Shotguns, Blowguns, and Spears: The Analysis of Technological Efficiency

Publisher Summary The relationship of a weapon's efficiency to seasonality is directly related to that weapon's effectiveness in hunting any given species. The intense level of Waorani warfare and the existence of infanticide make the Waorani an ideal testing site for the hypothesis; warfare and infanticide are a competitive response to scarce resources, particularly protein. Waorani use shotguns along with traditional technology to supply an average as high as 250 g of edible meat per person per day; using traditional technology, they could provide 190 g per person per day. These yields fall within the range of levels published for eight other groups in Amazonia. The Waorani exhibit high levels of health and nutritional status partly because they are consuming protein at levels in generous excess of those established by nutritionists as adequate. The generalized capacity of the shotgun to reach into a variety of niches makes it more efficient than the more specialized blowgun or spear.