Title Zapotec science : farming and food in the Northern Sierra of Oaxaca / Roberto J. González

Edition 1st ed Published Austin : University of Texas Press, ©2001

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 328 pages) : illustrations, maps Contents Conceptual bases of Zapotec farming and foodways -- Locating Talea : geography, history, and cultural contexts -- Craft of the Campesino : measures, implements, and artifacts -- "Maize has a soul" : Rincón Zapotec notions of living matter -- From milpa to tortilla : growing, eating, and exchanging maize -- Sweetness and reciprocity : sugarcane work -- Invention of "traditional" agriculture : the history and meanings of coffee -- Agriculture unbound : cultivating the ground between science traditions Summary "Zapotec Science is a major triumph of ethnographic insights in the understanding of farming practices."--Sustainable Communities Review "This is a superb ethnographic work that can, and should, revolutionize a good deal of anthropology and the philosophy of science ... For anyone interested in Latin American traditional agriculture, it will be a 'must read.'"--Eugene Anderson, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside Zapotec farmers in the northern sierra of Oaxaca, Mexico, are highly successful in providing their families with abundant, nutritious food in an ecologically sustainable fashion, although the premises that guide their agricultural practices would be considered erroneous by the standards of most agronomists and botanists in the United States and Europe. In this book, Roberto Gonzaacute;lez convincingly argues that in fact Zapotec agricultural and dietary theories and practices constitute a valid local science, which has had a reciprocally beneficial relationship with European and United States farming and food systems since the sixteenth century. Gonzaacute;lez bases his analysis upon direct participant observation in the farms and fields of a Zapotec village. By using the ethnographic fieldwork approach, he is able to describe and analyze the rich meanings that campesino families attach to their crops, lands, and animals. Gonzaacute;lez also reviews the history of maize, sugarcane, and coffee cultivation in the Zapotec region to show how campesino farmers have intelligently and scientifically adapted their farming practices to local conditions over the course of centuries. By setting his ethnographic study of the Talea de Castro community within a historical world systems perspective, he also skillfully weighs the local impact of national and global currents ranging from Spanish colonialism to the 1910 Mexican Revolution to NAFTA. At the same time, he shows how, at the turn of the twenty-first century, the sustainable practices of "traditional" subsistence agriculture are beginning to replace the failed, unsustainable techniques of modern industrial farming in some parts of the United States and Europe Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-318) and index Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL English Print version record digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL Subject Zapotec Indians -- Agriculture Zapotec Indians -- Food Traditional farming -- Mexico -- San Miguel Talea de Castro Subsistence economy -- Mexico -- San Miguel Talea de Castro Sustainable development -- Mexico -- San Miguel Talea de Castro TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING -- Agriculture -- Agronomy -- Crop Science. TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING -- Agriculture -- Agronomy -- General. TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING -- Agriculture -- General. Manners and customs Subsistence economy Sustainable development Traditional farming Zapotec Indians -- Agriculture Zapoteken. Landbouw. Voedselgewassen. SUBJECT San Miguel Talea de Castro (Mexico) -- Social life and customs Subject Mexico -- San Miguel Talea de Castro Form Electronic book ISBN 0292796447 9780292796447 029272831X 9780292728318

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