Consequences of land grabbing on Mapuche ethnobotanical knowledge transmission and food sovereignty
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Date
2014
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Abstract
The Mapuche are the largest indigenous group in Chile, comprising nearly six percent of Chile’s total population. They have struggled with land usurpations since the end of the nineteenth century and today most rural families live in small plots not larger than four hectares. In most cases, Mapuche have been relegated to higher elevation lands where soils are less productive for agriculture, but where some of the last remaining continuous temperate forests in the Andean range still persist. For many Mapuche communities in forest ecosystems, making use of forest products such as wild edibles has been part of their foodways since the deep past, supporting their food diversity and health. We studied the state of ethno-botanical knowledge and use of forest edibles in a Mapuche community between 2012-13. We conducted participant observation, freelist exercises, photoelicitation interviews, together with informal and semi-structured interviews during this period. Forty nine species of plants were identified as edibles and information about their gathering season, ecological characteristics, preparations and other uses, was recorded. This ethno-botanical knowledge was intertwined in personal stories of individual-plant-landscape relations. Though we found comprehensive ethno-botanical knowledge of wild edibles and medicinal plants available in the area, this body of knowledge is almost certainly facing a process of erosion as it was mostly held by elders and a good number of adults. According to participants, the reasons for the obstruction of transmission of environmental knowledge to children and youngsters were associated with a limited access to and the lack of daily interaction with forests. As Mapuche pedagogy is oral and foremost in situ, forests have been for generations a physical learning place for children to gain environmental skills as reported in interviews. However, due to historical land grabbing in their territories, most forests surrounding the communities currently belong to non-Mapuche landowners or are part of private and public protected areas which follow strict preservationist paradigms. Restricted access to forests not only prevents the consumption of wild edibles undermining food sovereignty of communities, but it has also implications for reaffirming traditional beliefs, social cohesion and Mapuche identity as intergenerational environmental learning is interrupted
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Ethnobotany, Political ecology, Biocultural diversity, Food sovereignty