Suchergebnisse

Presents a case study summarising efforts to obtain prior informed consent for a bioprospecting project that the authors led in Chiapas, Mexico, known as the Maya International Cooperative Biodiversity Group. Describes how the research efforts came under attack from local, national and international NGOs. Argues that these NGOs, as part of their unjustified equation of legitimate access to biological resources with what they call bio-piracy, have usurped the rightful authority of local communities to act on their own behalf concerning the use of their own resources - resources that increasingly represent their best entry point into the world economy. Includes a commentary by Philippe Descola, Chair of Anthropology of Nature at the College de France. (Quotes from original text)

This research examines the impact of grassroots organizing at the community level in Chiapas, Mexico, to address problems associated with human rights advocacy & implementation. Traditionally, the nation-state has had the primary responsibility to address issues pertaining to human rights violations & the enforcement of international human rights principles & treaties. Local political struggles & acts of resistance by disenfranchised groups in Mexico offer insight to understand the impact of indigenous & other social movements in furthering human rights. Indigenous populations in the state of Chiapas use local community dispute resolution to contest the inadequacy of the state in responding to the problems that give rise to poverty, lack of human dignity, educational access, racial & ethnic discrimination, lack of political participation in government & the right to equality in economic, social, & political sectors. Drawing from research based on participant observations in Chiapas, Mexico, there is some evidence to suggest that since the 1994 EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army) uprising several micro-level political & social movements have contested the power of the state through symbolic & pragmatic organizing efforts. These groups include, but are not limited to, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), women's groups, & indigenous groups. After the Zapatista uprising, these groups were instrumental in making claims against the state through numerous activities: protests to end the war, the development of NGOs to observe human rights violations, civilian-based Zapatista support groups (base de apoyo), peace camps, & open dialogue with the EZLN. I argue that collective mobilization in local communities serves both symbolic & pragmatic efforts in helping disenfranchised groups empower themselves to address economic, social, & political inequality. Local-level activism has fueled a sense of self-empowerment to change state institutional responses & to involve sectors of civil society domestically & internationally to initiate a proper resolution of issues that are fundamentally related to human rights. 57 References. Adapted from the source document.

In 1998, a 5-year bioprospecting project that came to be known as the Maya ICBG was initiated among the Maya communities of the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. The project was funded by agencies of the US government -- the National Instits of Health, the National Science Foundation, & the US Dept of Agriculture. Project personnel were drawn from a major US university, a federal Mexican research institution, a small British pharmaceutical company, & numerous Maya collaborators. The major aims of the research included drug discovery & pharmaceutical development, medical ethnobiology & floristic inventory, & conservation, sustained harvest, & economic growth. In spite of strong support from local Maya communities & Mexican federal agencies, the project was terminated in its second year due to the actions of local, national, & international nongovernmental organizations, which characterized the project as biopiracy. Major themes in the acrimonious debate that developed concerned the definition of prior informed consent (PIC), local communities' rights to grant PIC, & who should judge whether PIC had been obtained. In this paper, we describe the events leading to the termination of the Maya ICBG & question the motives & methods of certain NGOs in usurping the rights of local communities to act on their own behalf concerning the sustainable use of their own biological resources. 19 References. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractThis research examines the impact of grassroots organizing at the community level in Chiapas, Mexico, to address problems associated with human rights advocacy and implementation. Traditionally, the nation‐state has had the primary responsibility to address issues pertaining to human rights violations and the enforcement of international human rights principles and treaties. Local political struggles and acts of resistance by disenfranchised groups in Mexico offer insight to understand the impact of indigenous and other social movements in furthering human rights. Indigenous populations in the state of Chiapas use local community dispute resolution to contest the inadequacy of the state in responding to the problems that give rise to poverty, lack of human dignity, educational access, racial and ethnic discrimination, lack of political participation in government and the right to equality in economic, social, and political sectors. Drawing from research based on participant observations in Chiapas, Mexico, there is some evidence to suggest that since the 1994 EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army) uprising several micro‐level political and social movements have contested the power of the state through symbolic and pragmatic organizing efforts. These groups include, but are not limited to, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), women's groups, and indigenous groups. After the Zapatista uprising, these groups were instrumental in making claims against the state through numerous activities: protests to end the war, the development of NGOs to observe human rights violations, civilian‐based Zapatista support groups (base de apoyo), peace camps, and open dialogue with the EZLN. I argue that collective mobilization in local communities serves both symbolic and pragmatic efforts in helping disenfranchised groups empower themselves to address economic, social, and political inequality. Local‐level activism has fueled a sense of self‐empowerment to change state institutional responses and to involve sectors of civil society domestically and internationally to initiate a proper resolution of issues that are fundamentally related to human rights.

