| Summary: | "This edited book, by Rosalina Diaz, represents a radical form of ethnography, as it presents the voices of academic scholars and scientists side by side with those of grassroots activists, native healers and community herbalists & brujas, in addressing issues of cultural & indigenous identity, agroecology, sustainability and self-determination in the Greater Antillean region of the Caribbean. As a result of European colonialism, the cultural development of the indigenous population was radically disrupted. Five thousand years of cultural knowledge, including plant wisdom, went underground. Herbal healers, shamed & ridiculed as "brujas" and "santeras," continued to practice in obscurity. The industrialization, urbanization and tourism projects of the 20th century exacerbated the exploitation of the natural environment, which began in earnest with the plantation economy imposed by European colonialism, leaving it vulnerable to climate change threats. However, the history of environmental activism and push-back of the islands is also noteworthy, "the Puerto Rican environmental movement got under way very early and has been distinctively political since its beginnings, twenty years before most other nations" (Concepcion, 1995). In the Greater Antilles, environmental activism has sprung up alongside grassroots political movements, as well as a resurgence of indigenous identity, and, as explained by the authors in this book, continues to be an act of resistance against on-going political, social and economic repression"--
|
|---|
