Víctor M. Toledo

• Ph D i ecoogy
• Full time resarcher at National Autonomous University of Mexico

Toledo maintains that the conservation of biodiver- sity as a field of knowledge, helps to highlight the limitations of "simplified thought". In such a way, it suffers from the same li- mitations that affect most contemporary scientific disciplines: from over-specialization; from monodisciplinary perspectives; and, from the belief that problems can...

Toda memoria tiene un origen, una persistencia, una evolución, un presente y un futuro. Pero también posee una matriz, un núcleo duro, un eje en tor- no al cual giran los elementos constitutivos, a los cuales ordena y da sentido. Mesoamérica, como ci- vilización y como legado civilizatorio aún vigente, mantiene una memoria biocultural cuyo eje cent...

During the last 2 decades, several studies have analyzed the theoretical and practical development of agroecology in different countries. In each country, the transition has followed different paths and paces. Using a detailed review of myriad sources, this article describes the evolution of agroecology in Mexico from 1920 to date. Our analysis was...

Las parcelas mexicanas fueron un campo de disputa entre dos modelos agroproductivos en la primera mitad del siglo XX. Resultado de las presiones demográficas y los proyectos de desarrollo industrial y urbano que impulsaron los gobiernos emanados de la Revolución Mexicana, y posteriormente de los intereses económicos y geopolíticos del gobierno esta...

The Nahua communities in the Central Highlands of Guerrero have a ritual-agricultural cycle closely related to seasonality, environmental processes, agriculture, and landscape. The most important celebrations in the region are those asking for a good rainy season, for the rain to end, and to thank for the harvest. Building upon the ethnoecological...

All the evidence points to the fact that about five thousand years ago, a complex combination of factors gave way to a qualitatively different relationship between human societies and their environments. These factors include a leap in humans’ mental capacity, a generalized temperature increase (at the end of the Ice age), and in particular, the ma...

The first task is to generate a basic model of social metabolism. We present here our theoretical proposal though it is a work in progress and will be further developed in the future. To create an appropriate and coherent model, we must start by identifying the foundational totalities: “The world is the everyday existential totality. The world is i...

In this chapter, we set out the social and political foundations of Social Metabolism. We do so, however, from a biophysical perspective: that is, based on the relationships that every human society establishes within itself and with its physical environment for its survival. Within this framework, the notion of “entropy” remains useful indeed. As...

In the preceding chapters, we described the concept of social metabolism in detail and synthesized it in a basic model. We also distinguished three major historical social metabolic regimes, and presented a visual, theoretical framework based on the concepts of entropy, evolution, sustainability, and cooperation.

Industrial civilization exerted global dominium during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and is now undeniably suffering a deep crisis, its foremost myths gradually collapsing one by one. Industrial growth has visibly failed to close the gap between rich and poor countries, clearly revealing its inability to connect economic growth, industrial...

This and the following chapters demonstrate the versatility of Social Metabolism and how SM makes it possible to address a range of issues at different scales. We begin with the local scale and the study of two local communities. The first is situated in Punta Laguna, in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. The approach is characteristic of rural met...

To satisfy its needs, P has two options, that go from one extreme to the other: obtaining all that is required either from ecological exchange, i.e., from TEN, MEN, and CEN, or from economic exchange, i.e., from SEN. The former alternative requires diversifying its activities throughout the year, as this would be the only possible strategy to obtai...

Material and energy exchange flows between countries (N units) give rise to an intricate mesh of relations, the sum of which constitutes the scale of global metabolism. Interactions vary as well owing to the particularities of different countries, each presenting varying degrees of social, cultural, technological, and informational complexities, na...

In this chapter and the ones that follow, we present and discuss the basis for a theory of social metabolism. In doing so, we will go beyond its usage merely for accounting purposes and the field’s predominant cybernetic orientation. In such a mainstream view, social metabolism interpretations to date take into account mainly the matter and energy...

The event that motivated this article is significant in more ways than one. This was perhaps the first time that a researcher included civil protest and resistance as a factor in a predictive complex systems model at a major, rigorous, and solemn scientific congress. And not only was civil protest and resistance a basic factor in the model but one...

