grima foragers continue to rely on wild forest products for subsistence and income, some spend large amounts of time working in farmer plantations. Many forager families also maintain plantations, but they tend to contain a limited diversity of plant foods (predominantly manioc and some corn [Zea maize]) and are smaller in size than the fields of subsistence farmers. Foragers also derive income by selling forest products. Wild meat sales to commercial vendors in Old Grima were limited (Lupo, 2016), but there was a thriving koko trade with distant vendors regularly visiting to purchase harvested leaves from the foragers. In 2021–2022, forager populations in New Grima continued selling/trading koko with outside vendors and, unlike Old Grima, some farmers were observed harvesting and selling koko for distant markets.

In Old and New Grima subsistence farmers neighbored and interacted with the foragers. Most farmers maintained one or more fields of manioc and many grow smaller amounts of peanuts (Arachis hypogaea), corn, okra (Hibiscus esculentus), and tobacco (Nicotiana sp.). Fruiting plants and trees such as pineapple (Ananas comosus), mango (Mangifera indica), banana and plantain (Musa sp.), and oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) are encouraged but not grown in large quantities. Coffee (largely Coffea canephora) was an important cash harvest for farmers until about 2019 when disease decimated most regional crops. Traditionally, farmers also raised chickens (Gallus domesticus) and goats (Capra sp.), but within the last ~ decade domesticated pigs (Sus scrofa) have become common in rural forest villages and several New Grima farmers kept them in small numbers.Footnote 1 Domesticated animals are occasionally consumed by farmer families but most are eventually sold, thus most edible protein comes from forest animals or insects. Although most crop production in New Grima was used for direct consumption, manioc and corn were diverted to make alcohol which was sold locally. In New Grima farmers were distilling significantly larger amounts of alcohol and on a more frequent basis.

Data in Old Grima were collected in a series of early dry season (December-January) visits and New Grima was investigated during the same season (December 2021-January 2022) with a subsequent late dry season visit in April of 2022. With one or more adult family member present we conducted inventories of all material possessions in all structures associated with each sampled household/group. Items were placed in one of 10 general categories (after Schmitt & Lupo, 2008) including clothing, furniture, crockery, manioc processing equipment (paddles, sieves), hunting tools (nets, guns), leisure items (radios, soccer balls), and general tools (needles, shovels, machetes). Animal bones are considered as proxy measures of meat consumption and were collected directly from household occupants (i.e., post-meal residues) and from repeated, close-interval surface reconnaissance of house trash middens where food refuse was discarded. Trash middens were impacted by village dogs that regularly scavenged refuse and we assume these processes had the same attritional impact in both villages; dog populations varied in each of our visits to both villages, but informal observations suggest the number of dogs per house/group in Old and New Grima were similar. Some large forager groups (usually extended families) often share meals and live in such proximity that food bone and/or material inventories were combined and recorded as familial aggregates identified by the senior patriarchal inhabitant. Horticultural plots were measured using handheld GPS units.

Forager faunal assemblages from the 1999–2005 visits were collected for identification and subsequent analyses (Fancher, 2009; Lupo & Schmitt, 2005; Lupo et al., 2013) and farmer food bones were identified to the most specific taxonomic level possible, tallied, and left in the village. All the 2021–2022 animal bones from forager and farmer household middens were identified and left on-site. Specimens were quantified by the number of identified specimens per taxon (NISP; e.g., Grayson, 1984). K. erosa carapace and plastron pieces, whether alone or in articulated segments, were counted as single specimens in both village samples. Prey diversity was measured using taxonomic richness (NTaxa) and evenness (the commonness or rarity of species) calculated using the reciprocal of the Simpson Index, 1/(1 – D´). This evenness measure includes sample size directly in its calculation and is relatively insensitive to changing richness (Faith & Du, 2018), and has often been used to analyze archaeological faunas and other biological data sets (Grayson, 1984; Hernandez-Stefanoni & Ponce-Hernandez, 2006; Jones, 2004; Schmitt & Lupo, 1995). The larger the evenness value, the more even the distribution of specimens across species.

