Seeds of Resistance, Seeds of Hope: Place and Agency in the Conservation of Biodiversity

313 Pages·2013·2.87 MB·English

by  Virginia D. Nazarea

Seeds of Re sis tance,
Seeds of Hope

Seeds of Re sis tance,
Seeds of Hope
Place and Agency in the
Conservation of
Biodiversity
Edited by
VIRGINIA D. NAZAREA,
ROBERT E. RHOADES, AND
JENNA E. ANDREWS-S WANN
TUCSON
The University of Arizona Press
© 2013 The Arizona Board of Regents
All rights reserved.
www. uapress .arizona .edu
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-P ublication Data
Seeds of re sis tance, seeds of hope : place and agency in the conservation of
biodiversity / edited by Virginia D. Nazarea, Robert E. Rhoades, and Jenna
Andrews- Swann.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0 - 8165- 3014- 4 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Agrobiodiversity conservation—Cross-c ultural studies. 2. Food
security—Cross- cultural studies. 3. Local foods—Cross- cultural studies.
4. Seeds—Cross- cultural studies. I. Nazarea, Virginia D. (Virginia
Dimasuay), 1954–, editor of compilation. II. Rhoades, Robert E., editor of
compilation. III. Andrews- Swann, Jenna, 1980–, editor of compilation.
S494.5.A43S39 2013
333.95'316—dc23
2013011198
Publication of this book is made possible in part by the proceeds of a permanent
endowment created with the assistance of a Challenge Grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency.
Manufactured in the United States of America on acid- free, archival-q uality paper
containing a minimum of 30% post- consumer waste and pro cessed chlorine free.
18 17 16 15 14 13 6 5 4 3 2 1
This volume—s immered in the love of collard greens,
black- eyed peas, ham hock, corn bread,
the American South, and all the world’s resilient
Souths—i s dedicated to Bob Rhoades.

CONTENTS
Preface ix
Virginia D. Nazarea
Conservation beyond Design: An Introduction 3
Virginia D. Nazarea and Robert E. Rhoades
I. Marginality and Memory in
Place-B ased Conservation
1 Temptation to Hope: From the “Idea” to the
Milieu of Biodiversity 19
Virginia D. Nazarea
2 Apples of Their Eyes: Memory Keepers of the
American South 42
Susannah Chapman and Tom Brown
3 Food from the Ancestors: Documentation, Conservation,
and Revival of Eastern Cherokee Heirloom Plants 65
James R. Veteto and Kevin Welch
4 Sense of Place and Indigenous People’s Biodiversity
Conservation in the Americas 85
Tirso Gonzales
5 Saving Our Seeds: An Indigenous Perspective
from Cotacachi, Ecu a dor 107
Magdalena Fueres, Rodrigo Flores, and Rosita Ramos
6 People, Place, and Plants in the Pacifi c Coast
of Colombia 115
Juana Camacho
viii Contents
II. Agency and Reterritorialization in the
Context of Globalization
7 Maya Mother Seeds in Res ist ance of Highland Chiapas
in Defense of Native Corn 151
Peter Brown
8 Preserving Soybean Diversity in Japan 177
Richard Moore
9 Complementarity and Confl ict: In Situ and Ex Situ
Approaches to Conserving Plant Ge net ic Resources 196
Cary Fowler
10 Situated Meanings of Key Concepts in the Regulation
of Plant Gen et ic Resources 214
Kristine Skarbø
11 Exile Landscapes of Nostalgia and Hope in the
Cuban Diaspora 240
Jenna E. Andrews- Swann
12 When Seeds Are Scarce: Globalization and the Response
of Three Cultures 262
Robert E. Rhoades
Contributors 287
Index 291
PREFACE
Four words that are not normally used, or not used often enough, in rela-
tion to the conservation of plant gen et ic resources in par tic ul ar and bio-
diversity in general are “res ist ance,” “hope,” “place,” and “agency.” Why
focus on these instead of, say, sustainability, rationality, economic value,
and pol iti cal strategy?
Conservation is all too commonly viewed as something that requires
intentionality— a ponderous matter people must deliberate on and methodi-
cally execute. Worse yet, it is often regarded as what more developed,
formally trained, or well-p ositioned people ought to get less developed,
informally educated, and poorly positioned people to think about and
do. Environmental management— or its earlier and more lyrical rendition,
stewardship— has so colonized our mindset that we often forget that it is
a fairly recent invention. Before the conceptual separation of mind and
body, and of humans and nature, and before we were preoccupied with
dissecting the objective from the subjective, people were part of a highly
interactive and largely animate environment on which they depended
not only for survival but also, more important, for completion. When the
surrounding mountain range is your “mother,” the gnarled tree is your
“grandfather,” striped stones are your “scouts,” newly harvested potatoes
are your “infants,” and tangled beans are your “sisters,” you do not dis-
tance yourself to manage and protect. Indeed, for many cultures that
continue to dwell in an intimate-a nimate landscape, such separation and
hierarchy are inconceivable, if not downright distressing.
This message was brought home to us when, preparing a compila-
tion of myths and legends in Cotacachi, Ecu a dor with local collaborators,
it became increasingly clear that there was no Quechua equivalent of
“conservation,” “management,” or even “stewardship.” As indigenous lead-
ers Magdalena Fueres and Rafael Guitarra politely yet emphatically
pointed out, the principles igual y igual (among equals) and no paternal-
ismo (no paternalism) applied not only to our relationship to them as
outsiders who bring in funding for research projects but also, in their
ix