Zoonotic disease risk is greatly influenced by social and cultural practices and belief systems. Much of our understanding of why people hunt and consume wild meat, and their perception of risk, is primarily based on quantitative questionnaires and/or structured interviews. Relatively few studies explicitly incorporate ethnographic and/or ontological approaches to characterize the cultural context of zoonotic disease. Understanding how societies who are reliant on wild meat view human-animal distinctions is critical in mitigating zoonotic disease emergence and transmission.