Speaker: Gabriel G. Roman - Université libre de Bruxelles / EHESS
Date: 3 December 2023 - 14.00 – 18.00
Venue: Institution / Country Auditorio Municipal – Tamazulápam del Espíritu Santo Mixe / Oaxaca, Mexico

Native maize and Mixe women’s agricultural knowledge

Abstract

The cultivation of native maize has traditionally been a main activity for inhabitants of Tamazulapam del Espíritu Santo. Although the intensification of migration processes has affected the centrality of agricultural in people’s lives and decreased its popularity among the youth, multiple women, señoras and abuelas, keep cultivating every year. They carefully safeguard their knowledge and seeds. This presentation intends to describe some of my experiences, a foreign (non-Mixe, ëkäts) researcher, as I learn from the important work of Mixe women who cultivate. I also introduce the collaborative maize glossary, created with the Instáncia de la Mujer, which had as one of its main goals to bring attention to local women’s labor and its importance for agricultural and linguistic revitalization.