The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

Local expressions of indigenous knowledge
Each village has its patron saint, who is believed to promote the unity of the entire
community. Many villages such as San Benito and St. Lucía have been named after a
saint. Others, like Roq-há have been given names derived from the local language (roq
means shell and há is the Q'eqchi' word for water). That villages are frequently named
after an aspect of the sacred landscape, has also been mentioned by Wilson (1995: 21),
who notes that surnames are also often specific to a locale, while Christian names are
traditionally derived from Spanish. According to his findings, there is linguistic evidence
that being in terms of ›location‹ (as expressed by the Spanish verb estar) is much
more important than being in terms of ›essence‹ (as distinguished by the verb ser). The
Q'eqchi' language does not have a verb for being in the latter sense, but only for ›to be
located in a place‹ (*waank). This is reminiscent of the aforementioned comment made
by Strang that for indigenous people, who they are and where they are from are not divisible.
The nature of this identification with land creates an »unparalleled collective sense
of belonging« (1997: 159f.). The importance of location is the subject of the next
chapter. It will be shown that the human engagement with the landscape is endowed
with agency and personhood and that places and identities are mutually constituted.
Fig. 5.15 ›Home‹ as drawn by a female informant in Xucaneb
189