Nora Haenn

In this paper, we examine how Mexico's 1992 counter-reforms reinforced social hierarchies between two 'classes' of residents within three ejidos in an agricultural frontier in Campeche. We carried out qualitative research with 94 ejidatarios, 92 pobladores and 13 government officials. Our research shows that the reforms cemented the second-class status of pobladores, as their access to land, natural resources such as firewood and governmental subsidies is now even more contested. Ejidal residents have responded to these tensions by invoking various conceptions of citizenship to press for different forms of justice. Ejidatarios seek to enforce their legal prerogatives by advocating a tiered citizenship, inflected with aspects of 'market citizenship', in which pobladores have less access to resources and voice. Pobladores seek inclusion in the ejido via a cultural model of citizenship built around a 'civil sociality'. Despite this generalization, both groups also selectively move between and combine these citizenship frameworks to advance their claims.

We explore how Oportunidades, Mexico's anti-poverty conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, impacts production and gender dynamics in the smallholder agricultural sector. A 2010 household survey in one southeastern municipality (Calakmul) captured data on Oportunidades receipt, land use and yields, as well as gendered patterns of asset control, decision-making, labor, and income receipt. Our analysis suggests that households with Oportunidades are more likely to engage in semi-subsistence maize cultivation and on average harvest more maize. Thus Oportunidades appears to support semi-subsistence production. We also document persistent gender gaps in land control, decision-making, labor, and income receipt. Nonetheless, we find that households with Oportunidades have on average smaller gaps of particular kinds: women receiving Oportunidades are more likely to hold de jure land rights and to share in income receipt from four main crops. These effects of Oportunidades on gendered smallholder production dynamics are important ones in smallholder women's lives.

Ecosystem management regularly requires bridging diverse cultural perspectives. As a result, researchers commonly assert that including local ecological knowledge in conservation strategies is essential to crafting enduring environmental solutions. Using the case of the king vulture (Sarcoramphus papa), we take preliminary steps in asking how ethnoecology and field biology might be combined in conservation practice. The paper reports on a questionnaire applied to sixty-six local experts in southern Yucatán, home to Mexico’s largest expanse of tropical forest and the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. Local experts included forest workers, i.e. hunters, loggers, and gum tappers, some of whom worked as guides for field biologists. The research results point to the possibility of a cultural consensus among these experts regarding the bird’s natural history. After outlining this preliminary consensus and contrasting it with academic findings, the paper considers the implications of a consensus...

This paper argues that conservation and society research employs a social drama framework that presumes, rather than questions, identity boundaries between conservation actors. This framework describes three competing groups: local residents, government elites, and international actors. The paper counters this narrative by relating the history of conservationists' careers in southern Mexico, where the boundaries between middle-class conservationists and noncapitalist peasants are quite porous. Drawing on theories of identity formation and self-presentation, the paper indicates how conservation structures insist on the repudiation of similarities between conservation employees and subject populations. Cultural sharing between conservationists and peasants takes place over time at offstage and backstage sites. As such, these processes are less visible in social drama narratives focused, synchron-ically, on disputes. The paper uses these findings to reconsider two central claims in conservation and society research , that is, conservation as an imposition of elite prerogatives and conservation's support for capitalist exploitation of natural resources.

This paper examines the political ecology of a participatory environmental management setting. It argues the failure of participatory forums to meet their goals reveals more generalized features of the state, namely its fractured quality and inconsistent actions. Thus, rather than premise questions of how participatory forums might be more effective, researchers should first consider what cleavages and inconsistencies in the state that participatory forums reveal. How do the various actors involved negotiate these cleavages and inconsistencies? The paper explores disputes surrounding the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina, USA. The argument centers on whether or not off-road vehicles might access the Seashore. Parties to the dispute have lobbied elected representatives, participated in a public forum, enacted litigation, and carried out campaigns of public admonishment. While using one part of the state to counteract the actions of another, supporters of off-road vehicles proffer a moral assessment which contrasts "gentlemen-type rules" with "backroom deals". The paper argues this rhetoric acts as a kind of cultural script that people use to corral heterogeneous state institutions into a single discursive framework that premises the kind of face-to-face relations where they are more likely to achieve their goals.