Results

Forager Material Wealth

All material objects from eight forager households in Old Grima (Table 2) and New Grima (Table 3) were classified and tallied as measures of general wealth (see also Coad et al., 2010) and to investigate any changes in hunting technology. The sample populations in both villages were diverse and included enclaves with 16–26 people, usually comprised of extended families, and single parents with children. The rank order abundances of forager measurable goods in Old Grima and New Grima are correlated (rs = 0.754, p = 0.012), but there are noticeable changes in household and total material abundances through time, most notable being the declines in New Grima. Old Grima households possessed an average of 129 items while each New Grima house/group owned 80. On average, each Old Grima forager possessed 15.2 items and New Grima individuals owned only 8.9. Differences between the villages also include significant declines in New Grima in manioc processing tools, personal items, and especially clothing. In the case of the latter, some foragers in 2022 only possessed the clothes that they were wearing. Many culturally significant items including men’s neck purses, honey pots, hide floor coverings and animal horns identified in Old Grima inventories were not observed in New Grima. Moreover, and while few in the 1999–2005 records, no exotic or leisure items such as radios, children’s toys, and pipes/flutes were identified in the sample of New Grima inventories.

Table 2 Types and numbers of material goods owned by a sample of Old Grima forager households
Full size table
Table 3 Types and numbers of material goods owned by a sample of New Grima forager households
Full size table

Perhaps most significant are the differences in tool types and abundances. New Grima has fewer general tools (notably wood-handled axes and hoes) than Old Grima while New Grima households have significantly more hunting implements primarily due to the large number of metal cable snares (Tables 2 and 3; x2 = 46.49, df = 1, p < 0.0001). In fact, metal snares in five New Grima households comprise over 50% of the total observed material goods in the eight inventories. Removing metal snares (and fishhooks) from the village aggregates results in Old Grima residents each possessing 13.7 items, while goods per person in New Grima falls to 4.3. In comparing the numbers of the five primary hunting implements, the Old Grima foragers possessed more traditional hunting tools (Fig. 3), including nets, spears, and small woven bag traps used to hunt pouched rats and porcupines (tubas; see Lupo & Schmitt, 2005). The abundances of these hunting tools in the two villages are not correlated (see Online Resource Table A1; rs = 0.700, p = 0.188) as the marked decline in traditional hunting equipment in New Grima occurred alongside an increase in metal cable snares. A comparison of the numbers of guns and cable snares (the latter classified as illegal throughout the country several decades ago) with traditional hunting implements finds significant differences (x2 = 62.54, df = 1, p < 0.0001) and further suggests that metal cables and guns have all but replaced traditional hunting tools in New Grima. The adverse impacts and implications of traditional tool replacement with more efficient hunting technology have long been observed (Dobson et al., 2019; Dounias, 2016; Lupo, 2016; Noss, 1998b; Wilkie et al., 1992) and continues to be documented across tropical contexts, now including New Grima. Although the increase in guns in the New Grima sample (n = 6, compared to two in Old Grima) appears minimal, it is consequential; in Old Grima the guns were rarely used—due largely to disrepair and high ammunition costs—while gun-hunting in New Grima by both foragers and farmers was considerably more prevalent during our 2021 and 2022 visits.

Fig. 3
figure 3

Cumulative proportions of five common hunting implements owned by forest foragers in the Old Grima and New Grima household samples (after Online Resource Table A1)

Full size image

Forager Prey Assemblages

Animal skeletal remains from eight forager households in each village were identified and quantified to examine changes in prey abundances, wild meat consumption, and local taxonomic diversity. The sample includes some groups that were subject to the material inventories reported above, and three additional houses/families were included in both the Old Grima and New Grima samples. The Old Grima sample consisted of 68 people while the New Grima aggregate encompassed 130; both samples contained nearly even mixtures of adults and children (Table 4). Each village contained skeletal remains of various duikers, porcupine, and a few bones of reptiles. In New Grima there are far fewer pouched rat and cercopithecid bones than in Old Grima (see Online Resource Tables A2 and A3). Even though the total numbers of observed bones in each village bin are similar, there are significantly more people represented in the New Grima sample and comparisons between the two shows that the number of bones per person falls from a high of 7.0 in 1999–2000 to 3.2 in 2021–2022. This salient temporal decrease in New Grima forager food-bone abundances mirrors the fall in the numbers of material goods (Fig. 4) and marks waning habitat productivity and declines in wild meat income and consumption.

