Good news for the Yucatan Peninsula! Although the three states stand out nationally for their loss and deterioration of ecosystems and for transculturation due to their great success as a tourist destination, we can reverse these trends. We can restore ecosystems and reintegrate species and also recover ancestral languages. Three recent developments help us promote the Maayat’aan language, known as Peninsular Maya or Yucatec, and therefore preserve ancient knowledge.
On Monday, November 11, the iNaturalistMX Meeting convened by Transformación Arte y Educación (TAE, A.C.) was held at Casa Palomeque in the center of Mérida. Attendees are part of the international citizen science network to generate and promote knowledge of nature. Representatives from different organizations such as the Yucatan Scientific Research Center (CICY), Hakanules, Cenoteando and the National Council for Educational Development (CONAFE) also attended.
The reason for the meeting was the exchange of experiences with the aim of improving collaboration in the knowledge and appreciation of nature in the Yucatan Peninsula and sharing the three developments. For just over a decade, through the iNaturalistMX initiative, more than 23 thousand participants have registered more than 12 thousand species of plants, fungi and animals in the Yucatan Peninsula.
Three recent developments
First, the social network for nature knowledge iNaturalist recently developed a new feature to include two or three common names of plants, fungi and animals on its platform and mobile application. In addition to the scientific name in Latin, we can configure it to select from more than one hundred languages and learn the common names (see How species are named). To start this enrichment we selected the Maayat’aan language, also known as Peninsular Maya or Yucatec.
Second, during the past few months, Transformación, Arte y Educación, A.C., member of the international iNaturalist network and coordinator in Mexico, included hundreds of common names of plants and animals in Maayat’aan on the iNaturalist platform. There are around 30 Mayan languages in Mexico distributed in Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo such as Lacandon, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Zoque, among others. However, according to INEGI, Peninsular or Yucatec Maya is the second most spoken language after Nahuatl, with around 775,000 speakers.
The names in Maya have been taken from digital and printed publications and websites, mainly from the Scientific Research Center of Yucatan (CICY). For many species, several common names are included in Yucatec Maya (as well as in Spanish), which will gradually be refined with the collaboration of institutions, specialists and interested Maya speakers.
Third, in the middle of this year Google included among its languages translated into Peninsular Maya, Zapotec and Nahuatl (from the Huasteca). Thanks to this development, the Somos Naturalistas website, (and in many other languages) can now also be consulted in Yucatec Maya. This site is being built to provide access to a variety of concepts and tools to learn about, value and conserve Mexico’s magnificent biocultural heritage, and today you can consult it in Mayan.
The event closed with the presentation of the video “Marcelo Aranda: inspiration that leaves a mark” by producer Miguel Sicilia, about the contributions of naturalist Marcelo Aranda to the knowledge of Mexico’s nature. Both Miguel Sicilia and Marcelo Aranda were present at this great meeting, along with the most active naturalists in Yucatan.
Let’s learn about and recover the nature and culture of the Yucatan Peninsula!