Cet article examine l'écologie politique d'un cadre de gestion participative de l'environnement. Il soutient l'échec d'un tel forum participative à atteint ses objectifs révèle quelques caractéristiques plus générales de l'Etat, c'est-à-sa qualité fracturé et des actions incompatibles. Ainsi, plutôt que de se concentrer sur la façon dont des forums participatifs pourraient être plus efficaces, les chercheurs doivent d'abord examiner ce que les clivages et les incohérences dans l'état et révélés par des forums participatifs. Comment les différents acteurs concernés négocient ces clivages et des incohérences? Le document explore les conflits autour de la National Seashore Cape Hatteras, en Caroline du Nord, États-Unis. Le conflit est centrée sur si les véhicules 4x4 peuvent accéder au bord de la mer et longer la plage dans une écologie fragile. Les participants ont fait pression sur les élus, ont participé à un forum public, allé au tribunal, et mené des campagnes de réprimande publique. Tout en utilisant une partie de l'Etat pour contrer les actions d'une autre, les partisans de l'accès des véhicules 4x4 donnent une évaluation morale qui contraste «'gentlemen' règles» par «offres de coulisses». L'article fait valoir que cette rhétorique agit comme une sorte de scénario culturelle que les gens utilisent pour encercler institutions hétérogènes de l'Etat dans un cadre discursif unique. Cela empêche le genre de relations en face-à-face où ils sont plus susceptibles d'atteindre leurs objectifs.

El presente trabajo examina la ecología política de un modelo particular de manejo medioambiental participativo, y argumenta que el fracaso de este foro pone en evidencia rasgos más generalizados de los gobiernos estatales, tales como: lo fragmentado de su carácter y lo inconsistente de sus acciones. Así, en vez de proponer preguntas sobre cómo los foros participativos pudieran ser más efectivos, los investigadores deben considerar en primera instancia el significado de las divisiones e inconsistencias encontradas en estos. ¿Cómo negocian estas divisiones e inconsistencias los múltiples actores involucrados? Este estudio desarrolla su afirmación explorando las querellas en torno al área protegida de Cape Hatteras en Carolina de Norte, EEUU. Las mencionadas disputas se centran en si tienen derecho, o no lo tienen, los vehículos automotores para transitar en la playa. Los grupos en disputa han ejercido presión sobre sus representantes estatales, han participado en foros públicos, han entablado demandas y han adelantado campañas públicas de escarmiento. Al enfrentar sectores estatales unos contra otros, quienes apoyan la causa para que los vehículos operen en la playa esgrimen un argumento moralista, en el que se contrastan las "reglas de caballerosidad" con los "acuerdos a puerta cerrada". El estudio argumenta que esta retórica hace las veces de un guion cultural que le permite a la gente agrupar diferentes instituciones estatales bajo un mismo marco discursivo, en el que presuponen el tipo de relaciones cara a cara donde ellos pudiesen tener una mayor oportunidad para lograr sus objetivos.

In this paper, we examine how Mexico’s 1992 counter-reforms reinforced social hierarchies between two ‘classes’ of residents within three ejidos in an agricultural frontier in
Campeche.We carried out qualitative research with 94 ejidatarios, 92 pobladores and 13 government officials. Our research shows that the reforms cemented the second-class
status of pobladores, as their access to land, natural resources such as firewood and governmental subsidies is now even more contested. Ejidal residents have responded to
these tensions by invoking various conceptions of citizenship to press for different forms of justice. Ejidatarios seek to enforce their legal prerogatives by advocating a tiered citizenship, inflected with aspects of ‘market citizenship’, in which pobladores have less access to resources and voice. Pobladores seek inclusion in the ejido via a cultural model of citizenship built around a ‘civil sociality’. Despite this generalization, both groups also selectively move between and combine these citizenship frameworks to advance their claims.

Ecosystem management regularly requires bridging diverse cultural perspectives. As a result, researchers commonly assert that including local ecological knowledge in conservation strategies is essential to crafting enduring environmental solutions. Using the case of the king vulture (Sarcoramphus papa), we take preliminary steps in asking how ethnoecology and field biology might be combined in conservation practice. The paper reports on a questionnaire applied to sixty-six local experts in southern Yucatán, home to Mexico’s largest expanse of tropical forest and the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. Local experts included forest workers, i.e. hunters, loggers, and gum tappers, some of whom worked as guides for field biologists. The research results point to the possibility of a cultural consensus among these experts regarding the bird’s natural history. After outlining this preliminary consensus and contrasting it with academic findings, the paper considers the implications of a consensus for conservation programming.

