Ethnoecology and Medicinal Plants of the Highland Maya

119 Pages·2018·8.116 MB·English

by  John Richard Stepp

Ethnobiology
John Richard Stepp
Ethnoecology
and Medicinal
Plants of the
Highland Maya
Ethnobiology
Series editors:
Robert Voeks, Center for Remote Sensing & California State University,
Fullerton,  CA, USA
John Richard Stepp, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida,
Gainesville, FL, USA
Ethnobiology is the study of the dynamic relationship between plants, animals,
people, and the environment. Academic and applied interests include ethnobotany,
ethnozoology, linguistics, paleoethnobotany, zooarchaeology, ethnoecology, and
many others. The field lies at a dynamic intersection between the social and
biological sciences. The major contribution from the biological sciences has come
from economic botany, which has a rich historical and scientific tradition. Indeed,
the objectives of the colonial enterprise were as much about the quest for “green
gold”—herbal medicines, spices, novel cultivars, and others—as it was for precious
metals and sources of labor. The view that ethnobiology concerns mostly the
discovery of new and useful biota extended into the 20th century. The social sciences
have contributed to the field in both descriptive studies but also within quantitative
approaches in cognitive anthropology that have led to general principles within
ethnobiological classification. Ethnobiological research in recent years has focused
increasingly on problem solving and hypothesis testing by means of qualitative and
especially quantitative methods. It seeks to understand how culturally relevant
biotas are cognitively categorized, ranked, named, and assigned meaning. It
investigates the complex strategies employed by traditional societies to manage
plant and animal taxa, communities, and landscapes. It explores the degree to which
local ecological knowledge promotes or undermines resource conservation, and
contributes to the solution of global challenges, such as community health, nutrition,
and cultural heritage. It investigates the economic value and environmental
sustainability to local communities of non-timber forest products, as well as the
strategies through which individual ecological knowledge and practices encourage
resilience to change—modernization, climate change, and many others. Most
importantly, contemporary ethnobiological research is grounded in respect for all
cultures, embracing the principles of prior informed consent, benefit sharing, and
general mindfulness.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11551
John Richard Stepp
Ethnoecology and Medicinal
Plants of the Highland Maya
John Richard Stepp
Department of Anthropology
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL, USA
ISSN 2365-7553 ISSN 2365-7561 (electronic)
Ethnobiology
ISBN 978-3-319-69313-2 ISBN 978-3-319-69315-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69315-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018958472
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors
or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims
in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
I first visited the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, over 20 years ago while traveling
through Mexico and Central America. Like many before me, I was immediately
drawn to the lush montane environment and its indigenous inhabitants, the Highland
Maya. The Zapatista uprising had yet to take place, but the conditions that gave birth
to it were on open display. The paradox of how gut-wrenching poverty could coexist
with such natural beauty was not lost on me.
Several years later when the opportunity to do research in Chiapas arose, I knew
that my work should be for the benefit of the Highland Maya. Around this time, the
concept of biocultural diversity was gaining prominence, and it became clear that
effective conservation meant not just protecting the biophysical environment but
also required that language and culture be maintained as well. It was (and is) in this
spirit that I undertook an investigation of how the Highland Maya interact with and
know their environment and how this contributes to their health through medicinal
plants.
This research has taken many twists and turns along the way, but it remains moti-
vated by the original concerns. Despite having now worked in the area for over a
decade (with extended field stays interspersed with shorter visits and check-ins with
communities), it is very much a work in progress. While Chiapas is one of the most
intensively explored regions in the world from both an anthropological and ethno-
biological standpoint, there is still much to learn.
Change is occurring in Chiapas in ways both good and bad, but remarkably, tra-
ditional ecological knowledge persists. Five-year-old children are still likely to
know dozens of plants used for food and medicines. The average adult still carries
around enough plant knowledge to treat most if not all of the common ailments he/
she might encounter. This is not to imply that such knowledge is static, unvarying,
and never changing. Quite to the contrary, it is dynamic and variable, and this very
fact is one of the reasons it persists.
The Highland Maya have endured much over the last 500 years, beginning with
the European conquest and continuing to the political upheaval present in the region
to this day. Looming on the horizon and making its presence increasingly known is
climate change. Through it all, the language and culture has persevered while also
v
vi Preface
adapting to changing circumstances. A large part of this resilience has come from
the abundant local plant resources that provide most of the food and medicinal
plants, both wild and cultivated. Ethnobotany (and by extension, ethnoecology)
truly is the science of survival, and it is my hope that this work can play a role,
however small, in conserving the rich biocultural diversity of Highland Chiapas.
