Mezquite Cosmos

Research/ artifact
2020

Materials:
Wood, clay, steel, paper, wire.

Project:
Academic project
MA GEO Design
Design Academy Eindhoven

Photography:
Felix Bell

Illustration:
Priscila Monserrat Treviño Sepúlveda

Acknowledgments:
Giuditta Vendrame, tutor
Tamar Shafrir, tutor
Formafantasma, directors
Cristóbal López Carrera, historian
Nydia Prieto, social phycologist
Carlos Manuel Valdés, historian
Conrado González Barajas, biologist
Francisco Javier García Salazar, carpenter

How ancient worldviews are preserved in land management practices in contemporary communities?

Mexican forestal law defines forest vegetation as "the set of plants and fungi that grow and develop naturally, forming temperate forests, tropical forests, arid and semi-arid areas, and other ecosystems” in order to use or protect their resources, having governance over all different ecosystems in the country. Since arid and semi-arid areas are considered just as usable as temperate or tropical forests, the law does not protect the latter ecosystems from becoming more arid through desertification. Since mezquite forests serve an important role in preserving the soil and regulating the climate, their disappearance has caused major problems in northern regions since the introduction of agricultural, livestock and mining practices in the XVI century.

Mezquite(​Prosopisspp.)​ is a tree that proliferates in northern Mexico mainly in arid areas, creating small forests called “mezquitales''. Currently only patches of these forests remain in the country due to the excessive cutting of the tree in order to use its wood as charcoal, bringing the mezquite forests to the brink of extinction. The mezquite charcoal has a big market in the Mexican north, mostly due to its distinctive aroma and flavor that impregnates the food when cooked with it, making it a commodity for today’s families to use in smoked barbecues on weekend reunions, found at almost every food store in the center and northern parts of Mexico. In rural communities, chopping the trees and transforming them into charcoal to be sold for a low amount of money has been a common economic practice since the beginning of the XX century, the latest phase in the history of mezquite as a resource, which has taken place on ranches for the last 500 years. Today, cutting down mezquite for charcoal is considered a traditional practice in the Mexican law, making it a permitted economic activity. While mezquite may be perceived as an abundant resource, the increasing popularity of harvesting the tree has led to overexploitation of the mezquite in most rural areas. As mezquitales shrink in size, the deforested land is transformed into arid ecosystems through desertification, reducing the CO2 sequestration and humidity levels, eventually causing temperatures to rise.

Looking into other perspectives on how to manage and live in a closer relationship with this natural resource it may be possible to find ways to preserve these forests and still be able to thrive in communion with it. In a few places in Mexico such as Sonora in the Comca’ac indigenous community or in Doctor Arroyo at La Unión y el Cardonal rural community, traditional knowledge has been preserved since pre colonial times which has great importance and could be incorporated in today's practices.

In contrast to the profit-driven harvesting of mezquite for charcoal, the tree has played a more complex role in cultures of communities that live within mezquite forests: the trees provide refugee , food (nutritious pods and bee honey), material (as wood form) and medicinal (resin) resources that make it easier to survive in the harsh conditions of the local ecosystem. This cultural knowledge was passed down in indigenous groups that are now extinct, and is today preserved in traditional practices and oral traditions. The mezquite tree provides shade and shelter for both people and other species, it is known as a “nurse tree” as its tap root reaches up to 15 feet underground, bringing nutrients and moisture to the soil near the surface. The cycles of the mezquite are strongly related to those of the moon and the seasons, serving as cues to know when to harvest and cut for material, it is also a reference to time. In oral tradition the tree is by itself a connection between the depths of the Earth and the heavenly bodies.

Before the colonial era, indigenous groups had a reciprocal relationship of protection with the tree and considered it sacred. With the introduction of catholicism as a means for colonialism, the cultural views around mezquite trees were blended with the new religion, giving the tree an association with the previously unfamiliar figure of the cross of crucifixion. This ideology remains in a few areas of Mexico, where the tree is seen as a mediator between the community of believers and a divine figure.

