Abstract
The title of E.N. Anderson's Political Ecology in a Yucatec Maya Community is a concise and direct declaration of its topic; however, it humbly understates Anderson's purpose and scope. This book is based on Anderson's year-and-a-half of fieldwork in western Quintana Roo, as well as the accumulated life experiences and knowledge of three local collaborators. But just as the reader is able to bring the community of Chunhuhub into greater focus with each successive chapter detailing its history, environment, farming and logging practices, medicine, and ideology, it also becomes clear that Chunhuhub is a case study of resource management in the face of global crisis. Resource inefficiency and waste threaten the future of rural communities worldwide. Thus, the book's initial question—How does traditional ecological knowledge affect Maya management of plants and animals?—leads Anderson to address difficult issues of modernization. The livelihoods of rural peoples and those in industrialized urban societies are inextricably bound together through political and economic systems in which control over rural resources is increasingly shifted to distant planners. Resource managers—whether in the field or a high-rise office—must attempt to balance tradeoffs between the competing interests of present and future. To this end, Anderson asks what can be learned from the experience of the Maya of Quintana Roo “who have, after all, been living on and with the land for thousands of years … What do they do that works well, and where do they fail (teaching us what we should avoid)” (p. 26)?
International NGOs now look to indigenous and traditional rural peoples for their role in maintaining global biodiversity. Indeed, Anderson finds that traditional Maya forest management provides a variety of critical environmental services for which Maya communities receive no payment. Therefore income-garnering activities that require forest clearing, such as raising cattle, offer significant economic incentives in Chunhuhub and throughout the tropics. Not all commercial ventures are so environmentally destructive, and the book recognizes promising alternatives to cattle ranching, such as raising locally endangered game animals, developing roadside citrus corridors, and exporting the most valuable wood species to foreign specialty markets. The persistence of rural communities relies not only on maintaining traditions, but continually adapting to dynamic environmental, political, and economic conditions by integrating tradition with innovation. Though the residents of Chunhuhub rely largely on subsistence farming, they also venture into commercial cultivation of fruit and row crops for local markets that have risen with the region's tourism industry.
Anderson champions resource management strategies that make use of both the local penchant for experimentation with new varieties and techniques as well as the rich knowledge of local plants and animals that stems from five centuries of interaction. The Maya system is based in knowledge-intensive technologies, collective organization, and an ideology that privileges long-term over narrow, short-term gains. These aspects are changing with modernization. However, the reader is introduced to farmers, educators, and community officials who adapt core values to new economic and educational opportunities. These individuals guide Chunhuhub in a conscientious process of cultural conservation and change. Though the local ejido is ultimately privatized, reflecting a larger shift from traditional social institutions, the community fares well over the trajectory of Anderson's fieldwork. New industries, such as healthcare and education, offer hope that Chunhuhub's young adults may remain in the community and involved in management of its fields and forests. The task for academia is to train scientists and development professionals to work with local communities and make use of their knowledge. Ultimately, as Anderson reminds readers, Chunhuhub does not face this crisis alone.
This book does not provide an easy rubric of variables for success or failure, though the concluding chapter proposes a set of necessary conditions for natural resource conservation. At times, as in the description of medicinal plant types and habitats, the data could perhaps be better presented in a table or chart rather than cluttering the narrative. Though topics such as agriculture, logging, and medicine are demarcated as chapters, the book should be read in its entirety for a holistic view of how these aspects of life in Chunhuhub overlap one another. It will be an inspiring read for young anthropologists and ecologists, as well as development professionals, beginning fieldwork in rural communities. Though rich in information, it may be difficult to use this book as a reference for specific data. Luckily, readers who may need to revisit the text for future references will benefit from Anderson's ability to bring the vitality of Chunhuhub to his prose. This book provides greater depth for many of the ideas presented in Anderson's 1996 book Ecologies of the Heart, particularly critique of economic models of behavior in resource management. In a world in which everything—environment, politics, economy, and culture—seems to be rapidly changing, Chunhuhub offers a focal point where we may see how a community positions itself in the current of international forces.