Abstract
BackgroundGlobal changes that affect local societies may cause the loss of ecological knowledge. The process of cultural change in Zapotec communities of the Oaxacan Isthmus intensified during the first years of the 20th century due to industrial and agro-industrial modernization projects and an increase in the level of formal schooling. Based on the case of the Oaxacan Isthmus, this study assesses the relationship between cultural change and the loss of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK).MethodsThree hundred male heads of family were interviewed from three municipalities in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico selected to span a wide range of cultural change. Each participant was shown herbarium specimens and photographs of a sample of 30 species drawn from a pool of 94 representing local plant diversity. Visual recognition of each species, knowledge of plant form, generic name, specific name, and local uses were scored. The sum of the five scores provided an index of global knowledge which we used as a proxy for TEK. Analysis of variance revealed differences between groups of economic activities. We collected socio-demographic data from the interviewees such as age, level of schooling, and competency in the local language. With these data we ran a principal component analysis and took the first axis as an index of cultural change, and correlated it with the scores obtained each respondent.ResultsWe found statistically significant differences between groups of people with different economic activities, as well as a highly significant negative relationship between the Index of cultural change and ecological knowledge at all levels, with regression coefficients between 81.2% and 88.3%, indicating that cultural change is affecting traditional botanical knowledge.ConclusionsOur results shown that cultural change, as indicated by occupational activity, level of formal schooling, and competence in the indigenous language, is negatively associated with the loss of Zapotec ethnobotanical knowledge. Heads of family engaged in secondary economic activities and services were less culturally competent, especially regarding the knowledge of generic and specific names as well as plant uses.
Highlights
Global changes that affect local societies may cause the loss of ecological knowledge
* Correspondence: jcaballero@ib.unam.mx 1Jardín Botánico, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apdo, Postal 70-614, CP 04510 Ciudad Universitaria, DF, México Full list of author information is available at the end of the article. Even though these systems of education and economic development have contributed to an increase in the material well-being of these societies, they have led to loss of traditional ecological knowledge [3,4,5,6,7]
The highest loadings were for occupational activity, fluency in Spanish, and level of schooling; for the second component, locality and whether Zapotec was spoken or not were the most important factors (Table 3)
Summary
Global changes that affect local societies may cause the loss of ecological knowledge. Based on the case of the Oaxacan Isthmus, this study assesses the relationship between cultural change and the loss of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). Cultural change is a multifaceted process that may often includes the acquisition of urban tastes and values by rural societies, the loss of local languages, and the industrialization or abandonment of primary production or agricultural practices. This process generally leads to a corresponding loss of traditional ecological knowledge [8]. Several studies show that monolingualism, occupation and the degree of schooling are the most important indicators of cultural change [5,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]
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