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El Museo Nacional de Antropologia

The Museo Nacional de Antropologia is an outstanding museum dedicated to pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures and ways of being, situated in the heart of Mexico City in Bosque de Chapultepec. The museum (along with many other Mexican national and regional museums) is managed by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. The mixture of both pre-Hispanic and modern-day indigenous cultures makes the Anthropology museum a beautiful dedication to Mexico and its diverse history.

It is one of my favorite places in the whole of Mexico City and would recommend it to any traveler passing through, even to the locals who live here, it is an incredible place to learn about Mexico’s ancestry. The museum is so full of information to absorb all in one day that I suggest going a few times to fully take in the information. It has a very calm and relaxing atmosphere that makes it an enjoyable place to visit time and time again.

When we went there was an exhibition on the Mayas which introduces the public to the complex culture and belief systems these peoples engaged with. It was also interesting to see the origins of man in the Americas and how they got here, the Poblamiento de America demonstrates how the hemisphere’s earliest settlers got here and survived and prospered in their new environment. There was also an exhibition on the pre-classic period which they say ran from approximately 2300 BC to AD 100 and the transition from a nomadic hunting life to a more settled farming existence in Mexico’s cultural highlands.

I would definitely recommend this museum to everybody, both old and young, if you are curious about Mexico’s vast cultural history then this is the perfect place to learn.

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Syncretism of Religion in Mexico

Since the conquest of the Spanish many centuries ago, Mexico, as well as many other Latin American countries has suffered and been manipulated by syncretic ideologies. To put it simply, syncretism is the ‘unification’, or attempted unification, of religions, cultures, or specific trains of thought. In Mexico’s case the Spanish amalgamated all three, but rather than necessarily unifying cultures and beliefs, it was more of a complete conversion of language, belief system and culture. However, this cannot be done effectively when the previous culture is so strong and big. In this essay I will be exploring the methods in which the Spanish successfully converted a whole continent and the problems this posed. I will also be looking at the notion of syncretism and how it has been criticised and praised within the anthropological community for centuries. To which I as the question “is it really possible for the Latin American Church to transform its historical identity from Colonial oppressor to “equal” endorser and agent for social change, truly conceding self-determination to indigenous peoples?” (3).

For the past century the discourse around the term ‘syncretism’ has been argued both positively and negatively, however, the negative connotations towards this term have dominated anthropological thought on religion for far longer. The discourse looks at two points of view, where on the one hand “syncretism is a pejorative term, one that derides mixture” (1) wherein the amalgamation of cultures and religion and ways of being is a negative and suggests there to be a ‘higher’ culture, one that has the power to impose such drastic changes. On the other hand, “syncretism presupposes “purity” in the traditions that combine” (1) suggesting that the new formation of the unification is one that is pure as it equates to the rebirth of two different entities. However, the contradiction and uncertainty of this term reflects the difficulties and problematics about how to conceptualise cultural mixture, and is for this exact reason that there has been such a drastic dichotomy of understandings between anthropologists and theologists. Initially syncretism was coined with positive attributes and though colonisation and attempted cultural amalgamations developed increasingly negative connotations. “A negative assessment of religious mixture was perhaps to be expected, especially from the catholic church, which was concerned to safeguard the integrity of its doctrine and practice throughout the world.” (1) thus, always assuming a higher culture, or religion or peoples, which is why this negative view of syncretism remained the thought during the period of missionary expansion lasting well into present day. It is for this reason that in the intellectual sphere syncretism became a “term of abuse often applied to castigate colonial local churches that had burst out of the sphere of mission control and begun to “illegitimately” indigenize Christianity instead of properly reproducing the European form of Christianity they had originally offered” (1) so instead of full European conversion there was an in between blend of world views.

So how did the Spanish manage to convert a population of Mexica into Christians, but more importantly how did they understand and accept the syncretic amalgamation of cultures? The missionaries who initially came to central Mexico were Catholic friars, sent over to convert a population.  “The beginning of conversion and indoctrination must be set in 1524, when the so-called “doce franciscanos” arrived in New Spain” (2) They arrived yearly in groups of 12, therefore initially, the ratio of missionaries to potential convert were one to 5 million! The conversion process was completed in 3 steps, these being through; language, architecture, and religion. From these three Mexico’s new amalgamated customs and traditions would emerge.