The human species’ main challenge today is the future. The future is a growing concern. As never before, natural and social processes have become entangled and have generated unpredictable, surprising new dynamics and synergies that threaten the human species, planetary equilibrium, and life as a whole. We are witnessing a crisis of civilization: t...

The third social metabolism regime appeared when humans extracted goods from nature by mobilizing not only solar energy, but also other new kinds of energy mainly of mineral origin—including uranium, the essential component of nuclear power plants.

As we have seen, Social Metabolism, in its different versions, has been used to study the structure, functioning and material dynamics of human societies throughout history, i.e., as an explanatory theory of socioenvironmental change.

Regarding material exchanges and flows, every nation state (N) ultimately functions in the same way as a unit of appropriation/production (P). This means that N reproduces the same operational processes as P, but at an exponentially higher scale.

This book includes 19 essays of the author on the science of Mexico, previously published as newspaper articles in La Jornada between 2012 and 2021. The essays are framed by a reflection of the author about the status of the contemporary science.

This book make a comparative social ecological analysis of four villages in the Basin of Lake Pátzcuaro in Michoacán, Mexico.

Inspired by the intellectual currents of political ecology, this essay aims to shed light on the crisis of the contemporary world. The social sciences, or plain science, require a profound and urgent renewal in order to highlight the hegemonic structures of knowledge; Over-specialized studies, so common in recent decades, are barely capable of capt...

Los pueblos indígenas mantienen un vínculo inseparable con la naturaleza, resultado de un diálogo milenario del que emergen vastos sistemas de conocimiento integrado. Una prueba de ello es la medicina indígena, la cual revela una red de relaciones interdependientes entre los pueblos y sus territorios. Ante un modelo económico en el que la naturalez...

This paper make a first exploration about the ecological foundations of the mode of production among the peasants. Published in 1980 it is specially a historical document.

Agroecologists mainly work with producers from traditional cultures. Ethno-ecological studies conducted in recent decades, clearly demonstrate that the experience these cultures have accumulated can be defined as wisdom, formed as a complex integrating a set of beliefs that lead to a worldview (an ontological dimension), a repertoire of knowledge (...

Published in 2000, this book call for an alternative modernity in Chiapas based on the potential of the natural resources of the region and on the memory of the indigenous peoples.

Our contribution focuses on revisiting the theme of maize and the regenerative traditional agricultural system called milpa (corn-beans-squash) in its cosmogonic, cognitive, and practical context within the Mesoamerican agricultural tradition. The milpa crop fields are seen as a historical and current result of ten thousand years of civilization du...

En el presente texto se analizan los factores que en poco más de un siglo propiciaron y condujeron la caficultura en Chiapas. Conforme las plantaciones de café se propagaron al interior del estado y, con base en los factores que hicieron esto posible, se presenta una periodización del desarrollo de la caficultura. Se muestra que la producción cafet...

En: Camejo Pereira Ma. V. & F. Kessler Dal Soglio (eds.). (2019). A conservação das sementes crioulas: uma visão interdisciplinar da agrobiodiversidade. Universidade Federal do Río Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Série Ensino, Aprendizagens e Tecnologias. Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. (En Prensa). 21p.

El presente documento hace pública la opinión de los miembros de la Mesa Técnica Ambiental del Frente en Defensa de Wirikuta Tamatsima Wahaa y de un grupo de científicos e investigadores asesores con gran trayectoria nacional e internacional, respecto a la posibilidad de que el lugar sagrado de Wirikuta sea declarada una Reserva de la Biósfera, pub...

The zapatista revolt of Chiapas, Mexico lift a regional level conflict. The book, published in 2000, offers a solution to the above based on a political ecology approach. The construction of an "alternative modernity" inspired in the heritage of indigenous peoples.

A detailed review of the relations between Purhépecha indigenous villages and environment of the lake Pátzcuaro basin in Michoacán, Mexico is presented. The review includes indigenous views, knowledge and practices.

The global socio-environmental crisis poses what is arguably the greatest challenge in the history of science. It has demanded an interdisciplinary effort in which thousands of scientists from around the world have rapidly articulated what is already recognized as a consolidated research field: Sustainability science [SS]. Considering the urgency o...

