@article{fdi:010066791,
  title = {{F}rom subsistence to commercial hunting : technical shift in cynegetic practices among southern {C}ameroon forest dwellers during the 20th century},
  author = {{D}ounias, {E}dmond},
  editor = {},
  language = {{ENG}},
  abstract = {{T}ropical rainforest dwellers, who are currently engaged in bushmeat trade, used to track game for their own subsistence. {W}e investigate the technical evolution over the past century of bushmeat procurement by the {F}ang, a group of southern {C}ameroon forest dwellers who are renowned for their extensive cynegetic expertise. {T}his investigation consists of a diachronic approach to assess {F}ang hunting and trapping technology by comparing firsthand data on bushmeat procurement collected in the early 1990s with detailed descriptions recorded in the early 1900s among the same populations by the {G}erman anthropologist {G}unter {T}essmann. {O}ther archive sources bequeathed by explorers in the twilight of the 19th century are also exploited. {T}he comparison conveys a more dynamic view of hunting practices following the greater involvement of the {F}ang hunters in the bushmeat trade. {H}istorical sources remind us that projectile weapons were initially destined for warfare and that trapping, mobilizing a vast panel of modalities, was the prominent means to catch game for domestic consumption. {N}et hunting and crossbow hunting, which used to be typical {F}ang activities, are now exclusively conducted by {P}ygmies; spear hunting with hounds has become anecdotal. {I}f a large range of trap mechanisms is still functional, effort is now focused on snares, elicited by the banalization of twisted wire cable. {T}he legacy of other remaining models is left to children who carry out a didactic form of garden trapping. {T}he major detrimental change is the use of firearms, which were initially adopted as a warfare prestige attribute before becoming the backbone instrument of bushmeat depletion. {R}evisiting the past provides useful lessons for improving current hunting management, through the promotion of garden hunting and wildlife farming, and the revitalization of a collective and cultural art of hunting as an alternative to indiscriminate overhunting by neophyte and increasingly individualistic hunters.},
  keywords = {bushmeat trade ; {C}ameroon ; diachronic comparison ; {F}ang ; {G}unter {T}essmann ; historical archives ; hunting ; rainforest ; subsistence hunting ; {CAMEROUN}},
  booktitle = {},
  journal = {{E}cology and {S}ociety},
  volume = {21},
  numero = {1},
  pages = {23 [13 ]},
  ISSN = {1708-3087},
  year = {2016},
  DOI = {10.5751/es-07946-210123},
  URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010066791},
}