Understanding change in traditional sustainable livelihoods: a complex socio-ecological system in an indigenous community in Mexico

Abstract

This research documents how a transition to a more monetized, trade-based economy modifies the socio-ecological livelihoods system of the indigenous community of Santa Fe de la Laguna, in Mexico. The research found that there had been changes in community livelihoods, from traditional activities (agriculture, forestry, and fishing) to an economy based on handicraft production (pottery) and its trade. Through the modelling of the structure, dynamics, and change processes of the system, two key repercussions are identified: first, pottery production has intensified the extraction of soil and firewood, and second, the increase in trade and the abandonment of traditional activities are diminishing people’s links with nature, which is having an impact on their links with community sociocultural and institutional systems. The paper argues that the most important economic practices and related knowledge of the community may become unviable in the face of livelihood transformations that are responding to the global monetized economy.