This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The underground forest frontier in Mexico's Quintana Roo competing discourse and materialities surrounding caves and cenotes Melo Zurita, Maria Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 09. Oct. 2021 This electronic theses or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Title: The underground forest frontier in Mexico's Quintana Roo competing discourse and materialities surrounding caves and cenotes Author: Maria Melo Zurita The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ You are free to: Share: to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. 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. Acknowledgments This thesis has counted on the support of many people. I will always be indebted to my lead supervisor, Mark Pelling, for the accurate and to the point advice. He is the one to be blamed for immersing me into the cenotes and caves world. I believe none of us was aware of the implications of choosing cenotes. I would also like to thank Michael Redclift, my second supervisor, for sharing his knowledge and experiences on Mexico and specifically on Quintana Roo. Both supervisors guided me in the most difficult times and provided insightful comments all along. A big thank you goes to the Mexican Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT). Who has not only provided me with financial support throughout this PhD, but who has also helped to finance my previous studies in Mexico. CONACyT has heavily invested in me as an individual and I hope to repay them through future contributions from my personal, professional and academic life in relation to Mexico’s unique environment. Several organisations provided me with invaluable help and information during my fieldwork research. In Quintana Roo, I am grateful to the collaboration of Alejandra Serrano from Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental; Alejandra Fregoso from Fundacion Amigos de Sian Ka’an; Paul Sanchez-Navarro, Edith Sosa and Alma Boada from Centro Ecologico Akumal; Mario Rebolledo from Centro de Estudios del Agua; Olmo Torres Talamante from ROZANATURA; and Carmen Rojas from INAH. The ejidatarios of Quintana Roo, while they gave me a hard time, they also taught me that it does not matter how ‘pretty’ a methodological section looks on paper, when it comes to the field one needs to be creative. Thanks for the challenge! A special thanks go to Ejido Playa del Carmen, Ejido Jacinto Pat and Ejido Tulum. I would also like to especially thank Don Cleofas Pool (Playa del Carmen), Donato Castro (Jacinto Pat) and Gabriel Mason (Jacinto Pat) for sharing stories about a not so distant past and putting me in contact with ‘others’. I cannot mention here the names of all those belonging to the group of explorers that provided me with adventure, mystery and a lots of good times (as well as important data for this thesis). Nevertheless, I would specifically like to thank Daniel Riordan from Zero Gravity; Sam Meacham from CINDAQ; Luis Leal from Buceo Hecho en Mexico; Bill Phillips from Speleotech. I 2 am eternally indebted to Simon Richards and James Coke; they took this rocky researcher to the ‘field in the field’ and shared an absolute ton of information and time with me. James Coke and the material provided through the Quintana Roo Speleological Survey made this thesis far more interesting. While Simon Richards, provided hours and hours of his time ‘cave- illuminating me’, he actively participated in teaching me the intricacies of the hydrological system in Quintana Roo and filled this thesis with visual beauty through maps and pictures. In Yucatan State, I would like to thank Carlos Evia from Universidad Autónoma de Yucatan; Rául Manzanilla and Fátima Tec Poot from Grupo Ajau. While writing this thesis, I have also counted on the friendship and advice of colleagues from multiple other universities and organisations. Many thanks to Ricardo Macip from Benemerita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Héctor Rodríguez from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Lidija Mavra from Sock Mob (and King’s College London). Other friends that have been with me through my multiple theses and especially encouraged me through this one include: Letizia Silva, Ana Rosa Flores Soriano, Victoria Soriano, Ana Ramos Maurer, Donna Richards, Kat Richards, Emma Richards, Mary Henderson, Robbert Boyes, Elena Melo and Maria Tattaris. My most special acknowledgment goes to my extended family, which have supported immensely during the last four years: Marilyn, Jim, Kylie and Rob. My parents have always been my best source of knowledge and my strength through all my studies. If anyone is to blame for what I have written in the dissertation it is them! I must also thank my sisters and their families, who have been patient in the most difficult times especially when my presence was most needed. On the 27th of September 2007 during student induction at the Geography Department at King’s College London I met the person who has held my hand during this four (almost five!) years, Paul Munro. He has provided me with high doses of patience, optimism and critical feedback; I owe him more that I am able to publicly say. To my beautiful daughter Makena, she is the source of happiness that kept me going for the last two years, and a constant reminder of how easy is to learn if we are willing to. I entirely dedicate this research to both of them. 3 Prologue My own story about cenotes When my supervisors, Mark Pelling and Michael Redclift, encouraged me to conduct my research on the cenotes and caves in Quintana Roo, I never thought that I would actually need to do some caving. Although, as a child, I had swum in cenotes and consumed lunch and drinks in nearby palapas, I never imagined what saying ‘yes’ to researching cenotes would entail. The first cave I visited for my research was part of a cave system in the archaeological zone of Xel-Ha. Simon Richards and James (Jim) Coke, two resident cave explorers in Quintana Roo, invited me for a short visit to the system and some post-caving beers.