For most of the century before the 1970s, the Tzotzil-Mayas of highland Chiapas, Mexico, depended for their livelihoods on seasonal migratory labor in the commercial agriculture of Chiapas's lowlands. Whether picking coffee on the plantations of Chiapas's southern coast and mountains or in its northern lowlands, growing corn and beans as sharecroppers and day laborers on the cattle and grain estates of the central, Grijalva Basin, or cutting cane in that same basin, indigenous men from the highlands spent an average of six months a year working outside of their communities to make Chiapas's commercial agriculture among the most prosperous in Mexico. In return, the income they took home made life possible for their households in the densely populated, less fertile "traditional" communities of the highlands. And then beginning in the 1970s, as a result of stagnating commodity prices, rising expenses, and credit and foreign exchange difficulties, Chiapas's plantations began to fail. Over the next two decades, while Chiapas's indigenous population was doubling, the demand for seasonal agricultural laborers actually declined. The result was growing stress on households, communities and the state as a whole. Based on participant observation, demographic and economic surveys, and life histories, this dissertation traces the effects of this stress as it worked its way through Chamula, one of the signal Tzotzil municipios of the Central Highlands. It is divided into three sections. The first characterizes the macroeconomic change in Chiapas from the 1970s through the 1990s and the economic adjustments by households as men and women found new ways of making money to replace what was lost with the decline of agricultural labor. The second traces political change as dissidents in the municipio first combatted the authoritarian, cacique-ruled local government from the eve of the crisis in the 1960s through the 1970s, and then were increasingly drawn into extra-communal economic and political organizations by their new economic activities in the 1980s and 1990s. Finally, the third section describes the extension of migratory labor to the United States beginning in 2000, and urbanization of the Chamulas and other highland indigenous people from the mid-1970s through 2009.

Abstract Background A healthy lifestyle intervention was implemented in primary care health centers in urban parts of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico with an aim of reducing cardiovascular disease risk for patients with type 2 diabetes and/or hypertension. During implementation, research questions emerged. Considerably fewer men participated in the intervention than women, and an opportunity was identified to increase the reach of activities aimed at improving disease self-management through strategies involving family members. A qualitative study was conducted to identify strategies to involve men and engage family members in disease management and risk reduction. Methods Nine men with hypertension and/or type 2 diabetes with limited to no participation in disease self-management and health promotion activities, six families in which at least one family member had a diagnosis of one or both conditions, and nine health care providers from four different government health centers were recruited for the study. Participants took part in semi-structured interviews. During interviews with families, genograms and eco-maps were used to diagram family composition and structure, and capture the nature of patients' relationships to the extended family and community resources. Transcripts were coded and a general inductive analytic approach was used to identify themes related to men's limited participation in health promotion activities, family support and barriers to disease management, and health care providers' recommendations. Results Participants reported barriers to men's participation in chronic disease management and healthy lifestyle education activities that can be grouped into two categories: internal and external factors. Internal factors are those for which they are able to make the decision on their own and external factors are those that are not related solely to their decision to take part or not. Four primary aspects were identified related to families' relationships with disease: different roles within the family, types of support provided to patients, the opportunity to prevent disease among family members without a diagnosis, and - in some cases - lack of family support or stress-induced by other family members. There was an overlap in recommended strategies for engaging men and family members in chronic disease management activities. Conclusions There is an opportunity to increase the reach of .

Objective: To analyze the contribution of family agriculture in the construction of peasant food strategies as a response to socio-productive problems in communities in the municipalities of Tenejapa and San Juan Cancuc, in the Tseltal region of Chiapas' Highlands. Methodology: The research is a case study that serves to characterize the strategies of social reproduction in a rural self-subsistence economy. The data were obtained through qualitative research techniques, including interviews, field visits, analysis of corn, coffee, honey and vegetable production systems, and focus group discussions. Results: It can be highlighted that agro-food diversity is the main strategy for social reproduction among self-subsistence farmers and that the most valued assets are land and production techniques, as well as the multifunctional nature of agriculture. Limitations: The study and its method can be a reference for analysis of social reproduction strategies in peasant families of indigenous peoples, specifically in contexts of self-subsistence economy. To analyze strategies of farming families with little economic or agricultural diversification, it is necessary to consider other variables and possibly complement the qualitative research method with other quantitative methods to quantify income, for example, a socioeconomic survey. Conclusions. The diversification of agriculture and family food is a viable method to strength social reproduction strategies among peasant families in an economic context of self-subsistence. The agro-food policies could take a multi-scalar approach.

In 1951, Mexico's National Indigenist Institute (Instituto Nacional Indigenista—INI) opened its pilot coordinating center in highland Chiapas. For several years, Mexico's top indigenistas directed the center and tested several innovative projects aimed at promoting economic development, modernization, and cultural assimilation among the Tzeltal and Tzotzil Maya. They also tried to protect the indigenous from their worst non-Indian exploiters. After a period of initial fanfare, this important center slid into decline, hampered by inadequate budgets, compromised programs in education, health, and agriculture, and a demoralized staff. Its decadence had implications for the dozens of centers built by the INI in subsequent years. Crippled by local opposition, an outdated theoretical underpinning, and tepid political support, this coordinating center—and the INI in general—also suffered from close association with the Ministry of Public Education and other institutions of Mexico's corporatist state.En 1951, el Instituto Nacional Indigenista (INI), en México, abrió su coordinadora piloto en los altos de Chiapas. Durante muchos años, los mayores indigenistas de México dirigieron el centro y probaron varios proyectos innovadores dedicados al fomento del desarrollo económico, modernización, y asimilación cultural entre Mayas Tzeltales y Tzotziles. También intentaban proteger a los indígenas de sus mayores explotadores no-indígenas. Luego de un periodo de fanfarria inicial, este centro importante se deslizó al decline, obstaculizado por presupuestos inadecuados, programas transigidos en la educación, salubridad, y agricultura, y un equipo desmoralizado. Su decadencia tuvo implicaciones para docenas de centros que construyera el INI en años posteriores.