Mexico is the second country with the most biocultural wealth in the world, so it is necessary to preserve and disseminate the knowledge that has been generated over the centuries, associated with culture and biodiversity, which is why the Secretary of Culture and Arts of Yucatan, through the Great Museum of the Mayan World and the collaboration of the Center for Scientific Research of Yucatan (CICY), inaugurated the exhibition “Between gifts, trades and knowledge of traditional Mayan medicine”.
The exhibition was installed at the CICY’s “Roger Orellana” Regional Botanical Garden Visitor Service Center, and will be open to the public from May 17 to July 22, 2022, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday to Thursday.
This exhibition shows the importance of traditional doctors, their knowledge and work tools, complemented, in a natural way, with the collection of medicinal plants found in the ethnobiological circuit of the CICY Botanical Garden, where it seeks to promote conservation and universal access to knowledge, in this case, traditional knowledge associated with the Mayan culture and the use and exploitation of the region’s biodiversity.
The exhibition is the beginning of a close collaboration between the CICY and the Sedeculta and its Directorate of Heritage and Community Museums, where the interest in working jointly and multidisciplinary in the conservation of the biocultural heritage of Yucatan is evident.
During the opening ceremony, Dr. Pedro Iván González Chi, general director of the CICY, pointed out that, for the research center, presenting this exhibition to the public “represents an opportunity to conserve and protect biological and cultural wealth, which will contribute to strengthening of the communities that have generated it and who are the main guardians of it”.
For her part, Rosaura Martín Caro, director of Planning and Management, explained that the “Roger Orellana” Regional Botanical Garden is a space that serves as a bridge between scientific knowledge and society; On this occasion, it is very pleasing for the CICY to host this exhibition that focuses on biocultural knowledge.
Meanwhile, Dr. María Azucena Canto Aguilar, technical manager of the Ethnobiological Circuit project of the JBR-RO and researcher of the Natural Resources Unit of the CICY, explained that this exhibition is part of the tasks of a project that, in its second stage, seeks to conserve, investigate and disseminate the forests and everything related to biocultural knowledge.
The teacher Ana Eugenia Méndez Petterson, General Director of Museums and Heritage, on behalf of Loreto Villanueva Trujillo, Secretary of Culture and the Arts of Yucatan, declared the exhibition “Between gifts, trades and knowledge of traditional Mayan medicine” inaugurated, highlighting the Sedeculta’s interest in the conservation of traditional knowledge through art and science.
As a final act, the curator of the exhibition, Judith Alanis Figueroa, gave a guided tour with the authorities, where she showed the biocultural richness of the Mayan geographic-cultural area. “The communities of the Mayan area generated and continue to maintain great knowledge regarding the biological and cultural wealth. This knowledge has been historically underestimated and is at risk of being lost as a result of various factors, among which are: the current socioeconomic model, globalization, the rhythm of life and the migration of peasants to large cities, among others”, he commented. .
It should be noted that the CICY collaborates in this activity within the framework of the second stage of the Project to Strengthen the Ethnobiological Role of the Regional Botanical Garden “Roger Orellana” and with the high institutional interest that the Center has in promoting spaces for the dissemination of knowledge (JCDO -Divulgation).
Edition: Laura Mirror