Despite the current dominance of Catholicism, the preservation and implementation of indigenous knowledge and modes of inhabitation is imperative today. As more ecosystems are in decay due to industrial and urban developments, the traditional practices and understanding of the mezquite forests can provide means for the protection of ecosystems and alternatives for more resilient land use.

How can we transmit and preserve these knowledge and worldviews?

Religion is a good example of an expression of humanity that has succeeded in the transmission and preservation of knowledge through time, territories and cultures. Religions contain and represent their worldviews and aspects through symbols, used as tools to convey concepts concerned with humanity’s relationship to the sacred​, but also to the social and material world; symbols can be manifested as ​archetype​s, acts, artwork or objects. In Mexico,the introduction of Catholicism was facilitated by entwining Christian motifs with older indigenous myths and symbols, thus adding, replacing, or juxtaposing practices that created new hybrid and diverse expressions of Mexican Catholicism. ​The association of Christ’s cross with the mezquite tree is one example of how a central part of a pre colonial culture, in this case a tree species, was juxtaposed with the main symbol of Christianity, helping to convert the native ethnic groups of the region to a new religion.

Trees have been a central part of cosmogonic representations in various cultures through time, commonly known as trees of life, from Judaism, Christianity and Nordic culture in the West, to various pre-Hispanic cultures, to name a few. The tree usually represents a central axis that connects the underworld with the Earth and the overworld, in which various elements of a certain worldview are arranged around it, associated with knowledge and eternal life. It is very likely that mesquite has been associated with similar beliefs in the case of the natives of the Mexican highlands.

The case of the Mexican Tree of Life:"In its beginnings the Tree of Life emerged as the representation of the biblical scene of Genesis, ... Although there are several versions about its origin and evolution, there is no documentary support that supports them, however, as all works of popular art, the Tree of Life is considered collectively created, the use and evolution of which over time has various causes and effects ”.
National Network of Cultural Information, June 11, 2018

These objects are not only useful for religious purposes, but also in scientific contexts, where imagery and artifacts have also been used to depict the universe, its elements and their relationship with one another. The sphere has been associated with the cosmos model as it is the basic form of celestial bodies and their seemingly circular movement. The earliest known spheric artifact used as a model to study the movement and positioning of the celestial bodies was the armillary sphere, first developed in China and extensively used in Europe for centuries as the most popular object for studying the stars, changing and adapting as discoveries were made and beliefs changed, rearranging its elements and meanings. Today the armillary sphere and its diagrammatic illustrations are a popular referent for the cosmos representation worldwide as its history has been transmitted as general knowledge. In the Enlightenment view, this process was understood as a cultural advancement in universalism, but it also reveals how symbols can be used as tools to dominate and replace locally embedded forms of knowledge with globally applied methods developed under imperialism and capitalism.

Imagery and artifacts are powerful tools to communicate and preserve ideas as they are ways of human expression that can be shared, adopted and replicated. The act of hijacking by the juxtaposition and mix of symbolisms that can be easily recognizable has the potential of bridging knowledge that can transcend territories and understandings as intercultural artifacts emerge. As recognition, value and preservation of traditional practices are imperative today in order to envision common and more sustainable futures, new symbols and artifacts which depict these knowledge are needed. Designing objects that aim to embody and preserve worldviews may be an increasing focus in contemporary design in a moment when social, economical, political and environmental urgencies need to be linked in a common ground in order to understand their interconnections both in local and global scales.

The design of a new mezquite cosmology can become an act of preservation of traditional knowledge which bridges historical, material, gastronomic, religious and environmental elements that surround the tree, an homage to the tree itself. The mezquite forest decline crisis and the lack of knowledge about their relationship with rural communities is one example of an environmental issue that is related to the unconscious exploitation of a natural resource and the lack of recognition of traditional practices. Manifesting the cultural and environmental value of conservation of mezquite forests through an artifact that depicts elements which people from inside and outside the communities can relate with, may lead to new intercultural understandings of how to manage natural resources in order to ensure the thriving of ecosystems and the recognition of biocultural knowledge around them.