O livro que o leitor tem em mãos é o resultado de pesquisas pessoais conduzidas pelos autores por várias décadas e de reflexões e análises conjuntas desenvolvidas durante cinco anos, incluindo alunos de dois cursos. Sua elaboração contou com a valiosa colaboração de Pablo Alarcón-Chaires e de Carolina Pinilla. Ao primeiro, devemos a maior parte de...

La presente publicación intenta ser un libro de texto accesible, pero al mismo tiempo riguroso y actualizado, de un novedoso campo de conocimiento que se ha convertido en tema prioritario en innumerables discusiones nacionales e internacionales, así como de debate y controversia en los medios académicos, políticos y diplomáticos. El libro ha sido e...

This paper is making a critical review of the concept of sustainability from a political ecology perspective, and proposing a definition of sustainability as social empowerment.

México vive hoy una severa crisis como nación. Ello debido a la cancelación de las conquistas sociales logradas por sus pueblos a lo largo de los últimos 200 años en búsqueda de su independencia, autonomía y soberanía, y a más de 500 años de resistencia y lucha social. A lo largo de unas 350 generaciones, estos pueblos, comunidades e individuos con...

PROLOGO La idea de lo “biocultural” se ha convertido en muy breve tiempo en un nuevo campo de la investigación científica, de la discusión intelectual y de las novedades periodísticas. Un campo novedoso, prometedor, trascendente, controversial y apasionante. Sus orígenes, de apenas un par de décadas, proceden de la confluencia de dos corrientes de...

A new approach concerning the understanding nature/culture relations in agro-centric societies in Mesoamérica

Resumen Utilizando los métodos propuestos desde el marco teórico del metabolismo social, se evalúa la viabilidad económica de una comunidad indígena en Oaxaca, México. Los resultados encontrados del análisis de flujos de dinero, fueron ubicados en tres ambientes: el MAC (Medio Ambiente Conservado) que está constituido por un área de reserva ubicada...

Resumen El concepto del metabolismo social ha cobrado una gran importancia dentro de los estudios que tratan de comprender las interacciones entre la sociedad y la naturaleza. Desde la década de 1990 su impacto ha crecido exponencialmente siendo utilizado por numerosos autores provenientes de diferentes disciplinas científicas. El objetivo de este...

En las últimas cuatro décadas, el aporte de América Latina al pensamiento ambiental regional y global ha sido trascendente y ha dejado una impronta propia a la propuesta inicial luego de la Cumbre de Río del desarrollo sustentable. No podría haber desarrollo posible en un subcontinente que enfrenta un serio proceso de endeudamiento externo, cancela...

Con base a la teoría del METABOLISMO SOCIAL, el lib ro realiza un análisis socio-ecológico de la producción primaria o rural de México, utilizando una metodología original que se aplica a escala nacional, estatal y municipal y a algunos estudios de caso.

Background The use of birds as pets has been a historical tradition in Mexico since prehispanic times. It has survived through bird traders, called pajareros, which is a local name given to the trade (derived from pájaro, the Spanish word for bird). However, the trade of birds has not been sufficiently described; therefore, the goal of this paper i...

The biocultural richness of Mexico is among the highest worldwide. A history of over 7000 years of agriculture, and a persistent tradition of peasant social resistance movements that climaxed during the agrarian revolution in the early 20th century, continued in the indigenous resistance in Chiapas leading to the Zapatista uprising in 1992, and con...

Por lo común se considera que la polinización ornitófila en las especies americanas de plantas es efectuada siempre por especies de aves pertenecientes a la familia Trochilidae (colibríes). Estudios muy recientes llevados a cabo por el autor han comenzado a mostrar sin embargo la existencia de especies de plantas adaptadas para la polinización por...

En la actualidad la humanidad se enfrenta a retos alimentarios, energéticos, ambientales y sociales de gran complejidad y magnitud. Entre los mayores problemas destacan la inseguridad alimentaria, la pérdida de la diversidad biocultural, la pobreza y la progresiva desigualdad y los efectos nocivos del cambio climático. México cuenta con una gran di...