Funding for this work has come from numerous sources including the National
Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Security Education
Program, National Institutes of Health, National Endowment for the Humanities,
The Christensen Fund, and the University of Florida Tropical Conservation and
Development Program. A project of this scope involves the help and collaboration
of literally thousands if one includes all of the study participants. Rather than
attempt the herculean task of naming everyone and missing a few, or worse, singling
out a few for praise, I offer my deepest appreciation and gratefulness to all who have
been there along the way. Wokol awal!
Gainesville, FL, USA John Richard Stepp
Contents
1 Ethnoecology and Medicinal Plants of the Highland Maya:
An Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Generalized Versus Specialized Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Why Study the Ethnoecology of Medicinal Plants? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Prior Informed Consent Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 Organization of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 Environmental Context of the Highland Maya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 A Note About Sources of Data and Their Accuracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Biocultural Diversity in the State of Chiapas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3 Highlands and the Municipality of Tenejapa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3.1 Population and Sociopolitical Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3.2 Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.3.3 Ecology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.4 Research Communities in Tenejapa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.4.1 Cold Country (Sikil K’inal) Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.4.2 Temperate Country (Sikil Htebuk
K’inal/K’ixin Htebuk K’inal) Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.4.3 Hot Country (K’ixin K’inal) Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3 Medicinal Plants and Preferred Habitats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.1 Use Recall Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.2 Procurement and Use of Medicinal Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2.1 Parts of Plants Utilized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2.2 Medicinal Plants and Life Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.2.3 Reported Strength of Medicinal Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.2.4 Medicinal Plants and Soil Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.2.5 Reported Abundance of Medicinal Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.2.6 Seasonality and Time of Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.2.7 Time Allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
vii
viii Contents
3.2.8 Medicinal Plant Habitats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2.9 Procurement of Medicinal Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.2.10 Weeds and the Medicinal Flora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.2.11 Plant Families of the Tenejapa Tzeltal
Medicinal Flora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.3 Reported Distribution of Medicinal Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4 The Most Important Medicinal Plants
of the Highland Maya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.1 Format of Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2 Verbena litoralis Kunth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.2.1 Ecology, Botany, Folk Classification
and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.2.2 Medical Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.3 Salvia lavanduloides Kunth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.3.1 Ecology, Botany, Folk Classification
and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.3.2 Medical Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.4 Baccharis confertoides G.L. Nesom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.4.1 Ecology, Botany, Folk Classification
and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.4.2 Medical Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.5 Tithonia diversifolia (Hemsl.) a. Gray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.5.1 Ecology, Botany, Folk Classification
and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.5.2 Medical Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.6 Foeniculum vulgare L. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.6.1 Ecology, Botany, Folk Classification
and Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.6.2 Medical Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5 But What About the Forest? Mature Forests
and Highland Maya Medicinal Plants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.1 Medicinal Plants and Mature Forest: The Tzeltal
Maya Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.2 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.3 Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6 Medicinal Plants, Human Ecology
and Biochemical Ecology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
6.1 Human Ecology and Medicinal Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
6.2 Biochemical Ecology and Medicinal Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Contents ix
6.2.1 Apparency Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
6.2.2 Resource Availability Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
7 Medicinal Plant Ethnoecology and Climate
Change: Implications for Conservation, Health
and the Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.1 Social and Environmental Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
7.2 Implications for Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.3 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109