The Mbuti have used net-hunting
techniques for many generations to hunt antelope for their meat in the Ituri
rainforest of Zaire. Traditionally,
these techniques provided them with meat to use for trade in a reciprocity
system of mutual benefit with the local villagers, as described by Karli Holt
in her post about Mbuti politics and economy. These exchanges hold more of a
cultural meaning for the Mbuti and are not only essential to their economy but
also hold religious value and are vital in maintaining their relationship with
the villagers.
However, since the 1950s,
commercial meat traders have been attempting to infiltrate and exploit the
Mbuti net-hunters. While their reciprocity with the local villagers is mutually
beneficial and quite flexible, their relationship with the meat traders is not
always so. The commercial meat traders set fixed prices and attempt to
monopolize the Mbuti’s hunting grounds; this leads to overhunting, a problem
that could potentially cause an antelope shortage that would devastate the
Mbuti way of life.
Fortunately, the Mbuti have managed
to successfully combat these commercial meat traders thus far. While the
traders attempt to manipulate all aspects of Mbuti meat trade, the Mbuti have
found ways to control the use of credit to their own benefit and in a sense use
the meat traders to gain certain goods they would not otherwise have access to.
Still, the meat traders will continue to affect the lives of the Mbuti and
there are still many potential consequences that could arise from this attempt at
exploitation.
1978 From subsistence to market: a case study of the Mbuti net hunters. Human Ecology 6(3):325-353.
A Commercialized Life
ReplyDeleteAs a citizen of the United States, commercialization is far too familiar to me. We commercialize almost everything: clothing, music, food, even education. This is why imagining the Mbuti way of life, where commercialization is still a new idea, is quite difficult for me.
For the Mbuti, conducting a trade without a price value is a daily occurrence; for me, the last time I remember doing that was when I convinced my little sister to give me one toy for another. Whereas Americans live a life in which everything has a price tag, the Mbuti are much less strict about such matters. Although I don't plan on moving to the Ituri forest and giving up my Westernized comfort anytime soon, I can appreciate how this lifestyle must allow so much more freedom than does the highly-structured "land of the free". Maybe if the U.S. could try and resemble the balanced lifestyle the Mbuti practice in even a few aspects of our lifestyle, we could live happier, less stressful lives.
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