![Picture](/uploads/8/9/7/5/89757259/9050472-orig.jpeg?297)
ECONOMY
In the Raramuri indigenous population the main financial activity is farming for sustenance rather than income. In fact, the economically active Raramuri population has is 38 percent, 22 percent earn less than two daily minimum salaries, 10 percent receives the minimum salary, and the 42 percent of the Raramuri people have no income at all. As in the past, the economic system of Raramuri has been consisted of the cultivation of maize, beans, and squash. However, the preferred crop is corn and 92 percent of the farming area is seasonal. In other words, the Raramuri culture is based on agriculture, specifically on the cultivation of corn as it is central in cooking, husbandry, entertainment, and religious ceremonies. Wild plants are such an immense contribution with the typical tradition of a diet that is practiced in the religion. Raramuri also supplements their agricultural activities by working in the local Mexican economy, such as road construction, lumbering, and performing chores for their non-indigenous neighbors. Moreover, they adquire cash by selling their agricultural products, and by producing items for sale to tourists.
Corn culture
As an indigenous tradition that derives a number of its societal practices and necessary nutrition from corn, the impacts of NAFTA on corn prices in Mexico has caused controversial agricultural conditions confronted by the Raramuri. As a matter of fact, the Sierra Tarahumara had been fighting years of drought as a result of the complications from deforestation. This conflict has preserved into the new decade. For instance, it is offering only a couple of months-worth of harvested corn, beans, and other necessary crops. As desperation grips the Raramuri, they are forced to abandon their subsistence life-style and being trying to make money from what little corn has harvested. Evaluating these environmental challenges, it is understandable the decrease in corn prices has been a tremendous obstacle for the Sierra Tarahumara. This step decline in corn prices has three specific results: The United States takes advantage over the corn production, the urgent circumstance of looking for income in Mexico by rigorously increasing corn production besides the decrease of prices, and the failure of the Mexican government to gather tariff-payments. Additionally, the Mexican corn did not follow the basis law of supply and demand. Rather than increasing the production, Mexican farmers were forced to maintain high production in a inneffective effort to make sufficient money. This was due to the result of need options offered to farmers, and the acceptance of corn as a safe crop. The cost of producing alternatives, and the fidelity to culture and tradition has impacted the Raramuri community to supplement survival with very small returns from corn sales, while their condition get worse.
Lands and Environmental Issues
Land Rights
Typically, Raramuri is located in the Sierra Madre Occidental, which is basically what they consider their home. Logically, when their land is impacted, or threatened, they are also extremely affected as a whole.
Historical summary of the Mexican agrarian code which fulfills the current stress experimented by the Raramuri society.
The 1917 Constitution of Mexico, in Article 27, allowed organized groups of peasants to hold communal land through the ejido. Article 17 designated agricultural lands for indigenous peoples who had typically used communal land. According to Aternio Fontes, the creation of the environmental concerns have impacted the agricultural cultivation.
Connections with Kimmerer and UNDRIP
As Kimmerer stated in her book, "we participate in economies that appear to love profits for a few members of one species more than a good green world for all. We have a choice to invest our love otherwise. We must align our economies with ecological principles and human integrity" (Kimmerer 333).
Raramuri, wild plants are such an immense contribution with the typical tradition of a diet that is practiced in the religion. For instance, Kimmerer mentions corn as one of the main resources.
Kimmerer emphasizes the ideology of reciprocity.
PP6
Recognizing the urgent need to respect and promote
PP8
"Convinced that the control by indigenous peoples over developments affecting them and their lands, territories and resources will enable them to maintain and strengthen their institutions, cultures, and traditions, and to promote their development in accordance with their aspirations and needs."
PP9
"Recognizing also respect for indigenous knowledge, cultures, and traditional practices contributes to sustainable and equitable development and proper management of the environment."
Article 7
1. "Indigenous people have and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture."
(b) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them their lands, territories or resources
Article 13
1. " Indigenous peoples have the right to manifest, practice, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs, and ceremonies; the right to maintain, protect, and have access in privacy to their religious and cultural sites; the right to the use and control of their ceremonial objects; and the right to the repatriation of their human remains."
In the Raramuri indigenous population the main financial activity is farming for sustenance rather than income. In fact, the economically active Raramuri population has is 38 percent, 22 percent earn less than two daily minimum salaries, 10 percent receives the minimum salary, and the 42 percent of the Raramuri people have no income at all. As in the past, the economic system of Raramuri has been consisted of the cultivation of maize, beans, and squash. However, the preferred crop is corn and 92 percent of the farming area is seasonal. In other words, the Raramuri culture is based on agriculture, specifically on the cultivation of corn as it is central in cooking, husbandry, entertainment, and religious ceremonies. Wild plants are such an immense contribution with the typical tradition of a diet that is practiced in the religion. Raramuri also supplements their agricultural activities by working in the local Mexican economy, such as road construction, lumbering, and performing chores for their non-indigenous neighbors. Moreover, they adquire cash by selling their agricultural products, and by producing items for sale to tourists.
