Pratiques cynégétiques et nouveaux discours écologiques chez les Nahuas du Balsas (Mexique)

摘要

According to Victor Toledo, an ethnorcological pioneer in Mexico, the local Indians had a much more extensive knowledge of flora and the agricultural use of soil than of fauna. In this article, we would like to analyse the cynegetic practices of Nahuas of the Balsas river basin, for whom hunting is above all the business of peasants defending their milpa (fields of maize and associated plants) against predators (coyotes, pécaris and coatis). Drive traps were also organised against wild pigs, wild cats, and other animals in the monte territories, the hills and spaces outside the villages, even though the big predators capable of combating man, such as jaguars, known as tiger (tecuani : Felis onca) have pratically disappeared. Hunting remains more of an expression of contact with the wilds than a source of food, even though wild game is highly regarded. This activity maintains a very big cultural importance and expresses the relation between the environment, social life, and the cosmovision. For centuries, the Balsas were also known as the one of the ecological niches of the white-tailed deer (masatl : Odocoileus virginianus) , a species that is becoming much rarer. This article will look at the new aspects of the relationship of animals and hunting for the village dwellers since their adoption of a new ecological discourse, and projects to reintroduce the white-tailed deer under the direction of ONG partners. Under these circumstances, the white-tailed deer has become a symbol for the Nahuas of the reappropriation of their territory and control over resources. The villagers' attention toward the white-tailed deer has led them to treat it as a domestic animal and modified their representation of the wilds.