Table 4 Number of occupants and prey abundances, diversity, and selected proportional measures from a sample of Old and New Grima forager households
Full size table
Fig. 4
figure 4

Numbers of material goods and prey remains per individual forager in Old and New Grima. Adjusted material goods do not include metal cable snares and fishhooks

Full size image

The stark decline in evenness appears to be primarily the result of New Grima inhabitants consuming large amounts of hinge-back tortoise (Table 4). Two-thirds of the forager prey remains represent K. erosa compared to less than 18 percent in 1999–2000. At the same time, New Grima shows a consequential decline in duiker bones. In Old Grima, duikers (especially P. monticola and medium-sized species) comprised almost one-half of the identified prey bones, while in New Grima they represented less than 18 percent. Forest hinge-back tortoise represent one of the smaller prey taxa in the African rainforest, weighing 3–7 kg less than an adult P. monticola, and this recent turnover in wild meat prey is likely of necessity and not choice. Together, the food remains and material wealth data appear to reflect a reduction in the consumption of wild meat protein, a falloff in regional duiker populations, and an overall decline in forager food security.

Farmer Prey Assemblages

Table 5 presents demographic and wild meat data from six farmer households in each village. Farmer midden assemblages are included because they often purchase or trade for wild meat acquired by their foraging neighbors and some farmer’s hunt. Note that the Old Grima sample contained seven more consumers than New Grima and a higher proportion of children. Old Grima households had an average of 155 food bones (35.8 bones per person) while the New Grima houses contained an average of 27 bones, equating to a mere 8.6 bones per person. There are many changes in animal prey types and abundances and include an absence in New Grima of five taxa identified in the Old Grima sample, as well as substantial declines in the numbers of medium-sized monkeys and porcupines (see Online Resource Tables A4 and A5). This temporal decrease in monkey and porcupine remains is similar to the forager prey comparisons. In comparing diversity measures in the two farmer aggregates there is a rather sharp decrease in taxonomic richness and evenness increases slightly (Table 5). The NTaxa decline marks 1) a decline in local farmers’ economic means and meat purchases/exchanges were significantly fewer than in Old Grima, 2) scarcity of some wild meat taxa in the New Grima vicinity, 3) deterioration in traditional exchange relations between farmers and foragers, or 4) a combination thereof.

Table 5 Number of occupants and prey abundances, diversity, and selected proportional measures from a sample of Old and New Grima farmer households
Full size table

The farmer faunas show a clear temporal falloff in duiker bones and a significant increase in tortoise that parallels the forager assemblages. Duiker bones constituted over 70 percent of the farmer food bones in Old Grima with duiker in the New Grima sample representing just over 35 percent of the identified prey. Tortoise remains in Old Grima were few with three house middens containing no identified specimens, and in New Grima K. erosa dominated the midden collections and represented almost one-half of the identified faunal specimens. A comparison of the numbers of duiker and tortoise remains in Old and New Grima using combined forager and farmer bins finds significant differences (x2 = 572.76, df = 1, p < 0.0001) and suggest a rather prominent shift in village wild meat offtakes and diet. Despite the increase in more efficient hunting technology in New Grima, these data suggest there has been a decline in species abundance in the forest with the most abundant prey represented by K. erosa (Fig. 5), a difficult to find, slow-moving and small-bodied animal that were once captured opportunistically by hand.

Fig. 5
figure 5

Proportions of duiker and tortoise and mean taxonomic richness of animal prey from all sampled farmer and forager faunal assemblages in Old and New Grima

Full size image

Forager and Farmer Plantations

We measured a sample of fields in both villages as additional appraisals of subsistence pursuits and livelihoods. Table 6 presents the sizes (m2) of six selected farmer and forager household fields in Old and New Grima. A comparison of the expanses of forager and farmer horticultural fields through time finds significant differences (x2 = 498.31, df = 1, p < 0.0001) as New Grima now supports considerably larger plantations. In Old Grima only three of the six forager households kept fields and each of these was represented by a small scatter of ~ 5–10 manioc plants. The New Grima forager plantations are much larger in size and include a few sizeable tracts larger than those maintained by some subsistence farmers. Similarly, most of the New Grima farmer horticultural plots are substantially bigger than the farmer fields measured in Old Grima and include a massive 73,720 m2 plantation owned by the village chief, and at least two households (G17 and G42) with large fields that funnel manioc and corn into alcohol production (Table 6; see below). This prominent enlargement of swidden horticultural plots in New Grima is fragmenting large expanses forest and appears to represent a subsistence (and economic) shift perpetuated in part by the paucity of local wild meat prey.

