Molfah Hunting Rules

The Molfah Hunting Rules organize hunting by a sacred division between earth and wind: women and bears belong to the earth, while men and deer and rabbits belong to the wind. Rather than treating this division simply as a restriction on who may hunt, the Molfah explain it as a way of living within limits, including the deliberate acceptance that some animals will escape.

The Earth-and-Wind Division

Mulyo clarifies the rule when Makokan assumes that women cannot hunt bears. The distinction, she says, is not inability but custom: Molfah women do not hunt bears. Hohsalle explains the reasoning as a classification of the world into things of the earth and things of the wind. Bears and women share the first category; men, deer, and rabbits share the second. The prohibition on women hunting bears is thus part of a wider system assigning kinds of hunters and prey to corresponding categories.

Practice and Cooperation

Makokan initially sees the division as an inefficient way to hunt in a harsh region, because restricting which game men or women can take might mean passing up prey. Mulyo answers that women often hunt alongside their husbands or brothers, so the household can still bring something home. Her explanation makes clear that the rules do not exclude women from hunting: they shape which animals women hunt, while cooperation allows the group to combine its efforts.

Letting Game Escape

Mulyo grants that the restrictions may indeed mean leaving some animals uncaught, but presents that consequence as meaningful rather than merely wasteful. When she was young, the Kuleh taught that “the forest survives because we let some game get away.” The remembered teaching gives the rules an ecological and ethical dimension: hunting is not measured only by the greatest possible catch, but also by restraint that leaves room for the forest to continue. Makokan falls silent at this answer, while Hohsalle laughs, marking the difference between his first practical calculation and the Molfah understanding of what hunting is for.