Firstly, it was the language that the priests focused on changing, this was probably one of the hardest things to convert as the Mexicas all had different languages, therefore it took the clergy several years to learn the native languages and compose dictionaries and grammar books for full comprehension of the Spanish linguistics. Nahuatl for example, a language spoken in the South of the country was a spoken language and utilised a writing system of pictographs, thus converting images and spoken Nahuatl language into letters was a laborious process. It was the children that helped a lot with this process, as the friars played games with the Aztec boys, thus gained trust within the community, and had them teach them the language through body-language.

Conversion through religion was the main method of adaptation, guiding the Mexicas in the basics of Christian faith and in baptizing them into the Catholic church. However, the church law prohibited that they forcibly baptize anyone, but the friars knew that with social pressure they could encourage the converts, especially drawing on the fact that the signs of the times indicated that the end of the world was approaching and that Christianising native peoples was an urgent necessity for their eternal salvation.  Thus, the Aztecs were forbidden to perform human sacrifices, were forced to attend sermons and ostracised if they did not visibly accept the new religion. “Suppressing the most obvious symbols and overt characteristics of the native Indian religion – destruction of temples and idols, elimination of human sacrifice, polygynous practices, and perhaps some changes on religious grounds of social and economic elements such as dress style” (2) completely eradicating such deeply rooted practices in a space of a couple of years. All signs and objects of their previous religions were destroyed, such as; wooden images and codices burned, stones and images were buried beneath crosses, and the religious pyramids were taken down, as they reused the stone to build churches, chapels, and friaries. As the years went on, native specialists sought to participate in the new social order and economic opportunities.

This leads me onto the next step, which is conversion through architecture, many of the ritual processes that the Aztecs used were on big temples, all rituals done out in the open, as there was always a strong connection with their religion to natural forces, such as the sun, the moon etc. Therefore, a biblical model of outdoor Christian worship was projected upon the new believers. The friars acknowledged that despite building churches and generating the proper socio-political climate for imposing Catholic doctrine, ultimately there needed to be a deeper understanding of the native beliefs to find those points of articulation. “The Indians themselves would come to equate many elements of Catholicism with elements in their own religion as to foster social and individual interpretation of ritual and ceremonialism, and eventually the more formal and theological concepts, within the framework of the native religious system.” (2) thus, the process of self-conversion commenced within the native peoples.

In this next section I will be looking at the process of religious syncretism and acculturation as affected in the Tlaxcalan area during the first century and a half after he conquest. I will be specifically looking at Hugo Nutini’s analysis of syncretism and the development of the cult of the patron Saint. The Tlaxcala-Pueblan valley was one of the first regions of the ‘Continental New World’ to be systematically developed for the conversion of its inhabitants. For Nutini the notion of syncretism does not have a standardised meaning, but primarily presents itself in two. The first being the “fusion of religious as well as non-religious traits, complexes of traits, or institutions of two cultural traditions in face-to-face interaction” (2) by this he is suggesting that the reinterpretation of elements from the interacting cultural traditions gives ultimate rise to new entities. Thus, conceiving syncretism as a kind of ‘acculturation’, wherein the elements of interaction have a relatively high degree of initial similarity in structure function and form.  Nutini’s second definition of syncretism is that “concerned with the amalgamation and reinterpretation of religious elements only, and does not necessarily involve the direct confrontation of the entire institutional arrangement of the interacting cultural traditions.” (2) this view of syncretism is mostly acknowledged by Herskovits (4) who never actually specifies the conditions under which syncretism happens or the nature that results in religious entities. However, when identifying the process of amalgamation in the syncretic religious situation of the Tlaxcalan Indians wherein “the resultant religious system is different from the two original interacting systems, because of mutual, albeit often unequal, borrowings and lending’s which are internalised and interpreted according to a process of action and reaction affecting the syncretic situation.” (2) wherein the initial points of identification are structurally and ideologically conceptualised and accepted by the people. Nutini’s explanation of his study of syncretism evidences no suspicion that the term might have pejorative overtones. He merely suggests that there is an analytical conception to syncretism but not that it is necessarily a negative process.  However, it has become apparent that “that syncretism has received positive or negative connotations depending on the regional scholarly tradition within which one must encounter it” (1). Thus, differing within each social and political background when approaching the subject.

