Island subsistence: hunting, trapping and the translocation of wildlife in the western Indian Ocean

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Periodical article

Title:	Island subsistence: hunting, trapping and the translocation of wildlife in the western Indian Ocean
Author:	Walsh, Martin T.
Year:	2007
Periodical:	Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa (ISSN 1945-5534)
Volume:	42
Pages:	83-113
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:	Comoros Zanzibar Indian Ocean islands
Subjects:	archaeology prehistory hunting fauna culture contact History, Archaeology Islands of the Indian Ocean--History Biogeography economic anthropology
Link:	https://doi.org/10.1080/00672700709480452
Abstract:	This paper reviews the cultural and biological evidence for people's interactions with the terrestrial fauna of island archipelagos that lie between East Africa and Madagascar, viz. Zanzibar (Pemba and Unguja), the Mafia archipelago, and the Comoros. It argues that the significance of hunting, trapping and the translocation of wild animals has been underestimated in previous histories of this region. Following a survey of hunting and the exploitation of island wildlife, the paper explores different historical hypotheses about island settlement and wildlife use, and makes some general and comparative observations about the relationship between island biogeography and human impacts on their sometimes fragile environments. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]