Table 6 Sizes of a sample of six forager and farmer agricultural fields in Old and New Grima
Full size table

Some Qualitative Observations

In addition to differences in quantitative material comparisons, some qualitative observations during the most recent New Grima visits indicate local habitat productivity and village welfare are on the decline. Perhaps most notable were increases in alcohol production, consumption, and abuse. Local spirits include some packaged beer, wine, and liquor, but most prevalent are cheaper indigenous drinks, notably palm wines or corn and cassava spirits (Kubo et al., 2014) known regionally as embaco. As noted above, alcohol distilling and consumption were significantly more prevalent in New Grima than in Old, including some plantation owners in 2022 devoting large areas to growing corn (and cassava) exclusively for embaco production (see Table 6). Alcohol production and its extensive use have been reported in other forest villages (Coad et al., 2010; Kitanishi, 2006; Oishi, 2016) and in New Grima our interviews found many foragers (and farmers) who drank every day, were often paid in embaco for labor and goods, and/or were continuously in-debt to village distillers. For many, alcohol overconsumption is creating substantial debt, funneling hunting/bartering income to items that do not supply household food security (see also Coad et al., 2010), and may ultimately impact fertility (Ramirez Rozzi, 2018).

In Old Grima, farmer-forager interrelationships appeared long-standing and included the exchange of starches from crops produced by farmers for forest forager products, especially wild meat and/or labor (Lupo, 2016; Lupo & Schmitt, 2004, 2005). Few farmers hunted and nearly all wild meat resources were dispatched by foragers. In New Grima most adult inhabitants hunted, including farmers, and the tool of choice is the illegal metal cable snare. Active hunters interviewed in 2022 stressed on the number of set snares, scarcity of prey, and its increasing distance from the village. As species are locally depleted, hunters will travel from these sinks further into the forest (Muchaal & Ngandjui, 1999) and hunt more frequently with guns (Coad et al., 2013), and restoration of overhunted communities will be difficult since hunters will probably not restrain from pursing opportunistic prey in these depleted areas (Alvard, 1994; Bennett et al., 2002). In fact, the number of active hunters and scarcity of prey are now proving stressful to New Grima village life; a farmer with 200 set cable snares monitored every three days said he acquired “about 6–8 animals a year,” and a successful farmer gun-hunter informed us that, “some people get angry when I go hunting because they say I’m taking meat from them” (see also Dobson et al., 2019; Fa et al., 2016).

Our final qualitative note also concerns local perturbation in food webs. During the initial visits to Old Grima escargot were part of the wet season diet across the region. However, these small resource packages were never collected in large numbers and, when pursued, were taken on encounter as secondary foodstuffs during forays targeting significantly larger resources and only during the wet season. In the late dry season of 2022, many New Grima foragers and farmers were actively pursuing forest escargot, including people setting traps and staying up late into the night to gather the snails; this monitoring of traps to passively collect snails at night was never observed during our fieldwork in Old Grima. The deliberate pursuit of a small, low-ranked resource for food and income by both foragers and farmers, coupled with village faunal assemblages dominated by tortoise strongly suggest local depression of wild meat prey, notably duikers, and this poverty appears to be the result of overhunting.

Discussion

When the Old Grima inhabitants moved west to exploit the major road connecting larger village markets, many envisioned a higher quality of life with more economic opportunities. Clearly, access to major roads can increase accessibility to distant markets and opportunities, but research has shown that maintained forest roads can fragment animal populations and modify their behavior patterns (Laurance et al., 2006), and enhance access for commercial and local hunters that can fuel defaunation (Bennett, 2017; Wilkie et al., 2000, 2005). One might argue that the lower numbers of New Grima prey remains are due to better meat-marketing opportunities as road proximity affords easier access for selling carcasses to outside vendors. If so, there should be an increase in the numbers of blue duiker mandibles/crania (parts currently and traditionally kept by the dispatcher; Lupo & Schmitt, 2005, 2017), alongside an increase in material wealth and decrease in debt as more marketing opportunities should bring in more wealth. The comparative ethnoarchaeological investigations document a decline in P. monticola mandibles (see Online Resource Table A6) and provide intimate observations and data on diminished material wealth and mounting debt that indicate this is not the case in New Grima.