In this paragraph I will be looking at Kristin Norget’s paper on “The decolonisation and the politics of syncretism: The Catholic church, indigenous theology and cultural autonomy in Oaxaca”. The notion of ‘indigenous theology’ has been a key focus in the study of syncretism in Mexico. With specific focus on the Southern States of Mexico like Oaxaca, indigenous communities make up 18.3% (3) of Oaxaca’s state population and “roughly a fifth of Mexico’s total indigenous population” (5). The socioeconomic conditions in rural Oaxaca is still dangerous as most of its people are small scale subsistence farmers, which are suffering after the arrival of neo-liberal economic privatisation of land. This new wave of economic oppression leads to an ever growing following of Catholicism. The rising “intersection of a politicised, progressive Catholicism with indigenous spirituality offers unique possibilities for religion to operate in popular and indigenous communities” (3) has been used as a tool of resistance to hegemonic forces of socio-political oppression. This resistance can also be translated as a key contributor to the decolonisation of indigenous culture “in the current struggle for cultural autonomy” (3) therefore the mixture of liberal Catholicism and indigenous popular belief systems and practices leads to a deep political conscience and empowerment within indigenous communities. “The contemporary global context has generated a growing interest in the concrete conditions of decolonisation and post colonialism, and in the apparent reinvigorated role of religion in identity creation and social mobilisation” (3) which catalysed a catholic liberation of indigenous theology thus, implementing a more critical consciousness and fortified indigenous identity.

Another amalgamation that is probably the most prominent in the whole of the syncretic process, is that of the legend of the Virgin of Guadeloupe. According to the legend the virgin appeared before the peasant Juan Diego only 10 years after the Spanish conquest. The symbolism of the Virgin of Guadeloupe can be interpreted from both indigenous and Spanish perspectives. The cultural significance of her image in the whole of Latin America is undeniably strong and forms such an integral part of Mexican Catholicism. Anthropologists have studied the duality of her symbolism since looking at syncretism in Mexico, interestingly this symbolism spoke to both Spanish and indigenous Nahuatl audiences in the 16th century. After researching the name ‘Guadalupe’, this is the Spanish pronunciation of the Nahuatl name Coatlaxopeuh, (7) which was a Mesoamerican fertility goddess. Thus, the symbolism of her image is one that is well known relating together many aspects of culture and history in both Spanish and indigenous cultures. Just as it would have been read as a pictograph in Nahuatl, the image of the Virgin of Guadeloupe is still worshiped through her image. However, it is more than just a picture, for the people that inhabited Mesoamerica, before the Spanish conquest the image and symbolism of this icon encompasses ancient symbols and meanings. These same symbols and meanings were used and projected through a relatable figure by the Spanish to convert a whole nation of people into a new religion.  The story of the Virgin of Guadeloupe aided in the change of an entire belief system as she was a relatable figure, in fact her legend is still an ever-present image in the Mexico of today, every street corner and church will have her image, a clear projection of the Conquest that happened centuries ago.

In conclusion, the popular Church’s presence within indigenous communities calls for a more politically engaged and relevant Catholic popular faith, which has been a problem that has existed since the days of colonisation. Meaning that the problems given by the historical position of the Mexican church as the agent of “official knowledge” is still something that needs to be addressed within the greater cultural Context of Mexico. The evangelisation and conversion of a nation “involved the imposition of a Eurocentric view upon the indigenous, but also the “hybridisation” of this view as the spiritual colonisers adapted Catholic religiosity to encompass non-Western populations, and indigenous people interpreted Christianity according to their only cultural frameworks” (6) thus bringing me to my initial question, is it possible for the Mexican Catholic church to endorse social change in order to encompass the beliefs of the indigenous population? I believe that how the progressive church steers itself in the way of social reforms is an interesting question and requires a certain level of commitment and imagination from the religious entities in Mexico to divorce themselves from the institutional church even more, so that they are able to engage in equal dialogue seriously and reverse they syncretic process into a positive one.

