ABSTRACT
Chagnon begins his description of the diet of the Yanomamo-the ‘Fierce People’—of Amazonia by noting that ‘The jungle provides numerous varieties of food, both animal and vegetable. The most commonly taken includes several species of monkeys, two varieties of wild “turkey”, two species of wild pig…’ He then reveals that ‘Game animals are not abundant, and an area is rapidly hunted out’ (Chagnon 1977:29, 33). In fact the Yanomamo spend almost as much time hunting as gardening although cultivated foods provide 85 per cent or more of their diet. Is it not rather odd that the Yanomamo allocate so much time to obtaining meat, and that Chagnon should devote the bulk of his attention to a food that constitutes less than 15 per cent of his subjects’ diet?
