Mota and Other Hunting Activities of the Mbuti Archers: A Socio-Ecological Study of Subsistence Technology

Abstract

Several methods of bow-and-arrow hunting of the Mbuti archers in the Ituri Forest are described and analyzed in this paper. My observation and the literature indicate that one type of collective bow-and-arrow hunting, mota, which uses a beat-technique and aims for duikers or a chevrotain occupies the principal position among the various hunting activities of archers. Bow-and-arrow hunting has been so far considered far less effective than net hunting, but a comparison revealed that the mota hunting or mota-like bow-and -arrow hunting is not always inferior to net hunting in efficiency. We should keep this point in mind when we compare the subsistence ecology of archers and that of net-hunters.