 Bibliography

Stewart, Charles. "Syncretism and its synonyms: Reflections on cultural mixture." Diacritics 29, no. 3 (1999): 40-62. (1)

Nutini, Hugo G. "Syncretism and acculturation: The historical development of the cult of the patron saint in Tlaxcala, Mexico (1519-1670)." Ethnology 15, no. 3 (1976): 301-321. (2)

Norget, Kristin. "Decolonization and the Politics of Syncretism: The Catholic Church, Indigenous Theology and Cultural Autonomy in Oaxaca, Mexico." International Education 37, no. 1 (2007): 78. (3)

Herskovits, Melville J. "African gods and Catholic saints in New World Negro belief." American Anthropologist 39, no. 4 (1937): 635-643. (4)

Fox, J. (1999, Spring). Mexico’s indigenous population. Cultural Survival Quarterly, 23. (5)

Díaz Balsera, V. (2005). The pyramid under the cross: Franciscan discourses of evangelization and

the Nahua Christian subject in sixteenth-century Mexico. Tucson: University of Arizona

Press. (6)

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/the-mestizo-symbolism-beh_n_1138090 (7)

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Día de Muertos

Celebrating ‘Día de Muertos’ has been a tradition in Mexico dating back to pre-Hispanic times. It is a celebration wherein children are taught from a young age to respect that life is brief, they learn that there is a circle to life and not to fear death and that they are free to enjoy and appreciate every moment. The day of the dead is predominantly celebrated on the 1st and 2nd November, however, celebrations and preparations start on the 28th October and carry on all the way through to the 2nd November. The tradition focuses on celebrating and remembering friends and family who have passed away. One of the most important elements of Día de Muertos is the altar, elaborate constructions that are usually created inside people’s homes, combining pagan and religious imagery as well as photos of the deceased and samples of their favourite items.

In Mexico there is a tradition of visiting graveyards on the first and second of November, since graveyards are publicly owned or managed by local churches, it is up to the families of the deceased to maintain the graves. Families take these days as an opportunity to visit them and often decorate the graves with candles, flowers, favourite foods, and drink.  Families gather round the graves as they visit, eat, sing, and tell favourite stories of those who have passed.

In European cultures, there is not a specific day dedicated to those friends and family who have passed away as a day of remembrance. Typically, the funeral of the person is the only time when we remember the life of the deceased and what kind of person they were, in British culture there is the ceremony as a means of physically saying goodbye to the person, and after we have a ‘wake’ which is a form of celebration where there is food and drink to remember the person’s life as a happy thing. Then the person is remembered annually on the anniversary of their death, individual families have a small celebration, but it is usually a sad and mournful day.

I personally think it is beautiful to have a day dedicated solely to the remembrance of family members who have passed away, it teaches you not to fear death and that you will always be remembered and taken care of, even when your soul parts this earth. This celebration also reinforces present day families to their ancestors which I think is very important in understanding the history of one’s own family. This celebration is so highly representative of Mexican culture, which is an incredible amalgamation of traditional indigenous beliefs and customs combined with elements of European Traditions.

As it was my first Día de Muertos I went with a  few Mexican friends to a town in the south of the city called Mixquic on the  1st November when the festivities began! The streets were lined  with papel picado, stalls selling flowers, food, and small trinkets of skulls  and other little items. There was a happy and joyous air surrounding the town  as people were singing and enjoying themselves to start the celebration! As  we wandered through the lantern lit streets, lined with cempazuchitl flowers  and the clouds of burning copal engulfed us, we were invited into many homes  to view and appreciate their beautiful offrendas and the time and effort  people had put in to remember their loved ones. The “altares” although all  different shared certain similarities, they all had various levels that symbolise  different things, traditionally there are supposed to be seven, but we saw  ones that had no more than just two or three! Altars with three levels  represent the earth, the sky, and the underworld, which relates to the Aztec belief  system, however after European conquest this meaning changed. The most common  and traditional is for it to have 7 levels, a symbolism to the seven levels  the soul must cross before reaching heaven or hell, Christian symbolism also  relating to the seven deadly sins.

