Engaged Ethnobiology in the Maya Area: Traditional Medicine, Ecological Knowledge, and Foodways Collaboration

Amanda Margaret Thiel

doi:10.7273/000005009

Engaged ethnobiology investigates human-biota relations, while also following relevant codes of ethics and local customs for interacting; seeking to meet community members as equals in every way possible; recognizing and attempting to equalize the power differentials between locals and visitors; responding to local aims and priorities; and returning relevant benefits to collaborating communities according to their desires. The engaged ethnobiology in the Maya area presented herein investigates variation in ethnobotanical knowledge and praxis, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and traditional gastronomy in Guatemalan and southern Mexican communities using collaborative and applied ethnographic methods. It uses researcher’s and locals’ relationships and the information generated through research as catalysts to document, preserve, and revitalize traditional knowledge for the sake of current and future generations. Indigenous groups are actively working towards increased vitality and wellbeing in their communities, demonstrating the dynamic nature of local people to confront challenges and envision and create new futures. Engaged ethnobiologists can assist these efforts by contributing their ethnographic and natural science skills, and using their positionality as an outsider-insider to document TEK and share it, with whom and where it is appropriate, as decided in collaboration with local and Indigenous peoples. The work herein presents a series of case studies of these research processes and applied outcomes.The first study, “Homegarden Variation and Medicinal Plant Sharing Among the Q’eqchi’ Maya of Guatemala,” is a cultural-ecological study of Santa Lucía village home- gardening practices. It finds that a household’s distance from the main road and earning income at home (e.g., a shop) significantly predict medicinal plants in homegardens. Households cultivate various of the 200 + village homegarden species. Families share herbal medicines with kin and neighbors, to intra-village ecological, medical and social advantage. Study two, “Guatemalan Maya Q’eqchi’ Seasonal Calendar: Methods to Monitor Climate Change Locally,” examines how Santa Lucía villagers fathom local indicators of climate change. In response to villagers’ concerns surrounding ongoing weather pattern changes they identify as climate change driven, A. Medinaceli and I documented local traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of queues and timing for local climate- and subsistence-related activities as a baseline for monitoring future activities and emic climate-related observations. We offer our methods to learn this TEK, and to design a visual seasonal calendar, intended as a locally-accessible tool to document monthly climate observations, agricultural and home garden activities, hunting, animal raising, and cultural activities during a complete annual cycle. Study 3 (Chapter 4) presents team research conducted in the villages adjacent to Chiapas, Mexico’s Parque Nacional Lagunas de Montebello (Montebello Lakes National Park, PNLM). It is a methods paper espousing collaborative Transformational Research (Schensul et al. 2014), an applied anthropology, participatory research methodological and theoretical orientation for researching local issues collaboratively while acknowledging the global-systemic context catalyzing those issues. Maya and Mestizo community residents and PNLM advisors called for park support in revitalizing traditional gastronomy to promote food sovereignty because commercial foods threaten to replace local foods and prevent continued traditional food and environmental learning. Our research team trained residents and park affiliates in ethnography to partner in recording traditional foodways, cuisine, and culinary practices. We offer samples of our resulting digital database and “recipe” videos that support local efforts towards gastronomic revitalization and continued engagement of communities in relevant research.

Engaged Ethnobiology in the Maya Area: Traditional Medicine, Ecological Knowledge, and Foodways Collaboration

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