Creating Biocultural Heritage for Tourism: The Case of Mycological Tourism in Central Mexico

Abstract

Biocultural heritage is a social-historical construction, housing the biological and cultural memory of human groups (Toledo 2012) through a legacy that contains the natural wealth and variety of languages, cultures and products (Toledo and Barrera Bassols 2008), including foods such as wild edible mushrooms. It is a collectively constructed heritage, which is fundamental to peasant economies and is transmitted from generation to generation. The gathering of wild foods is part of the cultural tradition of different social groups around the world (Cunningham 2001), enabling the survival of populations in many different regions (Fernández 2006). At the same time, the practice illustrates the processes of co-evolution between humans and nature, based on a relationship between ecological and cultural factors (Berkes et al. 2000).