Agricultural and Food Practice in the Face of the Effects of the Anthropocene in Villa Díaz Ordaz, Tlacolula, Oaxaca

Gabriela Martínez Aguilar
This research, made in the community of Villa Díaz Ordaz, Oaxaca, Mexico, identifies the key moments of dietary changes that women and men have experienced, all of them associated with changes in the agricultural system historically adapted to transcend anthropocentric geological phenomena. Although the population contributes a minimum to the environmental deterioration, people are on the spectrum of populations receiving anthropocentric consequences: unpredictable or extreme weather patterns, prolonged droughts, disruption of seasonal and agricultural cycles, accelerated population growth, and the modification of the landscape towards more urbanized and polluting conditions.
Gabriela Martínez Aguilar holds a PhD in Regional and Technological Development and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Centro de Investigación en Estudios Superiores y Antropología Social, Unidad Pacífico Sur. From the perspective of Medical Anthropology and under the Anthropocene Project, she seeks to contribute to the analysis of the systematic effects of ‘anthropocene activity’ on the lives of rural societies, particularly on women and their families whose socioeconomic activities are linked to agricultural practices. Previously, she has collaborated on research projects at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Unidad San Cristóbal and at the Tecnológico Nacional de Mexico, campus Oaxaca.

Learning points

  • How does the Anthropocene help us understand the relationship between climate change, modifications in eating habits and the capacities of peasant bodies to sustain agricultural work in Villa Díaz Ordaz?
  • How are the reduction in cultivated fields and the displacement of labour towards building construction linked to the destructive effects associated with the use and degradation of the land?