Dynamic processes in the use of natural resources and food systems by indigenous and mestizo communities in Mexico and Brazil

Abstract

This report is describing and analyzing indigenous "knowledge(s)” as practices and discourses of traditional actors related to their cultural context -including the symbolic and material uses ascribed to natural resources- and changes in order to understand how they take part in the environmental governance alignment. Several complementary and comparative studies were carried out focused on the evolution in the use of plants in farming practices, cooking, craft and diet in Mexico and Brazil. These studies are related to the environmental issue that we will analyze via the social networks of “traditional” actors involved, particularly, from a local knowledge anthropological perspective. This report is focused specifically on indigenous ethnic groups of the Mexican Oaxaca region (Mixtec and Triqui people) and the Northern Brazilian Amazon region (Arawak and Tukanoan people of the Rio Negro, State of Amazonas, Patamona of the State of Roraima and Ka’apor of the border of the States of Pará and Maranhão). To understand how these actors are related to nature, we will follow them through: the history of the occupation of the lands; the evolution of the social organization related to agriculture practices, mainly subsistence agriculture; the evolution of culinary practices and diets. With an integrated and comparative perspective this report will contribute to give information on the perceptions, representations and practices of the use of natural resources in order to respond to environmental governance issues.