women as hunters among the matses of the peruvian

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H u m a n E c o l o g y V o l . 1 1 N o . 3 1 98 3

r i e f C omm unica t ion

W o m e n as H u n t e r s m o n g t h e M a ts e s o f t h e

P e r u v i a n m a z o n

S t e v e n R o m a n o f f

Matses women of the Peruvian Amazon rain forest hunt with men, and

couples bring back more meat than men alone. This results from the

association o f women with capture o f collared peccary, a large catch.

Typical Amazonian beliefs about women persist, but some new features

like day care) are pert inent to Matses hunting adaptation.

KEY WORDS: Matses; women; hunting; Amazon ; Peru.

Ethnographic notes on Amazonian women who participate in hunting

forest mammals are rare; such data are much less common than statements

on hunting as a masculine activity reports of beliefs concerning female

pollution o f hunters or portrayals of women as complainers or the prize for

hunting e ffort . Matses 2 Women do not fit this description; they accompany

their husbands on about half of the day hunts. There is a social aspect to

their participation and they often gather fruits or other forest products

during hunts. Yet they do take an active role in the hunt and data show that

a hunting couple under normal conditions brings in more meat than does a

husband hunting alone.

On hunts with their husbands adult women spot game take part in

the chase retrieve arrows bring water to flood armadillo holes encourage

dogs strike animals with sticks or machetes participate in orienting the

1AMARU Cooperative, P.O. Box 57155, West End Station, Washington, D.C. 20037.

2The Matses live on the tributaries of the Yavari River, the border between Peru and Brazil.

Their language is of the Pa noa n family. At the time of field work, they had had peaceful rela-

tions with outsiders for five years since establishing contact with the Summer Institute of

Linguistics (this institution provided me with a copy of a Matses grammar).

339

0300-7839/83/0900-0339503.00/0 9 1983PlenumPublishingCorporation



3 4 R o m a n o f f

party, and carry meat home. On long hunts involving a forest camp, they

pack food to the base, butcher and smoke meat, and carry meat home.

While living in the longhouse, they catch frogs, fish, and small animals that

blunder near a house; with children, they set garden traps for immature

rodents. As is the case in many Amazonian groups, women participate in

fishing expeditions.

Table I shows the hunting results for couples and for husbands alone

(data on unmarried men excluded) in three situations: (a) the aggregation of

longhouses around a runaway, a new kind of settlement in which game has been

depleted; (b) an outlying longhouse, neither virgin territory nor depleted

(this is a close approximation of t raditional interfluve settlement); and (c)

the same outlier during a ceremony that greatly restricts the movement of

women.

In the first situation, women make no significant difference in

the expected yield from a day hunt. Their importance is (a) in motivation

(hunters are generally discouraged, and both formation of male groups and

effort are depressed); (b) in gathering and minor fishing that partially com-

pensates for lack of game; and (c) in chasing small animals such as paca.

In the two outlier situations women make a considerable positive con-

tribution, with an expected yield about 35~ higher to couples th an to

husbands alone, in addition to whatever they gather on the way home from

a day hunt.

Table II shows why couples are more productive in the outlier situa-

tion. The presence of women is associated with capture of paca and saki

monkey (taken disproportionately in the central settlement; neither species is

large) and with capture of collared peccary (taken disproportionately

around the outlier; collared peccary are relatively large).

Ecologically oriented Amazonianists have expended quantities of ink

on the relation between hunting and cultural patterns. Among such relations

those between sexuality and hunting are prominent, largely in response to

Siskind's colorful description of the meat for sex exchange among the

Sharanahua of Eastern Peru (Siskind, 1973). In that exchange, men com-

pete for extramarital favors by providing hunting effort.

Is there a similar exchange among the Matses? There is a Matses

special hunt that involves both sexual play and product ion of large quan-

tities of smoked meat, although the ceremony is not often performed and it

is multifunctional. Further, men give meat to mothers of their wives or to

husbands of lovers (it is then distributed to the woman). With regard to

hunting couples, the situation is reversed. All older men are polygynous, yet

they hunt with only one wife at a time. Because these are opportunities for

play and sexual relations, some wives do complain about not hunting, and

wise husbands rotate hunting tasks among wives. There is an exchange of



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342 omano f f

Table II. Animals Taken, Couples Versus Men Alone

Couple/total

Class of animal Couple (a) Man alone b (b) a / a + b )

Paca 11 1 0.92

Saki monkey 12 4 0.75

Collared 16 6 0.73

peccary

Large birds 22 13 0.63

Armadillo 9 7 0.56

Large monkey 25 51 0.33

Sloth 4 52 0.07

aExcludes cases where presence of wives unknown; includes only those

classes o f animals taken ten or more times during observations.

blncludes animals brought by unmarried men; does not preclude the

presence of a woman who is wife of another man.

h u n t i n g e f f o r t f o r s e x

he r e

b u t i t i s t h e s e t o f c o - w i v e s w h o a r e c o m p e t i n g .

