517074389

Rooting in a Useless Land : Ancient Farmers, Celebrity Chefs, and Environmental Justice in Yucatan

Fisher, Chelsea [Verfasser]

1st ed.

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2023

Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest

1 Online-Ressource (281 pages)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources

978-0-520-39588-6 ; 978-0-520-39587-9

 

In Rooting in a Useless Land, Chelsea Fisher examines the deep histories of environmental-justice conflicts in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. She draws on her innovative archaeological research in Yaxunah, an Indigenous Maya farming community dealing with land dispossession, but with a surprising twist: Yaxunah happens to be entangled with prestigious sustainable-development projects initiated by some of the most famous chefs in the world. Fisher contends that these sustainable-development initiatives inadvertently bolster the useless-land narrative--a colonial belief that Maya forests are empty wastelands--which has been driving Indigenous land dispossession and environmental injustice for centuries. Rooting in a Useless Land explores how archaeology, practiced within communities, can restore history and strengthen relationships built on contested ground.