Se presenta el estado de la relación entre la diversidad, agrícola, forestal y cultural en México. Su papel en la conservación de la diversidad biocultural , haciendo énfasis en plantas y animales y la soberanía alimentaria,

Fecha de recepción: 21/03/2014. Fecha de aceptación: 15/08/2016 Resumen Una dimensión clave en la nueva teoría del metabolismo social es aquella que se centra en el estudio de la apropiación de la naturaleza, y que puede definirse como metabolismo rural o agrario. Como una nueva contribución al análisis teórico y práctico de los metabolismos rurale...

El capítulo hace una historia del sistema agrícola de terrazas en el estado de Tlaxcala, México, desde la época prehispánica a la actualidad, a través de una serie de investigaciones que dan información sobre el uso de los bosques, los suelos y la compleja orografía de la entidad. A través del conocimiento agrícola tradicional de los agricultores d...

Etnoagroforestería en México, los proyectos y la idea del libro El dramático escenario del 2050 En la actualidad la humanidad se enfrenta a retos alimentarios, energéti-cos, ambientales y sociales de gran complejidad y magnitud. No obstante el crecimiento sin precedentes en la producción de alimentos de la última mitad del siglo aún existen entre m...

The book make a detailed review of successful sustainable o social and ecologically sound projects in Mexico. The review was carried out at three levels: national, state and local. The number of successful projects is astonishing: over 2,000 in all the Mexican territory, 1086 in five key states (Chiapas, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Michoacán and Puebla)...

Todas las variantes que pregonaban la transformación de las sociedades han quedado hechas añicos, se volvieron " confeti de colores ". La realidad del mundo de hoy, globalizado, interconectado, hipertecnológico y que ha alcanzado los máximos históricos de la explotación ecológica y social, ha enviado a las principales propuestas del cambio social a...

Etnoagroforestería en México compila el esfuerzo de 40 investigadores (en su mayoría mexicanos y de diversas universidades del país) quienes comparten el interés y la preocupación por mantener viva la rica expresión de la diversidad biocultural de México. Sus estudios etnoagroforestales se construyen como una aproximación transdisciplinaria capaz d...

The book (in Spanish) make a detailed review of the double process of destruction (ecological and social) of both the Mexican environment and the societal networks, as a national level case of the civilizatory crisis affecting the global scenery.

p class="p1"> Resumen | Si se considera 1987 (el Informe Brundtland) como el inicio oficial de la idea de sustentabilidad , el término ha realizado un fulgurante recorrido de casi tres décadas y sigue vivo. En su devenir, se ha convertido al mismo tiempo en concepto, paradigma, marco teórico, instrumento técnico, utopía, pretexto, ideología y mucha...

The global expansion of the neoliberal model is most forcefully expressed in the processes of social, cultural, and environmental predation undertaken by corporations in the so-called Global South. Three pertinent processes are taking place in Mexico: (1) an increase in socio-environmental conflicts, mainly in rural areas and in predominantly indig...

The global expansion of the neoliberal model is most forcefully expressed in the processes of social, cultural, and environmental predation undertaken by corporations in the so-called Global South. Three pertinent processes are taking place in Mexico: (1) an increase in socio-environmental conflicts, mainly in rural areas and in predominantly indig...

Agroecología y medicina originaria. Experiencias y procesos organizativos hacia la soberanía en salud y defensa del territorio. Agroecology and original peoples medicine. Más allá de los estudios etnobotánicos e inventarios de flora medicinal, existe una carencia y una necesidad de ampliar la mirada agroecológica en la producción medicinal encamina...

An updated summary of the theoretical and methodological approach of social metabolism and their latest contributions ::::: Provides an interpretation of human history from a socio-ecological perspective ::::::Proposes a new theory of socio-ecological change, in which collective action takes a prominent place. Today, the most notable feature of the...

Regarding material exchanges and flows, every Nation State (N) ultimately functions in the same way as a unit of appropriation/production (P), which means N reproduces the same operational processes of P, but at an exponentially higher scale. At the national scale, within the territory of each unit of N, material (produce, forest products, crops) a...

All evidence points to that about 5,000 years ago a complex combination of factors—including a leap in mental capacity of humans, a generalized increase in temperatures (end of the Glacial age), and particularly, the management of landscapes and plant and animal species—gave place to a qualitatively different relation between human societies and th...

