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Cultivating health: diabetes resilience through neo-traditional farming in Mopan Maya communities of Belize

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  • Michelle Schmidt

    (Eastern New Mexico University)

Abstract

My research explores Maya perspectives on neo-traditional farming as a source of metabolic health and resilience to the global epidemic of type-two diabetes. This article is based on long-term ethnographic research and interviews in Maya Mountains Reservation (MMR) communities in southern Belize, an area with low diabetes prevalence relative to national and global populations. Research participants see lower rates of diabetes in the MMR as the result of neo-traditional peasant and subsistence farming on ancestral lands. Good metabolic health represents the embodiment of food systems that routinize healthy material and social relationships to the landscape. This research suggests that diabetes is endemic to modern food systems and proposes neo-traditional food ways as a societal antidote to nutritional disease. My research demonstrates and responds to a need for further disaggregated data on diabetes prevalence in Indigenous communities, contributes to the social scientific literature on the importance of small-scale agricultural models for community health, and provides a case study of success in diabetes prevention. I engage Maya perspectives with anthropological literature on embodiment and small-scale agriculture to suggest neo-traditional food ways as healthier alternatives to capitalist agricultural development.

Suggested Citation

  • Michelle Schmidt, 2022. "Cultivating health: diabetes resilience through neo-traditional farming in Mopan Maya communities of Belize," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(1), pages 269-279, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:39:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s10460-021-10245-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-021-10245-7
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Thompson, Samantha J. & Gifford, Sandra M., 2000. "Trying to keep a balance: the meaning of health and diabetes in an urban Aboriginal community," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(10), pages 1457-1472, November.
    2. Arun Agrawal, 1995. "Dismantling the Divide Between Indigenous and Scientific Knowledge," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 26(3), pages 413-439, July.
    3. Krieger, N., 2012. "Methods for the scientific study of discrimination and health: An ecosocial approach," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(5), pages 936-945.
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