Nutritional Ethnobiology of the Highland Maya of Chiapas, Mexico

本项目涉及来自佐治亚大学的两名高级和一名初级文化人类学家的民族志实地研究。该项目拟记录墨西哥恰帕斯地区玛雅高地食用资源的完整清单，并分析这些资源对玛雅饮食的贡献。众所周知，农村人民开发的食物来源不被外地人很好地认识到，但这在饮食意义上可以是重要的补充。使用民族志访谈、正式数据提取技术、饮食回忆和花园调查等标准方法，使用当地专家收集食物资源并记录它们，以及对两个玛雅乡镇各50名男性和50名女性样本的正式访谈，将描述和分析可用的食物资源对饮食的影响。这项研究很重要，因为人口压力和不断恶化的经济状况对世界许多地区的农村饮食产生了负面影响。该项目将试图描述饮食中可用的当地资源的完整范围，并将刺激对可行的替代饮食的新研究，这些饮食可以帮助改善这些人口和类似农村人口的长期健康。此外，证明鲜为人知的可食用资源是重要的食物来源，可以促进我们对其在生态系统中的地位的理解，并鼓励它们的保护和可持续利用。

This project involves the ethnographic field research of two senior and one junior cultural anthropologists from the University of Georgia. The project proposed to document the complete inventory of edible resources of the Highland Maya of Chiapas, Mexico, and to analyze the contribution of these resources to the Maya diet. It is well known that rural peoples exploit food sources that are not well recognized by non-locals, yet which can be important supplements in a dietary sense. Using standard methods of ethnographic interviews, formal data elicitation techniques, dietary recall and garden surveys, the use of local experts to collect food resources and document them, as well as formal interviews of a sample of 50 men and 50 women in each of two Mayan townships, the available food resources will be described and analyzed for their impact on the diet. This research is important because population pressure and deteriorating economic conditions have impacted negatively on rural diets in many areas of the world. This project will attempt to describe the complete range of local resources available in diets, and will stimulate new research into viable alternative diets which can help improve the long-term well being of this and comparable rural populations. In addition, the demonstration that little known edible resources are important food sources can advance our understanding of their place in the ecosystem and encourage their conservation and sustainable use.