Maya Farmers Research Articles

Socioecological effects of swidden management in traditional Maya agroforests in the Selva Lacandona of Chiapas, Mexico

For millennia, Maya farmers (i.e., milperos) throughout Mesoamerica have managed milpa: sequential agroforests initiated by slashing and burning patches of secondary forest and then cultivating a diverse polyculture of trees and annual crops. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with deforestation, the Mexican government and non-governmental organizations have urged milperos to cease burning. We collaborated with Maya milperos in several communities in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve region in Chiapas, Mexico to determine carbon retained as char in traditional milpas, carbon loss associated with burning, and effects of burning on soil quality. We found the carbon retention of char in Maya milpas (24 ± 6.5% of C in vegetation) is 4–1400% higher than other slash-and-burn agroecosystems reported in the literature. Burning resulted in significant carbon loss of 12.6 (±3.6) t C ha−1 yr−1, but this was partially mitigated by char production (3.0 [±0.6] t C ha−1 yr−1) and incomplete combustion of woody biomass. The effects of burning on soil were minimal, with the only significant changes observed being increases in pH, potassium availability, and cation exchange capacity (2, 100, and 7%, respectively). The mean residence times of charred materials were at least double that of uncharred biomass. While there is a risk that shortening fallow periods would undermine the sustainability of Maya swidden agroecology, proper management and secure land tenure can help maintain intensive production without enduring environmental degradation. The char produced in these swiddens and successional management could allow this agroforestry system to be a long-term carbon sink.

Introduction

Introduction

Looking beyond the conflict: Everyday interactions and relations between Maya and Mennonite farmers in the state of Campeche, Mexico

Deforestation and environmental contamination from the expansion of neoliberal agriculture, including transgenic soy, turned the municipality of Hopelchén, in the Mexican state of Campeche, into a focus of cultural and economic tensions. Previous studies focused on analyzing the conflict between the original population, Maya traditional farmers and beekeepers, and the recently arrived migrants, Mennonite industrial farmers. We used ‘A Theory of Access’ (Ribot and Peluso 2003) to analyze everyday interactions and relations among the two ethnic groups, and opinions of Maya farmers on Mennonites presence in the area. Our sources of data were scientific publications and interviews with local farmers. We found that Mennonites have a broader “bundle of powers” since they have more capital, farm machinery, technical agricultural knowledge, and organizational and entrepreneurial skills than Maya farmers. Besides the reported conflicts, Maya and Mennonite farmers also enter into many everyday interactions and relations of cooperation and mutual dependence. These results may inform the design of public policies for sustainable rural development, including the national REDD+ strategy, to promote positive environmental and economic changes and help to ameliorate social conflict in the municipality.

Phenotypic diversity and capsaicinoid content of chilli pepper landraces (Capsicum spp.) from the Yucatan Peninsula

AbstractMexico has a wealth of plant genetic resources, including Capsicum species. In southern Mexico, specifically in the western part of the Yucatan Peninsula, Maya farmers have preserved a great diversity of chilli pepper landraces of C. annuum, C. frutescens and C. chinense. However, the morphological diversity, capsaicinoid content, conservation status and potential use of these species have not been studied. To fill this gap and generate information to support the conservation and use of these species, we characterized the phenotypic diversity and capsaicinoid content for nine chilli pepper landraces from the western Yucatan Peninsula by assessing 15 quantitative and 39 qualitative traits for 10 plants of each landrace. For quantitative variables, two groups of chilli pepper landraces were obtained by principal component analysis and cluster analysis. Group I was formed by Rosita, Bobo, Dulce, Xcat'ik1, Xcat'ik2 and Verde landraces; Group II included the Maax, Bolita and Pico Paloma landraces. For qualitative variables, three groups of chilli pepper landraces were obtained; Group I included Dulce, Bobo, Xcat'ik1, Xcat'ik2 and Verde landraces, Group II only included the Rosita landrace, and Group III included Maax, Bolita and Pico Paloma landraces. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography–photodiode array (UPLC-PDA) quantification of capsaicinoids indicated higher values in landraces Rosita (14,062.3 μg/g D.W), Bolita (5928.1 μg/g D.W), Maax (3438.4 μg/g D.W) and Pico Paloma (3138.9 μg/g D.W). The Yucatan chilli pepper landraces provide valuable diverse germplasm for morphological characteristics and capsaicinoid content that can be used in breeding and conservation programmes.

