THE PROTECTION OF AGRESTIC PLANTS IN TLAXCALA: A CASE STUDY OF A DOMESTICATION PROCESS IN PROGRESS

Abstract

An ethnobotanical approach was used to study the interactions between Tlaxcalan farmers and a group of agrestic (weedy) plants with edible fruits, with the purpose of observing how cultural factors alter the evolutionary process. The traditional agricultural technology used by the farmers includes the special management of these agrestics which is shown to be essential for the maintenance of their populations. The effects of this management and of social, religious, and economic attitudes upon the agents of genetic change are discussed, as well as the direction of the domestication process which results. It is demonstrated how sociocultural changes suffered during the last 450 years in Tlaxcala may have provoked the reversion of these plants from a more highly domesticated condition to the less domesticated form in which they are found today