Ulises Chávez Jiménez qualanqui@gmail.com Intercultural Ethnobotany: Practices for the recovery of useful Mesoamerican plants in Mexico and Spain Ulises Chávez Jiménez Introduction The project "Intercultural Ethnobotany: Practices for the recovery of useful Mesoamerican plants in Mexico and Spain" is proposed in order to recover and promote the use and cultivation of predetermined plants traditionally used in indigenous societies that inhabited ancient Mexico (Mayan and Aztec). An interdisciplinary approach is required since plant species will be studied, selected and gathered from several manuscripts and documents which date back to the sixteenth century, their current use and location in areas of Mexico and Spain will also be recorded as part of a Mexican and Spanish botanical heritage that represents multiple potentially useful applications for both of the atio ’s i ilia s. The purpose of this project is to recover botanical species in the field, and also for society to acknowledge the implicit practical and cultural value for its transmission and storage. Background: The historical traces of herbalism in Mesoamerica The use of plants by humans dates back millennia because of their multiple useful properties for societies, hence all ancient civilizations (Chinese, Persian, Roman, Egyptian, Arabic, Mayan, Aztec, Inca, etc.), developed important surgical and healing techniques using only plants and their derivatives (Schultes and Hofmann, 2008). In Europe for example, a highlight i this atter is the great ork of De Materia Medi a or medicine materials (Gómez Moreno, 2000), forerunner of the modern pharmacopoeia and written by the physician and botanist Dioscorides. The text describes 600 medicinal plants, 90 minerals and about 30 substances of animal origin. This book was widely spread in the middle Ages in its original Greek and other languages such as Latin and Arabic, and in the sixteenth century was one of the most influential works in the emerging Mesoamerican mestizo botany. In pre-Hispanic Mexico, Mesoamerican societies already had a highly pragmatic knowledge of the use of different plant species for specific diseases. According to historical sources from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, (Ixtlixochitl, chap. 42: 1975) there was a large group of plant-gatherers who roamed the Aztec Empire in search of new botanical species. Moctezuma even showed the Spaniards some of the botanical gardens that existed to provide raw materials for the development of medical formulas (Máynez, 1988). All this pre-Hispanic herbal medicine knowledge was transmitted to European society by the first friars right after the conquest. A highlight is the work compiled by Fray Bernardino de Sahagun (2000), whom in his "Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva España", recorded various aspects from las plantas desta tierra or this la ds' pla ts , su h as edi al, edi le a d appliable. In 1570, King Philip II sent his private doctor, Francisco Hernandez to Mexico with orders to study the indigenous herbology through its natural history. He obtained 22 volumes containing over 700 plants and remedies (Bye and Linares, 1990). But it is the indigenous Martin de la Cruz to whom we owe the largest collection of Aztec plant species and their applications in his Libellus of Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis, translated from Nahuatl to Latin by Juan Badiano, a Xochimilca doctor. This beautiful document, after a turbulent history of shipments to Spain, appeared in 1925 in the Vatican Library. The Codex is a magnificent example of the interculturality between indigenous medical culture of Central Mexico and European formats for the prescription of plants to cure diseases, such as those within the Dioscorides codex. It includes 184 plant species described with Latin glosses of varying length and enriched with original illustrations. It is important to remember that since the nineteenth century, the development of scientific positivism and the imposition of western paradigm established (based on the needs of industrial societies) specific monocultures. This has led to a loss of biodiversity and valuable botanical knowledge, which still Ulises Chávez Jiménez qualanqui@gmail.com exists but whose uses were discontinued due to economic rather than medical or ecological factors. The WHO (World Health Organization, OMS 2001) considers that socially correct policies for global health care, must include not only sustainable use of medicinal plants, but the stimulation of social mechanisms for transmission, hence the need to recover the Historical uses of plants for people, should be a central objective in the environmental policies of the United Nations biodiversity efforts. Herbalism, rescue and conservation from historical sources to the modern Mesoamerican horticulture Herbalism, traditional medicine and domestication processes of native crops, have certainly been closely linked to health, food, culture