Tropical wetland persistence through the Anthropocene: Multiproxy reconstruction of environmental change in a Maya agroecosystem

Wetlands epitomize all forms of the proposed Anthropocene era because they record both past and recent human environmental interaction and because of their abundant resources. This is especially true for tropical wetlands, and a growing body of research demonstrates their important connections with past and Indigenous societies. Maya culture, for example, provides an extraordinary example of wetland use in the “Early Anthropocene”. Through excavations and lidar survey, we demonstrate that ancient Maya farmers managed riparian wetlands in northwestern Belize to a much greater spatial extent than previous estimates. This paper provides new evidence from soil geomorphic and palaeoecological excavations within the Birds of Paradise wetland in Belize. We focus on the timing, extent, and intensity of human management as well as soil pedogenesis and ecological changes over the last c. 2000 years. Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates show the transformation of the wetland from a natural to an agricultural system, starting as early as c. 2100 BP. The Maya were constructing berms on the margin of the wetland by c. 1600 BP, and widespread clearing and canal construction began by c. 1350-1290 BP. These periods coincide with population growth and decline and urban construction and abandonment in this region. This clearing, farming, and channelization ended as late as c. 690-620 BP based on canal sedimentation, pollen evidence reflecting tropical forest replacing cultivars like maize, and soil carbon isotope ratios that reflect C4 plants like maize shifting to more mixed and C3 plants. We demonstrate the complexity and scale of human engineering and modification of soil and water resources, provide a new chronology for ancient wetland use, and present new evidence for the farming of economic plants as well as the succession of tropical wetlands after intensive anthropogenic manipulation ceased.

The Chinese cotton contest: the Royal Economic Society of Guatemala, Maya farmers, and the struggle over Enlightenment-era agricultural science, 1796–1798

In December 1796, members of the Real Sociedad Economica de los Amantes del Pais de Guatemala (The Royal Economic Society of Lovers of the Country of Guatemala) announced a contest to award the ind...

Scaling climate change to human behavior predicting good and bad years for Maya farmers.

Human responses to climate variation have a rich anthropological history. However, much less is known about how people living in small-scale societies perceive climate change, and what climate data are useful in predicting food production at a scale that affects daily lives. We use longitudinal ethnographic interviews and economic data to first ask what aspects of climate variation affect the agricultural cycle and food production for Yucatec Maya farmers. Sixty years of high-resolution meteorological data and harvest assessments are then used to detect the scale at which climate data predict good and bad crop yields, and to analyze long-term changes in climate variables critical to food production. We find that (a) only local, daily precipitation closely fits the climate pattern described by farmers. Other temporal (annual and monthly) scales miss key information about what farmers find important to successful harvests; (b) at both community- and municipal-levels, heavy late-season rains associated with tropical storms have the greatest negative impact on crop yields; and (c) in contrast to long-term patterns from regional and state data, local measures show an increase in rainfall during the late growing season, indicating that fine-grained data are needed to make accurate inferences about climate trends. Our findings highlight the importance to define climate variables at scales appropriate to human behavior. Course-grained annual, monthly, national, and state-level data tell us little about climate attributes pertinent to farmers and food production. However, high-resolution daily, local precipitation data do capture how climate variation shapes food production.

Maize Politics and Maya Farmers’ Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Yucatán, 1450–1600

Historical and political context is essential for evaluating the long-term sustainability of any agroecosystem. Over the past several centuries in Yucatan, Mexico, Maya farmers have practiced milpa (i.e., slash-and-burn) agriculture in ways that are arguably both sustainable and unsustainable depending on whether political leaders created institutional support for farmers to implement a full range of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). To investigate this relationship between political authority and TEK, I trace changes in maize tribute collection before and after contact between Spaniards and Maya. I argue that late pre-contact milpa agriculture was sustainable in part because political leaders supported institutions that allowed farmers to integrate a wider range of TEK. Colonial authorities, however, dismantled these institutions and thereby undermined the sustainability of milpa agriculture. Confronting these lasting Colonial legacies is a critical part of a larger interdisciplinary effort to expand sustainability discourse and promote environmentally just food systems.

Quality versus solidarity: Third Wave coffee and cooperative values among smallholding Maya farmers in Guatemala

ABSTRACT This article examines how a market shift toward high-end (‘Third Wave') coffee creates tension between two producer models of economic engagement: cooperatives, with mechanisms that promote solidarity to minimize risks, and ‘open’ markets, with extraordinary rewards for those able to grow the highest quality coffees. Most Maya farmers value cooperative organization and yet a growing number are defecting, unable to forgo the premiums intermediaries offer for their best beans. This is a complicated moral and economic situation in which the Third Wave focus on single-origin coffees forces changes in relations of production that undermine the cooperative preferences of smallholding farmers.

