Situating the Corn-Child
Articulating Animism and Conservation from a Nahua Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v2i1.93Keywords:
Animism, traditional agricultural practices, conservationAbstract
This article analyzes Animism and conservation in the context of a conservation and development program in Mexico. The Eastern Sierra Madre mountains have become contested spaces where certain traditional agricultural practices are challenged by government conservation projects. With a focus on the Nahuas, I ask whether and in what context indigenous religious thought and cultural values translate into conservationist behavior and how conservation ideals influence indigenous views of nature. I focus on ritual behavior directed toward the corn-child as an example of an ethical model to respect sentient beings. Then, I contrast this model with a Mexican conservation and development program. As an example of seemingly changing perceptions of nature, the Nahuas accept the program by weighing economic needs over religious ones, without leaving behind their obligations to nature spirits. My analysis shows how they articulate new representations of the corn-child with conservation to make sense out of recent environmental processes. I also demonstrate the cultural agency of the Nahuas who integrate globally circulating conservation ideas as easily adapted cultural material. The articulation of conservation-as-sacred-practice is an example of how they have come to terms with political, economic, and environmental challenges and offers powerful cultural resources to serve local ends.
References
Alcorn, Janis B. 1984 Huastec Mayan Ethnobotany (Austin: University of Texas Press).
a ‘An Economic Analysis of Huastec Mayan Forest Management’, in J.O. Browder (ed.), Fragile Lands of Latin America: Strategies for Sustainable Development (Boulder, CO: Westview Press): 182-206.
b ‘Process as Resource: The Traditional Agriculture Ideology of Bora and Huastec Resource Management and its Implications for
Research’, in D.A. Posey and W. Balée (eds.), Resource Management in Amazonia: Indigenous and Folk Strategies (New York: New York Botanical Garden): 63-77.
‘Indigenous Agroforestry Systems in the Latin American Tropics’, in M. Altierie and S. Hecht (eds.), Agroecology and Small Farm Development (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press): 203-13.
Alcorn, Janis B., and Victor Toledo 1998 ‘Resilient Resource Management in Mexico’s Forest Ecosystems: The Contribution of Property Rights’, in F. Berkes and C. Folke (eds.), Linking Social and Ecological Systems (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press): 216-49.
Berkes, Fikret 1999 Sacred Ecology: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Resource Management (Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis).
Bird-David, Nurit 1999 ‘“Animism” Revisited: Personhood, Environment, and Relational Epistemology’, Current Anthropology 40 (Supplement February 1999): S67-S91.
Callicott, J. Baird 1982 ‘Traditional American Indian and Western European Attitudes Toward Nature: An Overview’, Environmental Ethics 4.4: 293-318.
De Vidas, Anath Ariel 2002 Le Tonnerre n’habite plus ici. Culture de la marginalité chez les Indiens teenek (Mexique) (Paris: EHESS).
Dove, Michael R. 2006 ‘Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Politics’, Annual Review of Anthropology 35: 191-208. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.35.081705.123235
Dwyer, Peter 1994 ‘Modern Conservation and Indigenous Peoples: In Search of Wisdom’, Conservation Biology 1: 91-97.
English, Anthony 2000 ‘An Emu in the Hole: Exploring the Link Between Biodiversity and Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in New South Wales, Australia’, Parks 10:13-15.
Galinier, Jacques 1990 La mitad del mundo: Cuerpo y cosmos en los rituales otomies (Mexico: UNAM/CEMCA/INI).
Gallardo Arias, Patricia 1999 ‘Medicina tradicional y brujería entre los teenek de la Huasteca Potosina’ (Tesis de Licenciatura; Mexico: Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia).
Gómez Martínez, Arturo 2002 Tlaneltokilli: La espiritualidad de los nahuas chicontepecanos (Mexico: Ediciones del Programa de Desarrollo Cultural de la Huasteca).
González, Roberto J. 2001 Zapotec Science: Farming and Food in the Northern Sierra of Oaxaca (Austin: University of Texas Press).
Harmon, David, and Allen D. Putney (eds.) 2003 The Full Value of Parks: From Economics to the Intangible (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield).
Harvey, David 1998 ‘What’s Green and Makes the Environment Go Round’, in F. Jameson and M. Miyoshi (eds.), The Cultures of Globalization (Durham and London: Duke University Press): 327-55.
Hernández Ferrer, Marcela 2000 ‘Ofrendas a dhipaak: Ritos agrícolas entre los teenek de San Luis Potosí’ (Tesis de Licenciatura; Mexico: ENAH).
Hunn, Eugene S. 1999 ‘The Value of Subsistence for the Future of the World’, in V. Nazarea (ed.), Ethnoecology: Situated Knowledge/Located Lives (Tucson: University of Arizona Press): 23-36.
Igoe, Jim 2004 Conservation and Globalization: A Study of National Parks and Indigenous Communities from East Africa to South Dakota (Wadsworth: Thomson Wadsworth).
