Human and Environmental Change in Yucatan: Linking Nutritional Assessment to Regional Landscape Changes

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This project supports the research of a multidisciplinary team of cultural anthropologists, geographers, physical anthropologists and sociologists to study the effects of changes in property rights on local economic activities, the environment, and the impact of all this on the health and growth of local populations in a poor, traditional Mayan Indian area of Yucatan, Mexico. Using multiple methods including the analysis of remote sensing images of the local land use patterns, the creation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) databases and maps, ethnographic studies of land use, and biological studies of children's' growth and nutrition, the project will follow ten small communities: five communities which privatized their communal land holdings and five communities which retain the communal property rights regime of the past 60 years. The hypothesis to be tested is that privatization of land rights will lead to increased concentration of property ownership and increased poverty for the community at large. This research is important because the global pattern of change is towards private property rights and increased production for regional and exterior markets. In depth comparative and longitudinal studies such as this are necessary if planners are to create policies to ameliorate negative impacts and avoid increasing poverty and inequalities.