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The Forest of the Lacandon Maya

An Ethnobotanical Guide

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  • © 2016

Overview

  • One of the most thorough ethnobotanical studies of the Lacandon Maya
  • Numerous descriptions in the botanical inventory provided by the Lacandones in the original language
  • Contains original audio-video recordings and corresponding transcriptions, as well as a digital version of the botanical inventory.

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

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About this book

The Forest of the Lacandon Maya: An Ethnobotanical Guide, with active links to audio-video recordings, serves as a comprehensive guide to the botanical heritage of the northern Lacandones. Numbering fewer than 300 men, women, and children, this community is the most culturally conservative of the Mayan groups. Protected by their hostile environment, over many centuries they maintain autonomy from the outside forces of church and state, while they continue to draw on the forest for spiritual inspiration and sustenance. 

In The Forest of the Lacandon Maya: An Ethnobotanical Guide, linguist Suzanne Cook presents a bilingual Lacandon-English ethnobotanical guide to more than 450 plants in a tripartite organization: a botanical inventory in which main entries are headed by Lacandon names followed by common English and botanical names, and which includes plant descriptions and uses; an ethnographic inventory, which expands the descriptions given inthe botanical inventory, providing the socio-historical, dietary, mythological, and spiritual significance of most plants; and chapters that discuss the relevant cultural applications of the plants in more detail provide a description of the area’s geography, and give an ethnographic overview of the Lacandones. Active links throughout the text to original audio-video recordings demonstrate the use and preparation of the most significant plants.

Reviews

“Suzanne Cook’s ‘The Forest of the Lacandon Maya: An Ethnobotanical Guide’ is a much-needed addition to the ethnobotanical literature. … The guide is well organized and researched, and ethnobotanists will find this book extremely valuable. The inclusion of plant names in the southern Lacandon dialect as well as other Mayan languages makes this guide especially comprehensible.” (Economic Botany, Vol. 70 (3), 2016)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Linguistics, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada

    Suzanne Cook

About the author

Suzanne Cook
University of Victoria, Department of Linguistics, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

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