TRACING SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCE IN THE MILPA, THE MONTE, AND THE KITCHEN: MILPERO AND CAMPESINO PERSPECTIVES FROM TIHOLOP, YUCATAN AND LA UNION LIBERTAD, OAXACA, MEXICO

Author

Marisela Chavez

Year of Award

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Name

Forest and Conservation Science

Department or School/College

W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation

Committee Chair

Laurie Yung

Commitee Members

Jill Belsky, Neva Hassanein, Stephen Siebert, Daniel Piñero

Keywords

ancestral foodways, biocultural heritage, climate change, pueblos originarios, smallholder natural resource management, socio-ecological resilience

Abstract

Agrobiodiversity, the diversity of crops that been co-produced through humanenvironment interactions over millennia, constitutes an important part of humanity’s cultural heritage. Agrobiodiversity is as much about the local ecosystem and biotic resources, such as soil, water, pollinators, and microbes, as it is about human processes like sociocultural and linguistic practices, including farming methods, knowledge, skills, and natural resource management. At the center of these dynamics are the smallholder farmers who engage in a range of stewardship practices that contribute to the diversification and evolution of the native crops that in turn support their food security. This research focuses on understanding the interactions among historic and contemporary conditions that influence the ability of ‘milperos’ and ‘campesinos’, as smallholders are known in Mexico, to continue conserving and utilizing their native crops and wild foods in two pueblos originários (Indigenous communities) in Mexico. It examines how and why milperos and campesinos continue to use and conserve their native crops and wild foods in a world center of origin, diversification and domestication like Mexico, and it explicitly addresses how they navigate and resist the dominant power structures (e.g. global economic processes) and stressors outside of their control (e.g. climate change) that impact agrobiodiversity.

To conduct the research, I utilized ethnographic and qualitative approaches, including in depth, semi-structured interviews, testimonios created by milperos and campesinos, and field tours. Research was conducted during the period of January 2021 through December 2022. Results are organized into three manuscripts (Chapters 3-5). In Chapter 3, I examine the relationships, beliefs, and ways of knowing and being at the center of agrobiodiversity stewardship for Maya milperos in Tiholop, Yucatan and Mixtec campesinos in La Unión Libertad Ixtaltepec, Oaxaca. I found that milperos and campesinos continue to ground their decision-making about the agrobiodiversity that they steward in their cultural worldviews, affirming the relevance of Indigenous beliefs and practices in contemporary resource management in the context of changing socioeconomic and environmental dynamics. In Chapter 4, I use a wider lens to draw attention to how milperos and campesinos leverage agrobiodiversity to adapt to, resist, and otherwise navigate the multiple, intersecting socio-ecological stressors that they experienced during the period of this study, (which challenged both food security and stewarding agrobiodiversity). The individual and collective strategies that milperos and campesinos engaged in to build resilience included seed saving, engaging in a range of material and cultural exchanges, changing land management practices, and strengthening their capacity to grow food and access agrobiodiversity at the community-scale. By drawing attention to these individual and collective adaptation strategies, this study contributes to literature on the important roles that native crops and wild foods play in promoting food security and pushing back on stressors such as extreme weather events, pests, changing demographics, and Covid-19, that challenge the ability of milperos and campesinos to sustain agrobiodiversity-based farming. In Chapter 5, I look at how

changing rainfall and climate patterns are impacting the production of native crops and the availability of wild foods, forcing milpero and campesino foodways adaptations to meet short-term food security needs. These adaptations are contributing to the replacement of the nutrient-rich foods of Mesoamerican ancestral foodways (e.g. maize, beans, and squash, wild foods) with highly processed, nutrient poor foods, further exacerbating preexisting erosions of ancestral foodways that began after colonization and with the introduction of Western diets. This study highlights the implications of maladaptations and draws attention to how state-sponsored food security programs are contributing to a reliance on industrialized foods in rural communities.

Because of the material and spiritual connections to agrobiodiversity described by milperos and campesinos in this study, individual and collective strategies that milperos and campesinos engaged to navigate multiple, interacting socio-ecological stressors (including the role of formal institutions and informal networks), and potential long-term implications of eroding ancestral foodways, this dissertation contributes to expanding our understanding of the connections between Indigenous cultural worldviews, ancestral foodways, and food security in Indigenous communities. By doing so it may provide important pathways for smallholder agricultural adaptation to climate change more broadly.

Recommended Citation

Chavez, Marisela, "TRACING SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCE IN THE MILPA, THE MONTE, AND THE KITCHEN: MILPERO AND CAMPESINO PERSPECTIVES FROM TIHOLOP, YUCATAN AND LA UNION LIBERTAD, OAXACA, MEXICO" (2024). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 12391.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/12391