a savior, and how she specifically used the honey of the Maya bee—the concoction did not work with a different honey. He said, “with this my daughter lives. My daughter is already 13 years old. And that is an experience that I have as something that my grandmother has given me, because my grandmother well… she is no longer with us. It was one of the secrets that she had as a midwife.” I delved deeper to find out why only the Maya honey was considered medicinal and the common hybrid honey (from Apis mellifera) was not. Beekeepers always told me the same thing- they believed that the Maya bee collects pollen selectively from native medicinal plants, but the hybrid bee will collect from anywhere and anything to make honey. They even described the hybrid bee as dirty and a cheater because of its indiscriminant nature. One woman claimed that “it will even collect from where you urinate!” This is when I began to realize how this practice was linked to much larger overarching issues in the region. The dichotomy and duality of local and commercial honeys was a pattern that recurred among other products. Repeatedly, I found examples of a local, native product that was considered “healthy,” for personal consumption, and not for generating income, and a corresponding commercial version of that same product that was considered to be dirty and unhealthy, associated with chemicals, and only for generating income. Rather than give up their traditional subsistence items, many Maya were simply adopting and using the advantages of both; one for subsistence, and the other for income. The pattern was seen with pigs, chickens, and with the very essence of the Maya livelihood-- corn. The local and commercial versions of corn are a source of conflict and struggle in the Maya communities. For many, this conflict contributes to the apprehension and resistance surrounding commercialism in general. The Maya depend on the ability to store their corn, but the introduction of GMO corn is resulting in the reduction of storability in the native corn, causing the Maya to lose one of their primary food staples. In addition, GMO corn requires fertilizers and pesticides to ensure profit, with the goal of producing as much corn as quickly as possible. Fertilizers and pesticides are very expensive, costly to provide for an entire milpa, and most Maya do not have the money to purchase them. Plus, the concept of forcing plant growth contradicts their worldview that everything operates in cycles and in its own time. To do otherwise is considered unhealthy and unnatural, as is reflected in the comments of a Maya farmer in response to the claim that GMO corn is of preferred quality because it grows larger in size:
do what it shouldn’t do. On the other hand, what we do is, a plant that we sow, let it give us fruit at the time that it should give fruit. We do not force it to produce, let its time come, let its day arrive, its deadline to give. Because all the plants that we have planted this way, none of them are managed with chemical, fertilizer, nothing. And I can guarantee you, more or less, a plant that begins to mature, and what day it can give fruit. And it is every year. It doesn’t miss a day nor a deadline.
This pattern is reflective of a fundamental conflict between two economies, a western commercial market economy, and that of an indigenous, land-based subsistence economy. A Maya farmer told me, “We do not have that idea of selling. We have the idea of producing, but to consume. I can plant beans, but it is for my family to eat. It is not so I can sell it in other countries.” Many businesses are coming in and buying the land that Maya people use to grow their food. These people lose their lifestyle and effectively become impoverished. Many express resistance to capitalism. One individual argued that it is contradictory to how the community functions: What happens with capitalism when it enters? The first thing many say is, ‘if they don’t pay me, I don’t go.’ Simply like that. But our culture is not like this. Here nobody pays. The organization of the community does not have money, what it has is food. We do not save up money, we save up food, fuel. We forget that we are not from capitalism, we are community members. (Capitalism) is the system that operates here in Mexico. We are wrapped up in a capitalistic system, and we do not have capital.
Quality… but ‘quality’- what is it? It is to force a plant to
CONTINUED on PG 34 VOLUME 7
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2013 / 2014 NEWSLETTER
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ANTHROPOLOGY
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