Red and Brown Soils Increase the Development and Content of Nutrients in Habanero Pepper Subjected to Irrigation Water with High Electrical Conductivity

The characteristics of the soil in the Peninsula of Yucatán confer unique organoleptic properties to the habanero pepper (Capsicum chinense Jacq.), and thus this entity possesses the denomination of origin of the species, making these chilis the most coveted, nationally and internationally. However, the extreme microtopographic variation distinguishing the Peninsula complicates the transfer of technologies and the successful establishment of agricultural practices. Maya farmers of the region identify the brown soils as preferable for the cultivation of this chili, although there is some controversy among the farmers regarding the best yields when the quality of the water used for irrigation is poor. No studies of the effect of soil type on this plant have been carried out. This work evaluated the impact of three types of soil of the Peninsula (red, brown, and black) on growth, fruit production, and nutrient content in soils and plants, during different phenological stages. The results indicate that the red and brown soils were the best for the growth and production of the fruit. In the black soil, it was possible to observe greater retention and accumulation of sodium applied in the water used for irrigation and in the macronutrients N, P, K, which may have led to a negative effect in the development of the fruit in these plants. Moreover, the plants growing in red and brown soils seem to make a more efficient use of the nutrients, presenting higher values of N, P, and K in their tissues in the flowering-fructification stage. These results are particularly useful in the realization of agricultural plans with a lower consumption of fertilizers, which allows an increase in yield, particularly if we take into account the enormous problems of saline intrusion worldwide and in this region.

Quality and inequality: creating value worlds with Third Wave coffee

AbstractBased on a study of the burgeoning high-end (‘Third Wave’) coffee market in the USA and on research conducted with Maya farmers in Guatemala, this article examines how economic gains are extracted by translating values across symbolic and material worlds. Drawing on anthropological understandings of value and the analytic tools of convention theory, I show how roasters, baristas and marketers have developed a new lexicon of quality for coffee, one tied to narratives of provenance and exclusivity that creates much of the value added in the Third Wave market. This disadvantages smallholding coffee farmers who are heavily invested in land and the material means of production but who lack the social and cultural capital needed to extract surplus symbolic value from their crops. In this unintentional way, the quest for artisanal quality in the coffee market perpetuates classic dependency patterns of global capital accumulation across these value worlds.

Maya forest garden: eight millennia of sustainable cultivation of the tropical woodlands

The conventional wisdom says that the devolution of Classic Maya civilization occurred because its population grew too large and dense to be supported by primitive neotropical farming methods, resulting in debilitating famines and internecine struggles. Using research on contemporary Maya farming techniques and important new archaeological research, Ford and Nigh refute this Malthusian explanation of events in ancient Central America and posit a radical alternative theory. The authors-show that ancient Maya farmers developed ingenious, sustainable woodland techniques to cultivate numerous food plants (including the staple maize);-examine both contemporary tropical farming techniques and the archaeological record (particularly regarding climate) to reach their conclusions;-make the argument that these ancient techniques, still in use today, can support significant populations over long periods of time.

NEITHER DOPES NOR DUPES: MAYA FARMERS AND IDEOLOGY

AbstractDrawing inspiration from the work and legacy of Elizabeth Brumfiel, I develop a case study about the lives and religious practices of Maya farmers at the Chan site in Belize, to demonstrate how farmers were neither the dopes, dupes, nor mystified masses of Maya state level ideologies. I use this case study to rethink anthropological theories that attempt to explain the role of state level ideologies in the production of inequality and power, particularly ideas about ideology and false consciousness that are often bundled together and referred to as the ‘dominant ideology thesis.’

Mobility and Navigation among the Yucatec Maya: Sex Differences Reflect Parental Investment, Not Mating Competition.

Sex differences in range size and navigation are widely reported, with males traveling farther than females, being less spatially anxious, and in many studies navigating more effectively. One explanation holds that these differences are the result of sexual selection, with larger ranges conferring mating benefits on males, while another explanation focuses on greater parenting costs that large ranges impose on reproductive-aged females. We evaluated these arguments with data from a community of highly monogamous Maya farmers. Maya men and women do not differ in distance traveled over the region during the mate-seeking years, suggesting that mating competition does not affect range size in this monogamous population. However, men’s regional and daily travel increases after marriage, apparently in pursuit of resources that benefit families, whereas women reduce their daily travel after marriage. This suggests that parental effort is more important than mating effort in this population. Despite the relatively modest overall sex difference in mobility, Maya men were less spatially anxious than women, thought themselves to be better navigators, and pointed more accurately to distant locations. A structural equation model showed that the sex by marital status interaction had a direct effect on mobility, with a weaker indirect effect of sex on mobility mediated by navigational ability.

