Thesis
The underground forest frontier in Mexico's Quintana Roo competing discourse and materialities surrounding caves and cenotes
Melo Zurita, M. de L.
Record Number:
4995
Year:
2012
University:
King's College London
Abstract:
The Mexican state of Quintana Roo is home to a complex ecosystem. Beneath the
state’s surface is a riddle of flooded caves which form part of the world’s most extensive
aquifer, above the surface is a vast tropical dry forest, while along the coast line there is
one of the world’s longest coral reefs. These systems are directly linked by dispersed
water sinkholes, known as cenotes, which pierce through the surface of the land and
ocean floor. The state is also home to some of the fastest growing urban centres in the
world, driven by mass tourism, the state’s main economic activity. The intersection of
these different complex processes and landscape has the focus of this thesis. In
particular the research is interested in the appropriation of cenotes, how humans have
related towards the underground systems, making use of them, controlling them,
enclosing them and transforming them. The thesis draws upon the theoretical notion
that commodifying nature has being a determinant way of how humans relate with
nature. However these relations are ultimately shaped in different ways, according to
each individual’s position and function in the social system. Cenotes, for humans, have
been and still are places to perform sacred and religious rituals, places to hide, places to
deposit material goods, places to study, places to explore and places to be regulated.
This thesis unpacks these relations, critically examining the main drivers of different
socio-environmental outcomes in this underground forest frontier.
Times Cited:
2