Now Serving Maya Heritage: Culinary Tourism in Yaxunah, Yucatan, Mexico

Rural Territories and Food Tourism – Exploring the Virtuous Bonds Through a Systematic Literature Review

“…On a related note, and following the salience of data collection qualitative methods, Table 1 shows that the interview is the most common technique employed to collect primary data (35.3%), followed by participant and/or direct observation (23.5%), mainly to collect information regarding local inhabitants. These include a wide array of actors, for instance, mushroom pickers (Fusté-Forné, 2019), traditional female cookers (Ardren, 2018;Matta, 2019), smallholder farmers (Liu, et al, 2017) On the quantitative side, the use of questionnaires stands out, with 50% of the articles using this tool (Tab. 1), especially to collect information from tourists and tourism industry agents.…”

“…Regarding the first aspect, there is a focus on idiosyncratic cultural and geographic settings of food origins, which implies a diversity of approaches and topics covered, as well as geographically marked perspectives, as also advanced by Rachão et al (2019). In fact, an almost exclusive focus on social equity and local food value protection appears to be more salient in contexts with a high concentration of indigenous populations and biodiversity values, as in the case of Mexico and Ecuador (Ardren, 2018;Matta, 2019;Sidali et al, 2016). Two interesting insights can be derived from these analyses: the gender-based roles in producing, preparing and serving local food, and the synergies of food-related activities with other cultural creations (such as handicrafts).…”

“…In the first, the concern lies in slow food tourism and the governmental measures to ensure sustainability and the social, cultural and environmental levels; in the second case they focus on the ways in which traditional food on offer to urbanites may contribute to the sustainability of rural communities mainly at the economic and governance level; and in the third, the focus is on organic farming and certification and its relationship with tourism through sustainable agri-food tourism development that may act as educational practice for sustainability of farmers and tourists. Also related to the role of sustainable production processes and producers in rural food tourism, St. Maurice (2017) analyses the appeal for tourists and the community impact of a traditional Japanese specific foodstuff -'shishigatani kabocha', a type of squash and the role of women in the preparation process of this product, therefore highlighting (as in Ardren, 2018 ) gender-based practices regarding food. The study based in Russia (Ermolaev et al, 2019), takes a different path, showing an interesting distinction between what are named 'European' and 'Russian' styles of cheese tourism regarding the sustainable development of rural communities.…”

Partaking in Culinary Heritage at Yaxunah, Yucatán during the 2017 Noma Mexico Pop-Up

“…Yucatec Mayan and Spanish are commonly spoken. Yaxunah maintains a local government building, elementary and junior high school, a small health clinic, several places of worship, a community center, and an open area for cooking demos and other group events [5][6][7][8][9]. Well into the 1980s, Yaxunah households traditionally relied on farming, gardening, and harvesting wild resources for their subsistence, but increasingly, souvenir crafting and other tourism-based cottage industries have become key to people's livelihoods [10].…”

Famine Foods and Food Security in the Northern Maya Lowlands: Modern Lessons for Ancient Reconstructions

“…In the locality of Tixpeual, proximity to Mérida was reflected in increased use of the home garden to grow fruits and ornamentals, a response to fruit demands in the city (Rico-Gray et al 1990). In Yaxunah, a woman's cooking cooperative has had success offering “traditional” Maya meals in private homes to day tourists (Ardren 2018). These innovations could be etically thought of as a loss, but this type of plasticity is what has allowed continuity in traditional practices in Yucatán.…”