Nahuatl Cultural Encyclopedia: Botany and Zoology, Balsas River, Guerrero

Click on image to enlarge.

Collaborations

Since the FAMSI award was given in 2004, fieldwork has been carried out on a continual basis. During the past two years, collaborations have been developed and deepened with various institutions and individuals. This has helped achieve two principal results:

• An extensive inventory of the flora and fauna of the Balsas River Valley (Nahuatl and scientific names [see appendices]).

• A large corpus of digitally recorded and transcribed Nahuatl texts as well as the enrichment of the NLE lexicon with Nahuatl nomenclature and lexicon related to the natural environment.

Click on image to enlarge.

Support for the FAMSI project can be divided into three major groups:

• Granting agencies, which has enabled the project to continue to grow in the direction first contemplated in the FAMSI award.

• Academic institutions and individuals who have collaborated in collection and identification of the ethnobiological materials.

• Indigenous communities, associations, and individuals who have worked as ethnobiological consultants and language documentation experts who have transcribed the recorded texts.

Click on image to enlarge.

Granting Agencies

Since 2004, in addition to FAMSI, the following agencies have supported research and educational efforts in Nahuatl specifically related to Nahuatl ethnobiology.

• National Science Foundation/National Endowment for the Humanities: for Nahuatl language documentation in the state of Guerrero and training of native speakers in this activity. NSF/NEH funds were used to support several botanical expeditions.

• Ford Foundation: for working with indigenous bilingual schoolteachers and communities in promoting language maintenance and revitalization along with the production of Nahuatl materials that will be used in bilingual primary educational schools. Ford Foundation funds were used to establish ethnobotanical collections in the communities of San Miguel Tecuiciapan (in the preparatoria popular) and Atliaca (in the comisaría).

• México: Consejo Nacional para la Ciencia y Tecnología: for support in collecting botanical specimens in the Balsas River Valley in collaboration with the Facultad de Ciencies, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. CONACyT funds were used to mount ethnobotanical exhibitions in three indigenous communities and in supporting botanical field expeditions.

Click on image to enlarge.

Scientific Institutions and Individual Academic Researchers

Particularly important to research for the project Nahuatl Cultural Encyclopedia: Botany and Zoology: Balsas River, Guerrero, has been institutional support for the identification of biological materials collected in the Balsas River Valley. Well over fifty scientists from around the world have helped in the identification of biological specimens. Many belong to the following research institutions (only the most important institutions are listed, individual collaborators at smaller institutions offered significant help as well). A more complete list of collaborators can be viewed on the Nahuatl Learning Environment Website (http://nahuatl.ldc.upenn.edu:  Username: oapan  Password: nahuatl).

For botanical specimens:

Jardín Botánico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (México City)
Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis)
New York Botanical Garden
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
University of Michigan Herbarium (Ann Arbor)

For insect specimens:

Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

For reptile specimens:

Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

For bird specimens:

Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Manuel Grosselet (independent researcher)

Botanical fieldwork yielded at least one new species (Ficus oapana C.C. Berg, named for the village Oapan where the project was centered; in Oapan Nahuatl a:makohtli xihyó:pitsá:wak). There is a possibility that an additional two new plant taxa were also found.

Click on image to enlarge.

Plant specimens now number over 1,200 and animal specimens over 250.  Birds sighted or collected in the region number over 100.  This represents a doubling of the collection over the two years of the FAMSI grant. Specimen identification has proceeded as planned. Only approximately 50 plants have not been identified to genus; the majority of these will be determined in the next few months. Insects have proven to be more problematic, but with the recent collaboration of the Smithsonian Institution Department of Entomology most insects should be identified at least to genus within the next six months. Almost all birds documented to date have been determined to genus and species. Reptiles and fish should be all determined within six months. A full list of flora and fauna collected and determined to date is included in the appendices to this report.

Indigenous Communities, Associations, and Individuals

Botanical collections were first centered in the villages of Oapan, San Juan Tetelcingo, and Ameyaltepec. Subsequently collections were carried out in the additional Balsas River Valley communities of Tlamamacan and San Miguel Tecuiciapan. Outside of the Balsas River Valley collections were made in Tlanicpatla and Atliaca.

Zoological collections have been centered in Oapan. This village has preserved traditional knowledge of the fauna, particularly insect species (e.g., close to twenty recognized and named Orthoptera species [grasshoppers, katydids, crickets]). Bird collecting and watching has been carried out in Oapan, San Miguel Tecuiciapan and Tlamamacan.

Ethnobotanical collections of local flora (professionally mounted as herbarium specimens) have been donated to the Prepa Popular in San Miguel Tecuiciapan and to the Comisaría in Atliaca. In both they will be at the disposition of students and others who wish to preserve tradicional knowledge.

Finally, recent contacts have been made with independent indigenous cultural activists in Chilapa, Guerrero (Tlamachtihkeh San Se: Ohtli Tikahsiskeh A.C.), and in Cuetzalán, Puebla (Taller de Tradición Oral). It is hoped that in the near future a more geographically extensive comparative Nahuatl ethnobiology can be initiated, with these two areas targeted for research on the local flora and fauna and the recording of traditional knowledge in these fields.

Community Outreach

The presentation of ethnobotanical collections of local flora to the indigenous high school in San Miguel Tecuiciapan and the public officials in Atliaca has already been mentioned. In addition an exhibition of plant specimens and photos was mounted in three villages in the Balsas River Valley: San Marcos Oacacingo, Ameyaltepec, and San Agustín Oapan. The exhibit was financed and put together by collaborating researchers and museographers at the Facultad de Ciencias of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Previous Page  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Page

Return to top of page