Political Ecology in a Yucatec Maya Community (review)
- Political Ecology in a Yucatec Maya Community
During the past five centuries, the exigencies of the global economy have transformed much of the landscape of the Yucatán Peninsula. The henequen boom in northwestern Yucatán and the large-scale harvesting of chicle in the east-central part of the region are two well-known cases dating back to the 19th century. The rapid proliferation of mass tourism in Cancún and along the Caribbean coast of the peninsula during the past 25 years is perhaps the most salient recent example.
Anderson's Political Ecology in a Yucatec Maya Community reminds us that indigenous peoples and traditional societies have been transforming the landscape of the Yucatan Peninsula and managing its natural resources in a generally sustainable fashion for millennia. These traditional resource management strategies stand in stark contrast to plantation agriculture and large-scale tourism, which have proven misguided in a "land of not much" like the Yucatán.
Anderson explores the case of Chunhuhub, a community in west-central Quintana Roo state that has managed to prosper while retaining many of its traditional resource management practices. The book draws on fieldwork between 1991 and 2001, a period of tremendous social, economic and political change throughout Yucatán and the rest of Mexico, and benefits greatly from Anderson's collaboration with local Maya informants.
In the introductory chapter, Anderson addresses the fundamental conundrum confronting many small towns like Chunhuhub: the choice between long-term sustainability and short-term growth. In addition, he discusses misguided strategies to promote sustainable resource management in the tropics and reviews the debate surrounding conservation of natural resources among traditional peoples from a variety of academic perspectives (cultural ecology, political ecology, geography, and conservation biology). In spite of the increasing difficulty in fulfilling externally-imposed notions of conservation and biodiversity, Anderson ultimately asserts that traditional groups have generally been successful at managing a vast array of natural resources.
Chapters 2 through 4 offer detailed accounts of the physical geography, agricultural practices and forest management traditions in Chunhuhub. These chapters are among the most impressive in the book, as Anderson displays an extensive knowledge of regional climate patterns, soil conditions, local flora and fauna, and an intimate understanding of the traditional Maya milpa, as well as more recent efforts at citrus production, cattle ranching and logging. Anderson documents the retention of traditional communal landholding (ejido) and Maya agricultural practices, as well as the emergence of private property and efforts to gain and apply further technical skills selectively in order to improve livelihoods. His fieldwork reveals that the persistence of the ejido and small-scale production methods maximizes economic gain and minimizes environmental impacts and risk, making it is both economically and socially rational in the case of Chunhuhub.
In Chapter 5 Anderson focuses on how the distinct Maya worldview, in which inanimate objects are viewed as living beings and non-human species are active subjects [End Page 133] rather than passive objects, influences traditional resource management practices. In this "cosmovisión," religious practices serve to codify environmental wisdom and conservation management. Although this ideology is knowledge-intensive, Anderson stresses that it is shared so that the entire forest may be managed collectively and used productively in a manner which promotes biodiversity and long-term sustainability. The chapter concludes, however, by emphasizing that the traditional worldview of the Maya of Chunhuhub increasingly conflicts with the "religion" of modern mono-cropping and mechanized agriculture.
Chapter 6 provides a brief history of the town of Chunhuhub, from its pre-Columbian legacy to its destruction during the Caste War in 1847, subsequent resettlement in the 1930s, and current conditions in the early 21st century. This account brings the community to life and reveals a level of dynamism and change that is only hinted at in the previous pages. For example, the reader gains an appreciation of how the community carries out decision-making collectively within the ejido. In addition, Anderson reveals...