We describe conservation built on local expertise such that it constitutes a hybrid form of traditional and bureaucratic knowledge. Researchers regularly ask how local knowledge might be applied to programs linked to protected areas. By examining the production of conservation knowledge in southern Mexico, we assert local expertise is already central to conservation. However, bureaucratic norms and social identity differences between lay experts and conservation practitioners prevent the public valuing of traditional
knowledge. We make this point by contrasting 2 examples. The first is a master’s thesis survey of local experts regarding the biology of the King Vulture (Sarcoramphus papa) in which data collection took place in communities adjacent to the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. The second is a workshop sponsored by the same reserve that instructed farmers on how to monitor endangered species, including the King Vulture. In both examples, conservation knowledge would not have existed without traditional knowledge. In both
examples, this traditional knowledge is absent from scientific reporting. On the basis of these findings, we suggest conservation outcomes may be improved by recognizing the knowledge contributions local experts already make to conservation programming.

This introduction situates Mexico in the research on conservation and society, illustrating some nuances and
characteristics of the Mexican model of biodiversity conservation in relation to neoliberal economic development
and state formation. The paper critiques the way neoliberalism has become a common framework to understand conservation’s social practices. Drawing on the ethnographies collected in this special section, the paper considers the importance of state formation and disorganised neoliberalism as intertwined phenomena that explain conservation outcomes. This approach lends itself to the papers’ ethnographic descriptions that demonstrate a
particular Mexican form of conservation that sits alongside a globalised biodiversity conservation apparatus. The
introduction presents some additional analytical interpretations: 1) conservation strategies rooted in profit-driven models are precarious; 2) empirical cases show the expansion of both state structures and capitalist markets via
conservation; and 3) non-capitalist approaches to conservation merit greater consideration.

Overintensification and subsidies have long
made American commodity farmers the enemy of conservationists. Yet, environmental conditions are improving in the Mississippi Delta where farmer-based groups, water management districts and conservation organizations have improved environmental quality and redefined the role of agriculture in environmental preservation. This work is all the more remarkable given the region’s deeply conservative politics that discourage regulation. This paper examines this mainstreaming of environmental values in light of debates
on the role of the state in fostering environmental
subjectivities. Following cultural examinations of the state,
we caution that the presence or retreat of the state is
insufficient to understanding environmental subjectivities.
Instead, an ethnographic focus is necessary to identify
connections between the state and particular human environment relations. In the Delta, this focus shows that
local environmentalism is consonant with a politics of
unsustainability, one that simultaneously advances radical
ecological change and defense of the region’s social
hierarchies.

The Environment in Anthropology presents ecology and current environmental studies from an anthropological point of view. From the classics to the most current scholarship, this text connects the theory and practice in environment and anthropology, providing readers with a strong intellectual foundation as well as offering practical tools for solving environmental problems.

Haenn, Wilk, and Harnish pose the most urgent questions of environmental protection: How are environmental problems mediated by cultural values? What are the environmental effects of urbanization? When do environmentalists’ goals and actions conflict with those of indigenous peoples? How can we assess the impact of “environmentally correct” businesses? They also cover the fundamental topics of population growth, large scale development, biodiversity conservation, sustainable environmental management, indigenous groups, consumption, and globalization.

This revised edition addresses new topics such as water, toxic waste, neoliberalism, environmental history, environmental activism, and REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), and it situates anthropology in the multi-disciplinary field of environmental research. It also offers readers a guide for developing their own plan for environmental action. This volume offers an introduction to the breadth of ecological and environmental anthropology as well as to its historical trends and current developments. Balancing landmark essays with cutting-edge scholarship, bridging theory and practice, and offering suggestions for further reading and new directions for research, The Environment in Anthropology continues to provide the ideal introduction to a burgeoning field.

This introduction situates Mexico in the research on conservation and society, illustrating some nuances and
characteristics of the Mexican model of biodiversity conservation in relation to neoliberal economic development
and state formation. The paper critiques the way neoliberalism has become a common framework to understand
conservation’s social practices. Drawing on the ethnographies collected in this special section, the paper considers
the importance of state formation and disorganised neoliberalism as intertwined phenomena that explain
conservation outcomes. This approach lends itself to the papers’ ethnographic descriptions that demonstrate a
particular Mexican form of conservation that sits alongside a globalised biodiversity conservation apparatus. The
introduction presents some additional analytical interpretations: 1) conservation strategies rooted in profit-driven
models are precarious; 2) empirical cases show the expansion of both state structures and capitalist markets via
conservation; and 3) non-capitalist approaches to conservation merit greater consideration.