This dissertation contributes to the field of cultural anthropology by collecting household level socioeconomic data and the use of freelisting to measure cultural knowledge. Testing the study hypotheses illuminated relationships between the three central axes – health, livelihood and cultural knowledge. The Sierra of Manantlán Biosphere Reserve (SMBR) was selected as the fieldsite due to its Nahua rooks. Prior research studies regarding plant knowledge, and being a protected area with explicit goals of cultural and natural resource preservation. A representative sample of 125 adult men and women was selected across three communities which have known variation in socioeconomic profile and modernity. Exhaustive household censuses give a comprehensive view of livelihood activities, and individual health experiences are measured using a structured interview. Demonstrated through the economic activity profiles present in the study sample, the indigenous people in the SMBR subsist through low-intensity agriculture, animal husbandry, and paid labor.
This dissertation moves back and forth between the macro and micro. Political histories of Mexico and the SMBR continually shape subsistence strategies and the agrarian communities. Medical pluralism and the health profile in Mexico influence the local-level health status and access to health care services in the SMBR, demonstrated by the persistence of medicinal plant knowledge. Freelisting captures cultural knowledge using a consensus model. Semi-structured interviews with medicinal plant experts and biomedical practitioners are used to illustrate the spectrum of opinions regarding usage of medicinal plants across the three communities.
This dissertation describes the complexity of the political, economic and social history of the Nahua people, and analyzes the relationships between these factors and medicinal plant knowledge. First, there is no link between individuals who have used medicinal plants more frequently in their own experiences and their knowledge of medicinal plants. Second, low-intensity agriculture as a source of income for the household is a better predictor of greater medicinal plant knowledge. Lastly, there is neither a direct nor linear relationship between the loss of cultural knowledge and increasing modernity. This research contributes to ethnographic knowledge about conservation and cultural heritage on protected areas in Mexico.