Toponymy, biodiversity and conservation in Mexico

Case study in a Nahua community of Puebla

Abstract

The names of places tell stories that speak of natural and social characteristics, they tell us about symbolism, a dialogue between time and space, ultimately it is a story, from everyday life, about the appropriation of space. The objective of this article is to record the place names of a Nahua region of Mexico to analyze its relationship with biodiversity, the appropriation of territory and environmental conservation. For this purpose, a mixed descriptive and documentary research was carried out in Comaltepec, Mexico, whose original population speaks the Nahuatl language. Official records were reviewed and mixed-type interviews were applied, with open and closed questions to the population to collect information. In relation to geographic information systems, Google Earth was in charge, as well as the digital tool Timestam Camera Free. This allowed registration in the application under the “Toponimia Comalpetec” project. In relation to the results 156 toponyms were registered in ten categories, mainly in the Nahuatl language, where the presence of names associated with natural resources stands our, with this the “Comaltepec Toponymy” project available on Google Earth was completed. The oral memory of the native peoples in relation to place names allows the conservation of denominations of the territory that accesses the maintenance of the identity, of the uses of the territory. These names are a kind of treatise on the knowledge of space, and integrate both natural and cultural elements, from the concrete and the symbolic.