Corn culture
As an indigenous tradition that derives a number of its societal practices and necessary nutrition from corn, the impacts of NAFTA on corn prices in Mexico has caused controversial agricultural conditions confronted by the Raramuri. As a matter of fact, the Sierra Tarahumara had been fighting years of drought as a result of the complications from deforestation. This conflict has preserved into the new decade. For instance, it is offering only a couple of months-worth of harvested corn, beans, and other necessary crops. As desperation grips the Raramuri, they are forced to abandon their subsistence life-style and being trying to make money from what little corn has harvested. Evaluating these environmental challenges, it is understandable the decrease in corn prices has been a tremendous obstacle for the Sierra Tarahumara. This step decline in corn prices has three specific results: The United States takes advantage over the corn production, the urgent circumstance of looking for income in Mexico by rigorously increasing corn production besides the decrease of prices, and the failure of the Mexican government to gather tariff-payments. Additionally, the Mexican corn did not follow the basis law of supply and demand. Rather than increasing the production, Mexican farmers were forced to maintain high production in a inneffective effort to make sufficient money. This was due to the result of need options offered to farmers, and the acceptance of corn as a safe crop. The cost of producing alternatives, and the fidelity to culture and tradition has impacted the Raramuri community to supplement survival with very small returns from corn sales, while their condition get worse.
Lands and Environmental Issues
Land Rights
Typically, Raramuri is located in the Sierra Madre Occidental, which is basically what they consider their home. Logically, when their land is impacted, or threatened, they are also extremely affected as a whole.
Historical summary of the Mexican agrarian code which fulfills the current stress experimented by the Raramuri society.
The 1917 Constitution of Mexico, in Article 27, allowed organized groups of peasants to hold communal land through the ejido. Article 17 designated agricultural lands for indigenous peoples who had typically used communal land. According to Aternio Fontes, the creation of the environmental concerns have impacted the agricultural cultivation.
Connections with Kimmerer and UNDRIP
As Kimmerer stated in her book, "we participate in economies that appear to love profits for a few members of one species more than a good green world for all. We have a choice to invest our love otherwise. We must align our economies with ecological principles and human integrity" (Kimmerer 333).
Raramuri, wild plants are such an immense contribution with the typical tradition of a diet that is practiced in the religion. For instance, Kimmerer mentions corn as one of the main resources.
Kimmerer emphasizes the ideology of reciprocity.
PP6
Recognizing the urgent need to respect and promote
PP8
"Convinced that the control by indigenous peoples over developments affecting them and their lands, territories and resources will enable them to maintain and strengthen their institutions, cultures, and traditions, and to promote their development in accordance with their aspirations and needs."
PP9
"Recognizing also respect for indigenous knowledge, cultures, and traditional practices contributes to sustainable and equitable development and proper management of the environment."
Article 7
1. "Indigenous people have and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture."
(b) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them their lands, territories or resources
Article 13
1. " Indigenous peoples have the right to manifest, practice, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs, and ceremonies; the right to maintain, protect, and have access in privacy to their religious and cultural sites; the right to the use and control of their ceremonial objects; and the right to the repatriation of their human remains."
Sources
Rudow, J. (n.d.). The transformation of Tarahumara Agriculture. Retrieved from http://liberalarts.utexas.edu/geography/_files/images/news/aag/Tarahumar.pdf
Labs, L., & Ford, M. (2011, February 11). 3 types of Tarahumara Indian Corn and how it is used. Retrieved November 21, 2016, from http://thegrownetwork.com/3-types-of-tarahumara-indian-corn-and-how-they-are-used/
https://logatfer.wordpress.com/2014/11/15/mexican-corn-culture/
Ferriss, Susan. “Hard Times in the Tarahumaras: A Fight for Survival (Series: Indian Rights: On Challenges Facing Mexico’s Indigenous People.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (Atlanta GA: 25 March 2001), F1.
Agricultural and Fisheries Policies in Mexico: Recent Achievements, Continuing the Reform Agenda/ Executive Summary. (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development: 2006), 11-13.
Kimmerer,
Rudow, J. (n.d.). The transformation of Tarahumara Agriculture. Retrieved from http://liberalarts.utexas.edu/geography/_files/images/news/aag/Tarahumar.pdf
Labs, L., & Ford, M. (2011, February 11). 3 types of Tarahumara Indian Corn and how it is used. Retrieved November 21, 2016, from http://thegrownetwork.com/3-types-of-tarahumara-indian-corn-and-how-they-are-used/
https://logatfer.wordpress.com/2014/11/15/mexican-corn-culture/
Ferriss, Susan. “Hard Times in the Tarahumaras: A Fight for Survival (Series: Indian Rights: On Challenges Facing Mexico’s Indigenous People.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (Atlanta GA: 25 March 2001), F1.
Agricultural and Fisheries Policies in Mexico: Recent Achievements, Continuing the Reform Agenda/ Executive Summary. (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development: 2006), 11-13.
Kimmerer,