All the offrendas we saw had candles placed around  the altar so that the souls can find their way home, many of them also had papel  picado which is tissue paper in different colours made into intricate  designs, a representation of the union between life and death. Of course, all  the offrendas were spilling with food of all different types, banquets of the  deceased’s favourite food and drinks are placed as an offering, each very  specific to the likes of the returning family member. Burning copal is placed  to purify the souls of the dead and ward off evil spirits. One of the  offrendas I saw had salt on a plate, I was curious about this so I asked the  woman who lived in the house and she told me that the salt is there as to  stop the souls of the dead being corrupted by earthly temptations.

Flowers are not just a beautiful visual addition to the  altar, a typical flower of dia de Muertos is the cempazuchitl these are placed  all around the altar but also the petals are laid on the floor as a pathway  to guide the spirts into the mortal, world. My favourite part about going to  Mixquic was speaking to all he individual people and asking them about who  these offrendas were for and some even told me funny stories about their loved  ones.

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Poverty and Inequality in Mexico

Mexico is one of the 14 richest countries in the world and has a population of 127.5 million people, yet 53 million of these people are living in complete poverty, with no health care, very little income, and an inability to provide fully for their families. When I first came to Mexico the contrast between the social classes was the most evident, especially in the Colonia of Santa Fe where some of these pictures were taken, I remember my first journey into the area and being upset by the clear division of socioeconomic statuses.

As I considered this further I became aware that one of he most serious aspects of inequality is unbalance income distribution. A name that is repeatedly used is that of Carlos Slim, Telcel’s originator. He is the richest man in Mexico and the second richest man in the world, economists have estimated that 5percent of his income could cover the cost of 2 million workers at the minimum wage. How can it be possible that 1% of the population has 43% of the country’s wealth?

The global charity Oxfam are part of an international campaign against inequalities in Mexico and focus on the excessive influence of economic and private powers in public policies and how Mexico’s congress can address these issues of inequality. They believe that to lessen the inequality it is necessary to prioritise public spending on education, health care and other basic services across the country.

I also noticed that there is extreme inequality within indigenous communities, especially as indigenous poverty happens at a rate four times the national average. I found that 72% of the Indigenous population in Mexico live in extreme poverty and experience marginalization, despite the Mexican government passing an anti-discrimination law in 2003 where any form of racial discrimination made against indigenous people would be illegal. Yet these people continue to be disadvantaged and vulnerable and are the most susceptible to the inequalities here in Mexico.

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19.09.2017

On Thursday the 19th September 1985 Mexico City witnessed its worst earthquake to date, with a magnitude of 8.0 destroying the city and embedding a fear deep within its survivors. Little did we know that exactly 32 years later another national tragedy would strike again, instilling the same fear it did 32 years prior. 

On Tuesday the 19th September 2017 Mexico was struck by a 7.1 earthquake, the second of three that month, leaving 300 deaths across the country. It was a matter of minutes before thousands of civilian volunteers, police, and military services worked together, at times with their bare hands, to uncover survivors. 

I felt so much pride in watching strangers come together and help in times of need. People were donating everything, from clothes, food and water, sanitary products, and medicines to their own blood to give aid wherever possible. Volunteers helping other volunteers keep their strength and spirits high, local bakeries making sandwiches and handing them out to other volunteers.

It was in this moment that I got a glimpse of the true Mexico, not that dangerous, drug infested country that is negatively portrayed in the media, especially with the rise of the right wing in U.S. Instead I witnessed a country of people who have the kindest spirits and most open hearts, a people who cannot rely on its government for immediate help but turn to each other to make a change. Work sites became centers for aid, parks filled with donations for those who had been affected all over Mexico City and surrounding areas. Much of the effort continues, especially in rural communities.

A couple of friends and I helped as much as possible, we joined lines of people transporting water, food and other donations to different collection centers around the city. One day we even volunteered with the Architects in the city organizing files of buildings that either had to be taken down completely or had repairs to be done. I am, to this day, filled with so much respect for all of those who helped, old and young, people of all social classes came together.

