Narrating changes, recalling memory: accumulation by dispossession in food systems of Indigenous communities at the extremes of Latin America

Ecology and Society: a journal of integrative science for resilience and sustainability

article

Constanza Monterrubio-Solís¹  Antonia Barreau¹  José Tomás Ibarra¹ 

[1] ECOS ,(Ecosystem-Complexity-Society) Co-Laboratory, Center for Local Development ,(CEDEL) & Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research ,(CIIR), Villarrica Campus, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile;Department of Ecosystems and Environment, Faculty of Agriculture and Forest Sciences & Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability ,(CAPES), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile;Cape Horn International Center for Global Change Studies and Biocultural Conservation ,(CHIC), Universidad de Magallanes

关键词: biocultural memory;    Chile;    food systems;    forests;    indigenous communities;    Mexico;   

DOI  :  10.5751/ES-13792-280103

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Resilience Alliance Publications

【 摘 要 】

Food feeds knowledge and practices through generations, sustaining biocultural memories. However, prevailing economicmodels and state policies have driven processes of accumulation by dispossession, defined as incremental social-ecological processesby which people lose their means of production and social reproduction. We conducted a cross-hemispherical study exploring foodsystems of Indigenous communities inhabiting forested landscapes in Latin America. We used mixed methods that included passiveand participant observation, focus groups, free lists, food diaries, oral histories, and calendars in Mapuche communities from theChilean Andes, and Tzotzil communities from Chiapas, Mexico. Food items and their preparations have changed in both locations.Both food systems show patterns of accumulation by dispossession associated with processes of colonial history, state policies, landprivatization, soil depletion, and shifts in local food preferences. Despite these distant but comparable accumulation by dispossessionprocesses, we advocate that biocultural memory remains linked to food-related experiences and sets the basis for dynamic and resilientlocal food systems going forward.

【 授权许可】

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