Rooting in a Useless Land: Ancient Farmers, Celebrity Chefs, and Environmental Justice in Yucatan (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520395862)

In Rooting in a Useless Land, Chelsea Fisher examines the deep histories of environmental-justice conflicts in Mexico's Yucat疣 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.


Author: Chelsea Fisher
ISBN-10: 0520395867
ISBN-13: 9780520395862
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 10/03/2023
Pages: 280
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.23lbs
Size: 9.10h x 5.90w x 0.80d