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Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares: Coyoacan

We visited the Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares in the nearby colony of Coyoacan. The beautiful photographs and history of corn show the integral part this plant plays in the story of Mexico and its diverse cultures. Mexico is one of the twelve Megadiverse countries that exist in the world! Out of those twelve countries, it comes 5th in is standing of biodiversity, this is due to the varying ecosystem Mexico holds, such as; jungles, deserts, coasts, forests, mountain ranges, temperate climate valleys, and semi-arid areas.

 It is estimated that there are 7.000 varieties of plants that have been domesticated here in Mexico.  Maize, also known as corn, is a large grain plant first domesticated by indigenous peoples in Southern Mexico almost 10,000 years ago. It has become a key source of food primarily in Mexico but also in many parts of the world!

Throughout Mesoamerica, The Olmec and Maya civilizations cultivated an extensive variety of Maize which is why there are now over 30 different types of corn. They cooked, ground, and processed it through ‘nixtamalization’ which was a process that spread throughout the whole of the Americas in the consumption of corn. The region developed a strong trading system based on surplus and varieties of maize crops.

Many studies show that, rather than the multiple domestications of maize by independent communities, all maize arose from a single domestication in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago. It is believed that some of the oldest surviving maize types derive from the Mexican highlands and that in the latter years it spread to the rest of the Americas. Thus, suggesting that maize diversified in the highlands of Mexico before spreading to the lowlands.

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Embrace of the Serpent Analysis

The ‘Embrace of the Serpent’ is a film directed by Colombian director Ciro Guerra, and was nominated for best foreign language film. This film was inspired by the diaries of two explorers, Theodore Cocklumbergh and Richard Evans Schultz who separately made expeditions into the Colombian Amazon searching for the same thing both times. The film presents the life of Karmamakate in two different periods of his life, it is an interesting point of view as it is narrated through the perspective of the indigenous. (e.g. the struggles he faces in trying to remember how to eat cocoa- cannot remember his past because his tribe died out).

It is a perspective where the indigenous is not being exoticised or orientalized as most narratives of indigenous cultures do, as we see the white man invading indigenous territory, particularly as it reached a Western audience. Guerra artistically highlights the notion that the practice and use of traditional or indigenous knowledge provides a rich source of interacting with the natural world. It also helps Western audiences to gain a fresh perspective on the ever-present bond between humans and nature.

Since the beginning of all invasions from the ‘Western World,’ it has been mandatory that “the traditional knowledge and territories of indigenous peoples have been exploited and oppressed.” (1) this is made evident in the film when the explorers infiltrate indigenous lands and take what they please from nature. I believe that all nature is essentially ‘free land’, cultivated by the people that live on it, thus in theory giving them some sort of spiritual and unspoken right to the land. However, in the film we see two people from the western world come and assume that they can take exactly what they want and do with it what they please which is common amongst, rubber exploiters, missionaries and scientists imposing a certain worldview with a singular “universal truth” wherein traditional knowledge is dismissed and deemed unreliable because it cannot be falsified.

Guerra beautifully captures the essence of Indigenous knowledge and practices and the way they are linked to nature and the natural world. As we see in the film, an integral part of Indigenous social and cultural identity is the ability to create systems to manage the environment. “At the same time, their knowledge embodies a wealth of wisdom and experience of nature gained over millennia from direct observations, and transmitted—most often orally—over generations.” (1) we see a lot of the traditional knowledge shared by Karmamakate as his younger self, and the tribe that the first, German explorer encounters. Participating in traditional rituals, learning, and observing, yet always imposing a ‘Western’ point of view in his research. This is similar to the ethnographic work of Bronislaw Malinowski, and his observations of the Archipelagoes od Melanesian New Guinea (1922).