In December 2012, a pink-haired complex systems researcher named Brad Werner made his way through the throng of 24,000 earth and space scientists at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, held annually in San Francisco… it was Werner’s own session that was attracting much of the buzz. It was titled “Is Earth F**ked?”… Standing at the f...

In order to satisfy its needs, P has two extreme and opposite options: obtaining all that is required from ecological interchange, i.e., from TEN, MEN, and CEN; or obtain what is needed only from economic exchange, i.e., from SEN. The former alternative demands adopting a strategy of diversified activities occurring throughout the year as the only...

In the preceding chapters we made a detailed description of the concept of social metabolism which we synthesized in a basic model, we distinguished three main types of social metabolism along history, and we visualized a conceptual framework having as theoretical axis the concepts of entropy, evolution, sustainability, and cooperation (Chap. 12)....

The best way to fully appreciate the complexity and theoretical potential of the idea of social metabolism is to understand the process of labor (human work) that is the starting point, trigger, key axis, and primeval unit of the historical development and evolution of human society as an emergent phenomenon of the universe.

The human species as such (Homo sapiens) is at least 200,000 years old, but if humanness was inclusively considered, its antiquity must be extended to about two million years.

In this chapter we present and develop the minimal foundations of a proposal going beyond the essentially cybernetic methodology dominating studies of social metabolism.

The exchange of flows of materials and energy between countries (units of N) gives place to an intricate mesh of relations, the sum of which constitutes the scale of global metabolism.

The third type of social metabolism appeared when humans extracted goods from nature by mobilizing not only solar, but other new types of energy mainly of mineral origin—including uranium, the fundamental substance of nuclear power plants. The shift from a mainly solar production to one based on fossil fuel or mineral energy as a product of the ind...

Our first task is to generate a basic model of social metabolism. For that, and for the created model to be suitable and coherent, we must start by identifying and recognizing the foundational totalities: “The world is the everyday existential totality. The world is intentionally expressed as an interpreted totality… The interpreted totality repres...

There is no doubt about the profound crisis currently experienced by the industrial civilization that has exerted global dominium during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, its foremost myths gradually collapsing one by one.

The main contemporaneous challenge of the human species is the growing concern for the future. As never before seen, natural and social processes become entangled to generate unpredictably surprising new dynamics and synergies threatening the human species, the planetary equilibrium, and life as a whole.

RESuMEN: Los sistemas agroforestales tradicionales (SAFT) son de particular importancia en México por su historia, diversi-ficación y beneficios potenciales. El presente estudio caracteriza el estado de la investigación en SAFT del país, a través de: (1) una búsqueda sistemática de palabras clave en buscadores y revistas especializadas, documentand...

Resumen La existencia de un mercado tradicional y del trueque como sistema de intercambio comercial en la región del Lago de Pátzcuaro es considerada una forma de resistencia así como una alternativa y opción de vida para numerosas familias. La relación entre la naturaleza y los vínculos socioeconómicos de esta región son analizados a través de la...

We reviewed information about traditional agroforestry systems of Mexico and its biocultural diversity. The review included the slash and burn agricultural systems: kool in the Yucatán Peninsula and tlacolol in Guerrero; the terrace called metepantli in Tlaxcala; the drained fields chinampa in the Valley of México and calal in southwestern Tlaxcala...

A la memoria de Alfred Schmidt (1931-2012) Ante la necesidad de construir marcos conceptuales que permitan realizar análisis congruentes sobre las relaciones entre los procesos naturales y los procesos sociales desde una perspectiva holística o integradora, el artículo lleva a cabo una narrativa de la teoría del metabolismo social, uno de los instr...

Over the past two decades, local people have developed community-based conservation projects as alternatives or complements to conventional large protected areas. Although most scholars and conservationists have largely ignored the successes of small community conservation projects, these continue growing at an unexpected rate. Community conservati...

En el presente escrito se exponen situaciones críticas en el contexto de la crisis global. La ruptura del equilibrio del ecosistema del planeta ha traído cambios, deterioros, pérdidas naturales y humanas, en los que el principal agente generador de estos procesos ha sido el hombre. Asimismo, hay nombres y apellidos que con claridad pueden identific...