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Cultural significance of wild mammals in mayan and mestizo communities of the Lacandon Rainforest, Chiapas, Mexico

2015; BioMed Central; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1186/s13002-015-0021-7

1746-4269

Yasminda García del Valle, Eduardo J. Naranjo, Javier Caballero, Carlos Martorell, Felipe Ruán‐Soto, Paula L. Enríquez,

Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond

Several ethnobiology studies evaluate the cultural significance (CS) of plants and mushrooms. However, this is not the case for mammals. It is important to make studies of CS allowing the comparison of cultural groups because the value given to groups of organisms may be based on different criteria. Such information would be valuable for wildlife preservation plans. In this study, the most culturally significant species of mammals from the Lacandon Rainforest (Chiapas, Mexico) for people from two Mayan-Lacandon and mestizo communities were identified. The reasons behind the CS of the studied species were explored and the existence of differences among the cultural groups was evaluated.