4 Of Earth and Stone: The Materiality of Maya Farmers’ Everyday Lives at Chan, Belize

ABSTRACTThis chapter explores the materials and materiality of the everyday lives of farmers living in the ancient Maya farming community of Chan located in west central Belize. Limestone bedrock and soil matrix were the substance of Chan's landscape. In constructing their community and across their daily lives, Chan's residents used, modified, and transformed earth and stone to build houses, agricultural terraces, quarries, and workshops that were the basis of everyday life at Chan. The local resources and products that residents created from earth and stone were critical in their development of a resilient community. Exploring the materiality of the everyday lives of Maya farmers provides a fertile ground for understanding the significance of ordinary people's daily lives in the past.

Robin, Cynthia: Everyday Life Matters. Maya Farmers at Chan

Anthropos , Seite 266 - 267

One Cup at a Time? (Fair Trade) Coffee, Migration, and Globalization

The Broken Village: Coffee, Migration, and Globalization in Honduras. By Daniel R. Reichman. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011. 209 pp., $22.95 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-0-8014-7729-4). Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair-Trade Markets. By Lyon Sarah. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2011. 266 pp., $29.58 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-1-60732-057-9). The interrelations between global commodity value chains, socially conscious consumption in industrialized countries, and rural development in less developed countries are issues that have gained prominence in recent years due to the rapidly growing fair trade movement. The movement has successfully raised public awareness about the relationship between Northern consumer decisions and living conditions of producers in less developed countries' rural communities. By establishing fair trade standards covering a wide range of social, economic, and environmental issues and combining them with a guaranteed price premium, fair trade has enabled farmers in less developed countries to stabilize or even improve their living conditions. As the second most valuable primary commodity exported by developing countries, coffee has played a central role in the development of consumer practices as “political strategies.” Two recently published books contribute to the rapidly growing literature on the interrelations between coffee, development, fair trade, and the potential role of individuals in “governance without government” in very interesting ways. Daniel Reichman's The Broken Village investigates the impact of globalization on a rural community in Honduras. Traditionally dominated by small-scale coffee production, this community experienced a dramatic increase in temporary undocumented migration to the United States over a period of a few years during the early 2000s. In his fascinating ethnographic study, Reichman explores the intricacies of this community's integration into global economic structures, as well as its social and cultural impact on migrants, families, and the community. The author explores the varied motivations for migration, ranging from socioeconomic push factors such as low coffee prices, bad coffee harvests, or the general lack of job opportunities at home, to the gravitational pull of idealized images of life and work in the United States, and the successes enjoyed by returning migrants. His use of “ethnographic profiles” enables the author to identify …

Distilling the Influence of Alcohol: Aguardiente in Guatemalan History Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair-Trade Markets

Book Review| April 01 2014 Distilling the Influence of Alcohol: Aguardiente in Guatemalan History Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair-Trade Markets Distilling the Influence of Alcohol: Aguardiente in Guatemalan History. Edited by Carey, DavidJr.. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2012. xi + 212 pp., acknowledgments, introduction, illustrations, glossary, bibliography, index. $74.95 cloth.)Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair-Trade Markets. By Lyon, Sarah. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2010. ix + 266 pp., acknowledgments, introduction, illustrations, bibliography, index. $75.00 cloth, $32.95 paper.) Matthew A. Redinger Matthew A. Redinger Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Ethnohistory (2014) 61 (2): 376–379. https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2414262 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Matthew A. Redinger; Distilling the Influence of Alcohol: Aguardiente in Guatemalan History Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair-Trade Markets. Ethnohistory 1 April 2014; 61 (2): 376–379. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2414262 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsEthnohistory Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2014 by American Society for Ethnohistory2014 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Book Reviews You do not currently have access to this content.

Coffee and community: Maya farmers and fair‐trade markets – By Sarah Lyon

Coffee and community: Maya farmers and fair‐trade markets – By Sarah Lyon

Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair-Trade Markets By Sarah Lyon University Press of Colorado. 2011. 280 pages. $32.50, paper

Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair-Trade Markets By Sarah Lyon University Press of Colorado. 2011. 280 pages. $32.50, paper