The reconfiguration of hunting of forest animals by the Amazonian kichwas in Sucumbios

Abstract

The Amazonian territory has been intervened by various social and institutional actors. These interventions have unstructured and/or reconfigured the local ancestral practices of the indigenous communities, specifically, in the Kichwas of the province of Sucumbíos, located in the north of the Amazon of Ecuador. The way in which ancestral practices have been unstructured is visible in the hunting and consumption of wild animals. It is worth mentioning that in ancient times hunting was linked to a subsistence dynamic and, in addition, they fulfilled a symbolic function of social reproduction. At present, in specific territories, these dynamics have been transformed. In this sense, this article demonstrates this social process, in order to make visible how the intervention agendas in the Amazonian territory, by the State, the private organizations and other actors, have reconfigured local practices such as the hunting and the consumption of wild animals.