Tohono O'odham Traditional Foods in Transition

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Tohono O'odham Traditional Foods in Transition TRADITIONAL FOOD SECURITY: TOHONO O’ODHAM TRADITIONAL FOODS IN TRANSITION By DAVID V. FAZZINO II A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2008 1 © 2008 David V. Fazzino II 2 To the men and women who have gone before and to those that continue to work fields and pray for rain. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There were many who have helped to make this writing possible, providing me with necessary guidance, inspiration, kind words, and criticism when it was needed. I would like to start by thanking my Ph.D. advisor, Paul Magnarella for his support through my years at the University of Florida and throughout this process. Allyson Flournoy, Hugh Popenoe and John Richard Stepp, the members of my Ph.D. committee, were also supportive. Of course I would have never arrived to study anthropology without the early guidance of my undergraduate anthropology instructors, particularly Esther Skirboll. I thank key contributors to my knowledge of food security and food systems: Jeff Gold, Peter Matlon, Larry Patrick, and my former fellow students at the Harmony House in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. Several individuals and organizations deserve my thanks for enhancing my understanding of food and culture on and around the Tohono O’odham Nation. The Tohono O’odham Community College staff, fellow students and particularly professors Ronald Geromino, Barbara Kahn, Danny Lopez and Monica Lopez deserve mention for teaching me about Tohono O’odham language, culture and the multiple levels and scales of knowledge concerning diabetes on the Tohono O'odham Nation. Alicia Davis, Lance Gravlee, Danny Lopez and Kenneth Madsen were helpful in the final stages of this project. I thank Frances Conde, the Agriculture and the Cultural Preservation Committees of the Legislative Branch of the Tohono O’odham Nation for guiding me in the process of gaining permission and their insights informing both myself and this work. The following organizations and individuals also deserve my thanks: Alex Beeshligaii, Paul Buseck, Kevin Dahl, Bill Lopez, William Leonard Mattias, Peter McCrohan, Native Seeds/SEARCH, Suzanne Nelson, Renee Reddog, San Lucy Elders Program, Sells Elders Program, David Shaul, San Xavier Cooperative Farm, Regina Siqueros, Tohono O’odham Community Action, Tohono O’odham Community College and Bill Worthy. Particularly, 4 Ernestine Marquez of the San Lucy District deserves mention for her efforts in promoting this research within the San Lucy District, making space and time available for interviews, and great conversations. I also extend my thanks for the support and love of my family, including my wife, Dana Davis, during an extended period of research and writing. I hope that you will all find your name here, but if I have omitted mention here, please consider it an oversight and accept my apologies. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES...........................................................................................................................9 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................12 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS........................................................................................................14 ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................15 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................17 Food Security Law and Policy................................................................................................17 Diseases of Affluence.............................................................................................................27 Obesity.............................................................................................................................27 Diabetes ...........................................................................................................................29 Community Foods, Community Health ..........................................................................30 Food Security Revisited..........................................................................................................33 Situating the Research ............................................................................................................38 Goals of the Research .............................................................................................................45 Research Approvals and Methods of Gathering Data ............................................................48 Limitations to This Study .......................................................................................................52 2 THE TOHONO O’ODHAM ..................................................................................................58 The Desert People...................................................................................................................58 Tohono O’odham Lands.........................................................................................................61 Eco-Biological Factors ...........................................................................................................62 Economies of the Tohono O'odham Nation ...........................................................................64 Casino..............................................................................................................................64 Mining .............................................................................................................................65 Ranching..........................................................................................................................66 Agricultural Production...................................................................................................68 Professional and Administrative......................................................................................71 Informal Economy...........................................................................................................73 Entities Involved with Tohono O'odham Agriculture, Health and Tradition .........................74 San Xavier Cooperative Farm .........................................................................................75 Tohono O’odham Community Action (TOCA) ..............................................................77 Healthy O’odham Promotion Program (HOPP)..............................................................80 Tohono O’odham Community College...........................................................................80 Native Seeds/SEARCH (NS/S) .......................................................................................81 6 3 FOOD: LOCAL, GLOBAL, OTHER ....................................................................................91 Arizona Agriculture................................................................................................................91 Global and Local Bioregionalism...........................................................................................92 Sustainable and Industrial Agriculture ...................................................................................96 Taste and the Exotic Other ...................................................................................................100 Genes, Property and Intellectual Currents............................................................................105 4 TOHONO O’ODHAM FOOD SECURITY CHALLENGES .............................................110 What are Traditional Foods? ................................................................................................110 Historical Shifts in Tohono O’odham Food Systems....................................................111 Negotiating Tohono O’odham Traditional Foods .........................................................113 Traditional Foods by Gender.........................................................................................117 Traditional Foods by District.........................................................................................118 Traditional foods by Age...............................................................................................119 Consumption of Traditional Foods in the Past, Present and Future .....................................123 Factors Limiting Traditional Foods Consumption ...............................................................126 Convenience of Traditional Foods ................................................................................129 Safety and Security of Collecting Along the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.......................133 Alcohol, Drugs and Gangs ............................................................................................136 Cost of Traditional Foods..............................................................................................139 The Health of Eating Traditional Foods........................................................................141 Contamination ...............................................................................................................143
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