“the land has just stopped giving”

-Maya farmer, July 2019

This research examines how Maya agriculturalists in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula perceive environmental change over time. Using oral histories, the researchers will document the experiential dimensions of the agricultural environment and perceptions of change based on the point of view of those who have one or more generations working in the "milpas," or subsistence agricultural fields of the state of Yucatán.  The research seeks to demonstrate how agriculturalists distinguish the effects of "climate change" on a range of factors (rainfall, soil quality, plant growth, yield) as well as denote the effects of extreme weather events such as hurricanes and drought. The goal of this research is to gain a deeper and more complex understanding of how people in less “environmentally secure” and more ecologically vulnerable regions of the Global South look for alternatives to making a living. Methodologically, this research can to contribute a richly detailed, qualitative understanding of the local, culturally-contingent understandings of climate change to the growing compendium of quantitative studies emanating from the natural sciences.