Contribution short abstract:

The dominant notion of sustainability is characterized by an anthropocentric ontology and a linear conception of time. Drawing on a case study with Maya-speaking maize farmers in Mexico, this paper contrasts their logics for biocultural diversity conservation with the fundamentals of sustainability.

Contribution long abstract:

As is perhaps most prominently manifested in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, “sustainability” is meanwhile a highly influential concept – not only in international politics but also in daily life. Despite its specific European origin, it seems to have a universalistic claim dictating how ethical human-environment relationships should look around the globe. However, the concept originated and largely developed in the Global North has its limitations. Above all, the dominant notion of sustainability seems to be characterized by an anthropocentric ontology and a linear conception of time. Accordingly, intergenerational environmental justice entailed in the concept tends to focus almost exclusively on the present generation’s obligations to human beings living in the immediate and/or near future. However, this ontology implied in the universalized sustainability discourse is by no means common. Drawing on Maori and Aboriginal philosophies, Christine J. Winter (2022) for example argues that indigenous understandings of intergenerational environmental justice is more integral, encompassing more-than-humans and spanning past, present and future generations. In view of these differences, the scholarship in the anthropology and beyond calls for “un-commoning” the dominant sustainability discourse to include diverse conceptions of human-environment relationships and intergenerational justice.

Building on this appeal, this paper discusses indigenous biocultural diversity conservation in Latin America as alternative ways of relating to the environment and conceptualizing the present generation’s responsibility. Based on a case study conducted with Maya-speaking maize farmers in Mexico, it examines their logics for sustaining the indigenous grains and language, contrasting them with the major principles of “sustainability”.