Uneven transmission of traditional knowledge and skills in a changing wildmeat system: Yangambi, DRC

Introduction: Indigenous communities typically hold diverse traditional
ecological knowledge (TEK) of their social-ecological system. Much of this
knowledge is embodied as skills related to subsistence practices within a
specific landscape and is associated with community values and norms. Ways
of knowing often reflect the different activities traditionally undertaken by men
and women. The incursion of external forces, including urbanization, the cash
economy and migration tends to diminish transmission of traditional embodied
skills. Knowledge can be lost as culturally significant environments degrade or
species become extirpated. Lack of opportunity to develop traditional
knowledge and skills can diminish feelings of place and identity, and thus
capacity for local environmental stewardship.
Methods: The Yangambi region, Democratic Republic of Congo is a hunting territory
of the Turumbu ethnic group. We used questionnaires to explore how levels of
wildmeat knowledge and skillmay have changed over time among the Turumbu.
Results: The responses showed lower levels of self-reported skill among women
who started to participate in the last 10-15 years. This pattern partly reflects the
period of ‘apprenticeship’ but may also suggest diminished learning opportunity
in recent years. Skills in cooking, smoking, and selling wildmeat persisted at a
higher level than skills in curing disease and gathering wild produce. There was a
much more marked pattern for men, with diminishing levels of wildmeat skill
reported for around 35-40 years, and even earlier for knowledge of traditional
medicine and wildmeat taboos. Questions about mentoring suggested that
women have maintained knowledge pathways between mother and daughter,
while men showed a shift toward increased learning from uncles.
Discussion: Gender differences in sharing and learning TEK may be linked to the
type of skills that remain valuable in a changing social, ecological, and economic
context. Men traditionally undertake the capture elements of hunting, while
women deal with wildmeat processing, marketing, and cooking. The Yangambi
wildmeat system has evolved from subsistence to a strongly market-driven
economy during the lifetime of our study participants. This shift may partly
explain why market-based kills such as food smoking and selling have endured
longer than hunter’s nature-based knowledge.