F o r y o u n g , s t i l l m o n o g a m o u s c o u p l e s , t h e t w i n e f f o r t s a r e m o r e m u t u a l a n d

n o n c o m p e t i t i v e .

T h e p a t t e rn o f w o m e n h u n t e r s p r e s u m e s d a y c ar e . A w o m a n c a n le av e

h e r c h i l d r e n , e x c e p t v e r y y o u n g i n f a n t s , w i t h o l d e r s i bl in g s o r c o - w i v e s a n d

c a n e x p e c t t h a t a c o - w i f e w i ll h a v e v e g e ta b l e f o o d c o o k e d f o r h e r r e t u r n .

T h u s , t h e c o m p e t i t i v e n o t e is b a l a n c e d b y c o o p e r a t i o n .

W o m e n s p a r t i c ip a t io n i n h u n t i n g d o e s n o t e x e m p t th e m f r o m m a n y

b el ie fs a b o u t w o m e n c o m m o n in A m a z o n i a . M e n s ay t h a t to o m a n y w o m e n

c a n s p o i l a h u n t , t h a t e x c e ss i v e o r i n o p p o r t u n e i n t e r c o u r s e c a n l e ss e n a

m a n s s ki ll , a n d t h a t w o m e n s p r e s e n c e a t a t a p i r t r a p w o u l d l e a v e a n o d o r

d i sg u s ti n g t o t h e t a p i r. T h e y s a y t h a t w o m e n w a l k s lo w l y , a n d t h a t h u n t e r s

c a n g o f a r t h e r i n al l m a l e g r o u p s ( w h il e a m a n t h u s c o m p l a i n e d t o m e , h is

w i f e , la g g i n g a b i t w i t h a b a b y o n h e r h i p , l o c a t e d a p a c a ; w e a l l g a v e c h a s e

u n t i l sh e , c o r r e c t l y p o s i t i o n e d , s t r u c k t h e a n i m a l w i t h a m a c h e t e ) .

I t is n o t c l e a r w h y w o m e n h u n t e r s s h o u l d b e s o e v id e n t a m o n g t h e

M a t s e s a n d l e ss s o a m o n g o t h e r g r o u p s . I f i t i s n o t d u e t o o b s e r v e r b i a s ,

t h e n a f e w a s s o c i at e d f a c t o r s m i g h t b e h y p o t h e s i z e d ) F i r st , t h e i m p o r t a n c e

o f c h i l d c a re h a s b e e n n o t e d ; t h e M a t s e s l iv e i n l o n g h o u s e s a n d p r a c t i c e

p o l y g y n y . S e c o n d , t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f t h e ch a se , o f d o g s ( w h ic h w o m e n m a y

o w n ) , a n d o f k il ls m a d e w i t h n e i t h e r s h o t g u n n o r b o w ( n e i th e r o f w h i c h

w o m e n u s e ) en h a n c e s t h e a b i li t y o f w o m e n t o m a k e r e a l c o n t r i b u t i o n s .

( W h a t e v e r , t h e r e la t iv e e f fi c i e n c y o f t h e t w o p r o j e c ti l e w e a p o n s , f o r t h e

3Of course, the most important correlate of Matses hunting is that they still have land on which

to hunt. This situation is changing because the area where they live is being colonized by both

Peru and Brazil, and they have no title to their lands.



W o m e n a s H u n t e rs 4

M a t s e s d o g s a n d c h a s i n g , e v e n w i t h o u t a p r o j e c t il e w e a p o n , m a k e a b i g g e r

d i f f e r en c e . ) T h e s e f a c t o r s , h o w e v e r , a r e j u s t c o n j e c t u r e , a n d t h e q u e s t i o n

r e m a i n s : I f m e a t i s t h e l im i t in g f a c t o r o n p o p u l a t i o n , a n d i f w o m e n c a n p r o -

d u c e m e a t , w h y a r e t h er e n o t m o r e r e p o r t s o f w o m e n h u n t e r s ?

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

F i el d w o r k w a s s u p p o r t e d b y t h e N a t i o n a l S c ie n ce F o u n d a t i o n a n d b y

C o l u m b i a U n i v e r s i t y .

R E F E R E N C E S

Rom anoff, S. 1976). El uso de la tierra po r los Matses. Amazonia Peruana 1 1): 97-130.

Siskind, J. 1973).

To Hunt in the Morning

Oxford University Press, New Y ork.

women as hunters among the matses of the peruvian

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