INEGI 2000 Censo general de población y vivienda (Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática).
Krech, Shepard, III 1999 The Ecological Indian: Myth and History (New York: W.W. Norton).
Leopold, Aldo 1968 A Sand County Almanac (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
López Austin, Alfredo 1989 Hombre-Dios: Religión y política en el mundo nahuatl (Mexico: UNAM).
Tamoanchan y Tlalocan (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica).
Cuerpo humano e ideología: Las concepciones de los antiguos nahuas, I and II (Mexico: UNAM).
Mathews, Andrew S. 2005 ‘Power/Knowledge, Power/Ignorance: Forest Fires and the State in Mexico’, Human Ecology 33.6: 795-820. doi:10.1007/s10745-005-8211-x
Molina, Fray Alonso (de) 1944 Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana (Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispánica).
Arte de la lengua mexicana y castellana (Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispánica).
[1567] Vocabulario en lengua Castellana/Mexicana-Mexicana/Castellana (Mexico City: Porrúa).
Nazarea, Virginia D. (ed.) 1999 Ethnoecology: Situated Knowledge/Located Lives (Tucson: University of Arizona Press).
Pfeffer, Max J., John W. Schelahs, and Leyla A. Day 2001 ‘Forest Conservation, Value Conflict, and Interest Formation in a Honduran National Park’, Rural Sociology 66.3: 382-401.
Pike, Kenneth 1954 Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior (Glendale, CA: Summer Institute of Linguistics).
Posey, Darrel A. 1985 ‘Indigenous Management of Tropical Forest Ecosystems: The Case of the Kayapo Indians of the Brazilian Amazon’, Agroforestry Systems 3: 139-58. doi:10.1007/BF00122640
Posey, Darrel A. (ed.) 1999 Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity (London: Intermediate Technology Publications).
Sandstrom, Alan R. 1991 Corn is Our Blood: Culture and Ethnic Identity in a Contemporary Aztec Indian Village (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press).
Scott, Colin 2006 ‘Spirit and Practical Knowledge in the Person of the Bear among Wemindji Cree Hunters’, Ethnos 71.1: 51-66. 10.1080/00141840600603178
Sessions, George 1991 ‘Ecocentrism and the Anthropocentric Detour’, Revision 13.3: 109-51.
Smith, Eric, and Marc Wishnie 2000 ‘Conservation and Subsistence in Small-Scale Societies’, Annual Review of Anthropology 29: 493-524. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.29.1.493
Stearman, A.M. 1994 ‘Only Slaves Climb Trees: Revisiting the Myth of the Ecologically Noble Savage in Amazonia’, Human Nature 5.4: 339-57.
Tiedje, Kristina 2004 ‘Mapping Nature, Constructing Culture: The Cultural Politics of Place in the Huasteca, Mexico’ (PhD dissertation, University of Oregon).
‘People, Place, and Politics in the Huasteca, Mexico’, Anthropology Today 21.4: 13-17. doi:10.1111/j.0268-540X.2005.00367.x
a ‘Des politiques culturelles de la nature: Le cas des grottes du vent et de la fertilité’, Journal des Américanistes 93.1: 201-21.
b ‘The Promise of the Sacred for Conservation (and its Limits)’, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture 1.3: 326-39.
forthcoming ‘Curacion y maleficio entre los Nahuas potosinos’, in P. Gallardo (ed.), Los curadores de la Huasteca. Diferentes visiones acerca de la medicina tradicional en la Huasteca y sus fronteras (Mexico: CONACULTA).
Tiedje, Kristina, and Gonzalo Camacho 2005 ‘La música de arpa entre los nahuas: Simbolismo y aspectos performativos’, Anales de Antropología 39.2: 131-62.
Toledo, Victor M., et al. 2003 ‘The Multiple Use of Tropical Forests by Indigenous Peoples in Mexico: A Case of Adaptive Management’, Conservation Ecology 7.3: Art. 9.
Tylor, Edward Burnett 1871 Primitive Culture: Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization (London: John Murray).
Van’t Hooft, Anuschka, and José Cerda Zepeda 2003 Lo que relatan de antes: Kuentos tének y nahuas de la Huasteca (Pachuca, Hidalgo: Ediciones del Programa de Desarrollo Cultural de la Huasteca).
Vasan, Sudha 2002 ‘Ethnography of the Forest Guard: Contrasting Discourses, Conflicting Roles, and Policy Implementation’, Economic Politics Weekly 37.40: 4125-33.
West, Paige 2006 Conservation is Our Government Now: The Politics of Ecology in Papua New Guinea (Durham, NC: Duke University Press).
West, Paige, James Igoe, and Dan Brockington 2006 ‘Parks and Peoples: The Social Impact of Protected Areas’, Annual Review of Anthropology 35: 251-77. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.35.081705.123308
