The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

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180 5.2.2 Agricultural symbolism The cultural context of biodiversity conservation And so then they put into words the Creation, the shaping of our first mother and father. Only yellow corn and white corn were their bodies. Only food were the legs and arms of man. (Popol Vuh) 44 The milpa cycle is an example of a cultural framework for resource management that carries considerable symbolic meaning. Within this productive sphere, maize represents one of the most common cultural markers of Mesoamerican societies and provides a means to understand the links between religious and economic realms (Flores Arenales 1999: 141). For the Q'eqchi' and other Mayan groups, spiritual links to nature are particularly expressed in beliefs relating to maize. Building on the myth that the first humans originally were made of corn, the people have a strong sense of identification with their milpa and it is of great value to have one's own land on which to cultivate maize, because doing so is a vital aspect of cultural identity; it provides economic security and maintains the relationship with the local landscape. 45 This sense of identification finds a linguistic equivalence in the expression *nink'alek which translates to ›I clear the milpa‹, but literally means ›I convert into milpa‹ (Hatse & De Ceuster 2001a: 53). Likewise, it became evident in the words of a young informant in San Benito who said: »Without maize we cannot live« (field notes, 2002). Maize is the essence of life or, as Nigh puts it, the »central axis of community cultures« (2002: 456), from which the entire cultural, social and religious life of the Q'eqchi' evolves. As mentioned above, the term Q'eqchi' originally refers to the common language rather than to the entire ethnic group with shared cultural attributes. The people refer to themselves as *ral ch'och, which means »sons and daughters of the earth« or as *aj k'aleb'aal, which can be translated as »people of the cornfield« (Wilson 1995: 309). 46 As these expressions indicate, cultural identity is linked with location and points to the significance of maize and associated activities. Its production is the primary work of the men, just as the processing of the grains is one of the main occupations of the women. All informants we worked with considered the cultivation of maize as a highly esteemed and preferred occupation. 44 Cited in Carrasco (1990: 24). In addition to the remains of ceremonial centres and iconography of the writing system that survived the conquest, a series of documents remain from the colonial period, including such accounts as the Popol Vuh. This is the Book of Council of the Maya-Quiché, discovered in 1701 in the western highlands of Guatemala. It contains information about the indigenous worldview, related symbols, ritual actions and human destiny on earth and in the afterlife as perceived in the Maya religion of pre- and post-conquest times. 45 According to the Mayan genesis, humans were not created first. Plants and animals were the first beings and they later helped in the creation of humans (Montejo 2001). The Popol Vuh describes the story of the creation of humans: after two failed attempts to create the human body from clay and wood, God finally succeeded in moulding the first Maya, four men and four women, out of maize dough (Gómez & Pacay Caal 2003). 46 It is worth mentioning here that the Q'eqchi' word for ›person‹ is kristian, which is derived from the Spanish christiano.
Local expressions of indigenous knowledge As the worldview centres on the idea that the land is the source of human life, the planting of maize is more than an activity of economic production; rather, it comprises a relatedness that implies the vision that the land and the maize themselves are spiritually alive. The understanding revolving around maize is but one of many examples of how indigenous people relate to natural elements. It has been emphasised by anthropologists that many plants represent cultural as well as biological artefacts that highlight the intimate connection between people and their local environments. Scholars like Dudley and Balée (2005) observed that human cultures have been widely conditioned by the plants occurring in their environment. Plants from the natural world are incorporated into the cultural world, whereas humans may be ›turned into plants‹. The origin myths and creation stories of many cultures invoke the mystical properties of plants. They have been perceived and used as fundamental markers of mythology, divinity and ritual. Frequently, indigenous people believe themselves derived from particular plants. Their life cycle provides a metaphorical counterpoint to human existence; while human death results in a return of the body to the soil, plants emerge from the earth and represent the eternal cycle of decay and rebirth. The claim that salient plant forms and botanical processes offer material for symbols, metaphors, mythologies and legends, becomes more than evident in the Mayan context. Maize is the most important food staple and simultaneously a central metaphor for life. The seeds symbolise the nourishing power of nature and the continuity of life. As such they are a critical element in the life cycle of crops and humans and treated as sacred gifts that traditionally were exchanged but could not be bought or sold. Fig. 5.13 If the community has no mill, women prepare the *nixtamal (dough) on a *metate (grinding stone) 47 47 Women spend large parts of their time grinding maize for the preparation of tortillas. In the morning, they commonly get up at 4:30 to begin with the process, which takes about two hours. 181
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Göttinger Beiträge zur Ethnologie
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Published in 2008 by Universitätsv
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Bibliographische Information der De
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CONTENTS Acknowledgements Prologue
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Contents 5.2 The context of meaning
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Acknowledgements Many other friends
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ABBREVIATIONS ADICI Asociación de
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2 The cultural context of biodivers
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10 The cultural context of biodiver
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3 THE DISCURSIVE CONTEXT - conceptu
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The discursive context paradigms ar
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The discursive context environmenta
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The discursive context of pluralist
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The discursive context mental chang
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The discursive context and the ›s
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The discursive context More critica
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The discursive context 3.1.3 Concep
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The discursive context ristic power
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The discursive context Given the hi
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The discursive context frame that g
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The discursive context agencies eng
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The discursive context In the end,
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The discursive context entific cred
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The discursive context in a protect
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The discursive context Wells and Br
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The discursive context accelerated
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The discursive context Beyond its s
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The discursive context tivity that
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The discursive context a religious
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The discursive context The sense of
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The discursive context to us as adu
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The discursive context In this way,
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The discursive context concurrence.
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The discursive context In discussin
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The discursive context In the same
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The discursive context efforts payi
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The discursive context 3.4.1 The co
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The discursive context In order to
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The discursive context Apart from t
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The discursive context and organisi
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The discursive context 3.4.3 The sy
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The discursive context terms throug
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The discursive context Nevertheless
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The discursive context hypotheses.
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The discursive context for a partic
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The discursive context tions with t
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4 THE LOCAL CONTEXT - national poli
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The local context 4.1.1 Biological
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The local context Map 4.1 Distribut
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The local context tions as a counte
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The local context the area known as
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The local context Moreover, the ret
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The local context 4.2 The Maya-Q'eq
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The local context The integration o
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The local context 4.2.2 Historical
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The local context In the early 1980
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Local expressions of indigenous kno
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250 The cultural context of biodive
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252 The cultural context of biodive
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EPILOGUE At the end of my last stay
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REFERENCES
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References Atran, Scott et al. (200
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References Brush, Stephen B. & Dore
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References Dove, Michael (1996). Ce
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References Gari, Josep-Antoni (2000
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References Hajer, Maarten & Frank F
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References Kockelman, Paul (2003).
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References Messer, Ellen (2001). Th
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References Oviedo, Gonzalo/Luisa Ma
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References Redford, Kent/Katrina Br
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References — (2002a). Participant
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References UNEP-WCMC (2003). Tradit
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APPENDIX
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Appendix Map 4.3 Alta Verapaz and m
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Göttinger Studien zur Ethnologie h
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