and economy of ancient Mesoamerican societies. The purpose of the project "Intercultural Ethnobotany: Practice for the recovery of useful Mesoamerican plants in Mexico and Spain" seeks to deal with a very wide problem at various societal levels, not only in Mexico and Spain, but worldwide, now mired in a deep economic crisis. Without the modern knowledge of some historically well-known plants linked to social groups, we face a great loss of biodiversity, so it is important to conduct a study for the establishment of a small botanical garden based on various sixteenth century historical sources (and latter centuries), and build a natural protected area based on concepts taken from pre-Hispanic gardens. The second step of this project includes the promotion of social awareness at a community level to redirect consumer habits towards a self-sustained family economy in households and public areas, involving the same individuals that participate in public campaigns concerning the recycling of organic solid residues for small-scale botany production, and for their own benefit, as an alternative to whatever greater economic capital input they have. In this regard, the project envisages agreements and cooperation within civil society on the urban context of Mexico City, to build and maintain four green-roofs in different locations, and to start the recovery of green areas for horticultural purposes in slum community areas. This will directly benefit the involved sectors, targetting women, school children and economically marginalized groups in some city areas and countryside. The third step is to run self-sustaining culture habits among the participants for maintenance of botanical gardens and green roofs, through the use of composters and safe systems for the handling and disposage of solid and liquid residuals. The fourth step involves the planning and development of free or low cost public courses, for society at large in terms of promoting a self-sustaining culture. It is important to device and prompt easily accessible to all who may be interested, and to create collective networks of socioenvironmental action. The primordial focus is to reduce the lack of free access to public services such as health institutions and cultural centers. 1 Intercultural Ethnobotany is not only an interdisciplinary project, but also synergistic , able to fulfill specific objectives within areas such as environment, pre-Hispanic art, oral tradition, collective memory, social action and health. The objectives of Intercultural Ethnobotany clearly involve and impact on various aspects of the daily lives of the participants. Main Objective By studying, collecting, planting and propagating some of the plant species used by pre-Hispanic societies that inhabited Mexico, the recovery and maintenance of a vast and valuable cultural knowledge will be strengthened accompanied by the reintroduction of its pragmatic uses within the current population, implemented through awareness campaigns and workshops on the use of botanical resources from Mesoamerica (Mexico) and Europe (Spain), while benefitting the life quality of the sectors and individuals involved tangibly and fruitfully. 1 Synergy defines the phenomenon where the effect or the influence of two or more agents acting together is greater than the mere action of the agents acting separately (Revees-Clark, 2007: 206) Ulises Chávez Jiménez qualanqui@gmail.com Specific Objectives 1. - Recovery of selected plants used by ancient Mexican societies. • Building of a small native Mexican plant garden (similar to those whose presence has been recorded in the Iberian Peninsula and México), and a temazcal for therapeutic purposes and practices. • Application of organic farming techniques and sustainable organic fertilizers obtained from organic waste, controlled irrigation, and the use of botanical by-products for livestock forage. • “eedi g, gro th a d ultipli atio of seeds of sele ted spe ies. • De elop e t of a seed a k a d parti ipatio i ger plas ex ha ge et orks. 2. The promotion of traditional ethnobotanical knowledge of Mesoamerican plants through the research and study of Cultural and Natural History in order to improve human and environmental life quality, by organizing the following courses and workshops: • I dige ous edi i al pla ts i historical sources. • Uses of agi a d ritual pla ts i pre-Hispanic Mexico. • Pre-Hispanic botany in modern Mexico. • Mexi o a d “pai : pla ts that rossed the Atla ti ( o e ti g seas the e related) • Threate ed Pla ts. How shall we face the risk of extinction? • Workshop: Natural re edies for urre t issues: traditio al i dige ous her alis , te az al a d other therapeutic practices. 3.