Community Autonomy and the Maya ICBG Project in Chiapas, Mexico: How a Bioprospecting Project that Should Have Succeeded Failed

Human Organization, Winter 2004 by Berlin, Brent, Berlin, Elois Ann

Implementation of Research on Medical Ethnobiology

The initial focus of the medical ethnobiology section was to be on the most important medicinal plant species commonly used in the treatment of the most significant health conditions, as determined from earlier research on Maya health and healing (Berlin and Berlin 1994; Berlin and Berlin 1996; Berlin and Jara Astorga 1993). Documentation of Maya ethnoformulary focused on precise extract preparation according to traditional procedures, with attention to informant variation that might prove relevant for future bioassay assessment.

A major goal of AP 2 was the production of extracts used in the treatment of health conditions in each of the 12 most significant therapeutic areas recognized in Maya cthnomcdicine:

1. gastrointestinal diseases, including general diarrhea, bloody and tnucoid diarrhea, abdominal pain, epigastric pain, and intestinal parasites;

2. respiratory conditions such as coughs, croup, and tuberculosis;

3. inflammations of the nose, ears, and throat;

4. dermatological infections such as skin eruptions, boils, carbuncles, ulcers, topical "cancers" that do not heal normally, and skin dispigmentation;

5. wounds resulting from accidental injuries and violent acts;

6. pain and inflammation due to broken bones, sprains, bruises, and painful joints;

7. fevers, chills and fevers, and fevers thought to be malaria;

8. serious infections of the mouth, gums, and tongue, including teeth abscesses;

9. eye infections;

10. mental disorders such as dizziness, disorientation, conditions often accompanied by convulsions, seizures, and extreme agitation;

11. fertility regulation (contraception, abortion), general obstetrics, and gynccology (pregnancy, childbirth, hemorrhaging due to childbirth, menstrual problems); and

12. urinary disorders such as anuria, polyuria, and infections.

Our initial results revealed Maya herbal remedies to be complex, often involving a number of species that undergo several forms of preparation and administration.12 Medicinal preparations were to be documented in a series of steps to ensure systematic identification of all required procedures. Following the verbal description, collaborators were to be videotaped as they worked through the actual preparation.13

Finally, as part of our outreach activities related to Maya health, AP 2 produced a bilingual Tzeltal-Spanish basic health manual that includes most of the major medicinal species and their methods of preparation and administration relevant to their associated health conditions (sec Berlin et al. 2000). Other health manuals were being produced which would have been distributed in each municipality, all written in the appropriate dialect of each Maya language.

Implementation of the Ethnobotanical Survey

The second major aim of AP 2 was to mount a broad general botanical survey of the vascular plants of the study area, leading ultimately to a comprehensive ethnoflora of the Highlands. The plan was to carry out this survey in each of the 28 municipalities of the Chiapas Central Plateau and Northern Highlands, an area representing approximately 16,000 square kilometers. Initial surveys were begun in four of these targeted municipalities prior to the termination of the project.l4 By the end of October 1999, more than 7,000 herbarium collections (in sets of seven) had been made and deposited in the ECOSUR herbarium, where they are currently housed.