Elizabeth Anne Olson Indigenous Knowledge sku-33219431

Elizabeth Anne Olson's Indigenous Knowledge and Development (sku-33219431) is a hardcover title in Latin American History Books. This ethnographic study follows Indigenous Nahua communities in the Sierra of Manantlán Biosphere Reserve in west-central Mexico, where fieldwork took place in 2007 and 2008.

It examines how political, economic and social history relates to livelihoods, health experiences and medicinal plant knowledge. Household censuses document agriculture, animal husbandry and paid labor. Structured and semi-structured interviews gather socioeconomic and cultural knowledge data, while interviews with medicinal plant experts and biomedical practitioners show differing views across three communities.

The book considers the reserve's cultural and natural resource preservation goals, the effects of Mexican and local political history on subsistence, and how medical pluralism shapes health and access to care. It finds no direct or linear relationship between increasing modernity and the loss of cultural knowledge, adding to ethnographic research on conservation and cultural heritage in Mexico's protected areas.