As noted by many before us, the foremost threat to biodiversity collapse is not deforestation, but the overhunting of wild meat (e.g., Fa et al., 2003; Thibault & Blaney, 2003; Wilkie & Carpenter, 1999). The sparse, outlying wild meat prey in Grima vicinity forests reflect population declines and resource intensification due to an increase in human activities, including overhunting. As in many other forested contexts, this falloff in biodiversity and mammal abundances, especially blue duikers, indicate that current hunting strategies, and those of the recent past, are not sustainable (Barnes, 2002; Benitez-Lopez et al., 2017; Fa & Brown, 2009; Ingram et al., 2021; Noss, 1998b; Thibault & Blaney, 2003; Wilkie et al., 2011). Moreover, declines in local P. monticola populations will result in a corresponding falloff in ruminant seed endozoochory that may adversely impact rainforest productivity (Abernethy et al., 2013; Feer, 1995; Houngbegnon et al., 2023; Kendrick et al., 2009). Unfortunately, the Central African Republic has no enforced laws that regulate overhunting and, with the exception of parks and reserves, there are no imposed government conservation policies or strategies for achieving sustainable development goals.

Conclusion

The Grima ethnoarchaeological information provides unique multidecadal datasets and nuances on hunting offtake, nutrition, and biotic change. Data collection incorporated interviews, observations, and quantitative collections, including tallies of wild meat bones deposited by some 240 consumers. We anticipated some changes in food webs related to increased human populations and more efficient hunting technology, but the results proved rather austere. In Old Grima foragers actively pursued porcupines, duikers, and pouched rats using nets, spears, and hand capture. Forager households maintained diverse and often abundant collections of material goods and their refuse middens contained abundant bones representing an array of prey dominated by blue duikers. In stark contrast, the New Grima data reveal a marked reduction in the consumption of animal protein and fat, increases in debt and metal cable snares and guns, and severe downward trends in regional duiker and cercopithecid populations. Additionally, income from coffee is gone, alcohol manufacture and consumption has increased, and there are declines in forager material wealth and regional prey diversity. New Grima foragers and farmers alike are fragmenting large tracts of forest with expansive agricultural plots and were actively pursuing forest snails and K. erosa for protein and income during our 2022 visit. The Grima village comparisons are important because they encompass the transition from traditional hunting tools to metal snares and guns and provide additional information on the impacts of enhanced hunting technology. While analyses of species offtake are crucial, so too are documentation of the hunting methods used (Dobson et al., 2019; Noss, 1998a; van Vliet et al., 2010) and carcass distribution systems, especially the differentiation of wild meat destined for distant markets from wild meat resources marketed and consumed locally (Willcox & Nambu, 2007).

In a discussion of ethnoarchaeological approaches and applicability, John Yellen noted, “I think long-term field studies, spanning 20 or 30 years, are [also] needed. Much of our data comes from small windows of time – several months, a year – and we do not get a sense of variability over time” (Grayson et al., 1993:351). For the first time, multidecadal ethnoarchaeological studies in a rural Central African village provide information on temporal variability, and in this case the variance is extreme. The differences between the two Grima villages in ~ 20 years are arresting, and recognition of some of the underlying behaviors responsible for these changes serve a number of disciplines, including archaeology, sociology, ecology, and biological conservation. The paired Grima wealth and wild meat data highlight the need for considering local socioeconomic, nutritional, and ecological contexts as these perspectives are crucial to understanding livelihood and ecosystem dynamics (Coad et al., 2013; Milner-Gulland & Bennett, 2003). Again, the toolkit necessary to fully investigate the complexities of human foodways and environmental change must be multidisciplinary, and ethnoarchaeology can provide some effective measures and interpretive tools.