- Setting of "Mesoamerican urban gardens, terraces" in different areas of Mexico and Spain: • “ele tio a d adaptatio of green roof facilities in Mexico and Spain. • “taff trai i g i the a age e t a d ai te a e of the pla ts. • Creation of a social network devoted to share and extend the experience at a community level. • Promotion and encouragement, research and dissemination of knowledge relating common botanical history of Spain and Mexico within a humanist and global daily life perspective. Methodology By researching and studying the written historical sources on the matter, the selection of specimens, the search and retrieval of documented specimens and the seeding and propagation of cultivated plants among participants will be defined. As I mentioned above, in order to succeed, the methodology for this project must be interdisciplinary to accurately identify the various elements implicit and explicit in a series of cultural behaviors attributed to botanical resources. This is why this proposal correlates several areas of scientific knowledge (from natural to social sciences), which once interlinked, triggers an impact on different levels, favorable to those involved: Socio-cultural level We address this goal from different perspectives: scientific, with the recovery of some of the most referred plants from historical sources; social, recovering some of their traditional uses that have eroded over time from an anthropological point of view; cultural, where there will be a historical and archaeological vegetable heritage, and; art, since art its expressed in works such as the Libellus... It is contemplated that all this information will be accessible to different target groups considered: women, children enrolled in elementary school, students, researchers from Universities, and the general public. Ulises Chávez Jiménez qualanqui@gmail.com Gender Perspective level The policy of gender equality, with equal participation of men and women has been taken into account in all actions arising from its coordination. Women are one of the main groups of recipients as they are repositories of heritage and traditional knowledge of ancient indigenous herbal knowledge. Environmental perspective level Since the overall goal of this project is to recover useful plants from pre-Hispanic indigenous societies now in disuse, it is necessary to implement management actions, so we have to protect the existing plant populations to minimize factors that could threaten their environment. Economic and financial factor level The development of objectives for this project involve economic benefits for the participants because the creation of the horticulture terraces and green roofs, not only brings benefit to health, but in some cases is also a source of raw materials with applications in different sectors: gourmet, pharmacological, industrial or other, allowing the users not only to have control over the resources on which it intervenes, but to reduce the acquisition cost. Which plants will initially studied? Malinalli Muhlenbergia macroura Xaltomatl Solanum nigrum Nochtli Opuntia spp Chilli Capsicum spp Cempoazuchiltl Tagetes erecta Metl Agave spp Tomatl Physalis ixocarpa Cañabrava Arundo donax Calabaza Cucurbita spp. Estafiate Artemisia ludoviciana Epazotl Chenopodium ambrosioides Tejocotl Crataegus mexicana Ulises Chávez Jiménez qualanqui@gmail.com Bibliography: Bye, Robert y Edelmira Linares. 1990 “Mexican Market Plants of the 16th century. I. Plants recorded in Historia Natural de Nueva España”. Journal of Ethnobiology 10(2) pp151-168. North Texas University Press, Denton. Garibay, Ángel María. 1996 “Introducción” al: Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis. Manuscrito Azteca de 1552 escrito por Martín de la Crúz, y traducido al latín por Juan Badiano. Versión facsimilar traducida al español, con estudios y comentarios por varios autores. FCE-IMSS. México. Gómez Moreno, Ángel. 2000 “La Resurrección del Dioscorides y la Versión Comentada de Laguna” en: CRITICÓN, no. 79, 2000 pp. 107-122. Toulouse Ixtlixochitl, Fernando de Alva. 1975 Obras Completas. Edición de Edmundo O´Gorman 2 vols. Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas. UNAM. México. Máynez, Pilar (Introducción, selección y notas). 1988 La Botánica entre los nahuas y otros estudios de Francisco del Paso y Troncoso. SEP-Colección 100 de México. México. Organización Mundial de la Salud. 2001 Traditional Medicine. Comité Regional de la OMS para la Región del Pacífico Occidental. Cincuenta y dos Sesión, Brunei Darussalam, 10–14 de septiembre de 2001. Agenda Provisional Artículo 13. Manila, Oficina Regional de la OMS para el Pacífico Occidental, 2001(documento de referencia WPR/RC52/7). Reeves Clark, Charlotte 2007 The Synergy of the Commons: Learning and Collective Action in One Case Study Community. Duke University. 2007 Durham, North Carolina. Sahagún, fray Bernardino de 2000 Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva España. Serie de 3 tomos, en su versión íntegra al castellano del códice florentino. Paleografía y estudio introductorio de Alfredo López Austin y Josefina García Quintana. CONACULTA, serie Cien de México. México. Schultes, Richard Evans y Albert Hofmann 2008 Plantas de los Dioses. FCE. México.