The Preservation of Indigenous Knowledge in Contemporary Mexico in El cultivo del maize en Yojovi by Javier Castellanos

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18113/P8ik159698
Keywords:
ecocritical, Javier Castellanos, Yojovi, corn farmers, testimonies, food sustainability, land resource, corn varieties, cultivation, genetically modified corn crop production, narratives, natural habitats, Western scientific paradigm

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Ida Day
University of South Carolina Upstate

Abstract

The author applies an ecocritical perspective to the study of Javier Castellanos' 1988 monograph of Yojovi corn farmers' testimonies, El cultivo del maíz en Yojovi. The author's ecocritical lens establishes Yojovi rights to determine food sustainability practices and to determine land resource use. In particular, the author examines the conflicts between Yojovi knowledge of corn varieties and their cultivation and the pressure to alter their practices to adhere to genetically modified corn crop production. She also reveals the conflicts between Yojovi narratives that situate humans within their natural habitats and the Western scientific paradigm's narratives that tend to separate humans from the natural world.

Article Details

Issue
IK: Other Ways of Knowing, Vol. 1, no.1
Section
Peer Reviewed

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