Conceptions of Primary Forest in a Tzeltal Maya Community: Implications for Conservation.

Casagrande, D. G. (2004)

abstract

Tzeltal Maya of Chiapas, Mexico recognize and name different stages of forest succession. Ethnobotanical interviews and analyses of freelists indicated that the Tzeltal Maya of Matsab are knowledgeable about what plants and birds are limited to the primary forest, but do not appear to rely exclusively on this knowledge to distinguish between habitats. Other features such as tree size, humidity, and soil characteristics appear to take precedence over species composition. Consensus analysis indicated that knowledge of primary-forest plant names and potential uses was no different than for plants from the managed landscape, and knowledge was not correlated with frequency of visits to the forest. Conservation professionals should not assume that knowledge is synonymous with behavior or cultural importance, that indigenous classification is based on the same features as modern, scientific classification, or that indigenous perceptions of habitats are homogeneous.