In the film, we see many of the cultural and environmental consequences of colonization, but I think it is important to first analyse the term of traditional knowledge. For example, in naming the concept “traditional knowledge” there is a great emphasis on the “transmission of knowledge along a cultural continuity,” (3) however the idea that these ‘traditional societies’ have the ability to adapt and change is often ignored. In this day and age ‘Western’ science interprets traditional knowledge as “a cumulative body of knowledge, practices and representations that describes the relationships of living beings with one another and with their physical environment” (3) which has evolved and been adapted over the years, a knowledge that has been passed through the generations through oral means and shared practices. However, the implications of colonisation run heavily throughout the film as we see the rubber exploiters make the local people become integrated into the production of rubber extraction when prior to Colonisation it was not a form of labour. This change in the social and cultural values of a community was carried out by a repeated action of exploitation. This has been the effect of colonisation worldwide.

The film highlights the importance of traditional knowledge in order to preserve and protect biodiversity and triumph in sustainable development. There is currently and international up rise in the need to “respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity….” (2) thus, a change in the way people used to view “the other” is slowly changing and we are progressing.

   References

(Fulvio Mazzocchi) (2006) Western science and traditional knowledge: Despite their variations, different forms of knowledge can learn from each other (1)

United Nations (1992) Convention on Biological Diversity (with Annexes). No 30619. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: United Nations (2)

Berkes F, Colding J, Folke C (2000) Rediscovery of traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management. Ecol Appl 10: 1251–1262 (3)

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Teotihuacán

If I can recommend anywhere in Mexico City to get a true sense of a pre-Hispanic civilisation it would be Teotihuacán. This ancient archeological site is spread over 20km and was once one of Mesoamerica’s greatest cities. Many other ancient peoples migrated to Teotihuacán, creating a multi-ethnic civilisation which was reflected in its grid-like layout. The city was divided into quarters by two great avenues, one of which is the famous Calzada de Muertos, this can be literally translated to as the ‘Avenue of the Dead’. This avenue got its name because the Aztec’s believed that the great buildings were great tombs built for important Teotihuacán rulers.

The two major buildings in Teotihuacán are the two pyramids that stand tall amidst the ruins. The Pirámide del Sol, this sits on the East side of the Calzada de Muertos the pyramid was believed to be dedicated to the sun god, and the Pirámide de la Luna which is smaller than the pyramid of the sun but sits at the north end of the Avenue of the dead. In modern-day Teotihuacán, the Calzada de Muertos is used as selling grounds for local people who sell their craftsmanship and handwork to wandering tourists.

Teotihuacán also holds grounds that are rich in biocultural diversity, from local flowers to big sprawling pine trees to the common prickly pear plant, these sweet fruits give us an indication of some of the food this ancient group of people used to make use of. Teotihuacán is also a ground where many wild dogs have remained, they lived alongside the Teotihuacán people.

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Visiting Xochimilco

Before visiting Xochimilco I did a little research and noticed that much of the information I found was aimed at offering tourists, both national and international, the opportunity to experience ‘true Mexican culture’ or a Westernised version of Mexican culture. Boat rides consisted of one to two-hour journeys through the ancient canals, including packages with food, beer, and mariachi bands, to take you on a sensory experience of Mexico. The colorful boats set against the natural scenery create a picturesque landscape, and many take Xochimilco at face value and simply for its aesthetic.

However, when I went my friends we decided not to go and visit the touristy part of Xochimilco but the ancient tour of the canals, where we still see remnants of the city’s pre-Hispanic legacy. We see this through the chinampas, these are raised sections of fertile land built over the water where indigenous inhabitants used to grow their food. This fertile land is a modern example of Aztec hegemony and their ingenious farming skills as the ‘floating gardens’ are still used today to cultivate crops for agriculture, but also as trading canals between the different sections of land by the inhabitants of Xochimilco, which was also something the Aztecs made use of.

The way these ‘floating gardens’ were created is one of the most ingenious methods of agriculture, proving that the Aztec’s were very advanced for their time. Trees were planted to create a barrier between the land and water, they then piled up vegetation and mud in the shallow waters many times to create a base for the crops to grow. Eventually, this creates an extra section of land, which is very fertile allowing crops to grow with ease.

Another thing that I noticed was the amount of wildlife that still inhabits the canals at Xochimilco, we saw a variety of birds, insects, and reptiles. All a clear indicator of the biodiversity that still surrounds that area.