The History and Environmental Impacts of Hunting Deities: Supernatural Gamekeepers and Animal Masters

About

Richard J. Chacon is Professor of Anthropology at Winthrop University USA. He conducts anthropological research throughout the Americas. He has documented the subsistence patterns and belief systems of the Yanomamö of Venezuela the Yora of Peru and the Achuar (Shiwiar) of Ecuador. Additionally he has investigated the traditional belief patterns of the Kuna of Panama. He has studied ritual violence among the Otavalo and Cotacachi Indians of Highland Ecuador. He documents traditional beliefs and natural resource utilization among the Haida and the Nuxalk (Bella Coola) of Canadas British Columbia. Currently he conducts research on the rise of inequality and social complexity across the globe. His specializations include subsistence strategies optimal foraging theory conservation natural resource utilization warfare ritual violence slavery history of the enslaved native beliefs leadership collective action inequality and the rise of social complexity long distance exchange secret societies ethnohistory the effects of globalization the impacts of missionization of Indigenous peoples and the African diaspora. He has a special interest in encouraging members of minority communities to pursue higher education. He is the Editor for Springer's Conflict Environment and Social Complexity (CESC) series and also for Springer's Anthropology and Ethics series. He co-organizes the Warfare Environment Social Inequality and Pro-Sociability(WESIPS) Biennial Conference in Seville Spain. His publications include Archaeological and Ideological Manifestations of Domination in Indigenous Latin America eds. Y. Chacon and R. Chacon. Gainesville FL: University Press of Florida (in press); Trade Before Civilization: Long Distance Exchange and the Rise of Social Complexity eds. J. Ling R. Chacon and K. Kristiansen Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2022); Feast Famine or Fighting? Multiple Pathways to SocialComplexity eds. R. Chacon and R. Mendoza New York: Springer (2017); The Great Awakening and Southern Backcountry Revolutionaries (co-authored with Michael Scoggins) New York: Springer (2014); The Ethics of Anthropology and Amerindian Research: Reporting on Environmental Degradation and Warfare eds. R. Chacon and R. Mendoza New York: Springer (2012); North American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence eds. R. Chacon and R. Mendoza Tucson: University of Arizona Press (2007); Latin American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence eds. R. Chacon and R. Mendoza Tucson: University of Arizona Press (2007); and The Taking and Displaying of Human Body Parts as Trophies by Amerindians eds. R. Chacon and D. Dye Springer: New York (2007). He has held visiting positions at the University of Gothenburg Sweden at the Russian State University for the Humanities Moscow Russia and at the Universityof Costa Rica.