Tzeltal and Tzotzil Farmer Knowledge and Maize Diversity in Chiapas, Mexico

Different maize races dominate the highland communities of the Tzotzil and the Tzeltal of highland Chiapas, Mexico. When Tzeltal and Tzotzil informants from four communities were asked to sort photographs of maize varieties from the two municipalities according to ear similarity and the pictured variety’s ability to produce on their communities’ lands, their responses revealed that they have a common system of maize classification based on color and that unnamed but culturally specific categories discriminate maize types according to ethno‐linguistic group. The significance of these findings is that while color, a perceptually distinct but nonadaptive trait, dominates maize classification by these farmers, intermediate but unlabeled categories help to explain the geographic distribution of maize in the regional environment. Thus, ethno‐linguistic diversity contributes to maize diversity.

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