Mycophilic degree among the Wixaritari and mestizos in Villa Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico

Abstract

The appreciation and taste towards mushrooms are influenced by sociocultural factors and ecological variables. This study evaluated the mycophilic degree among the Wixaritari and mestizo communities in a municipality in the north of Jalisco, settled in different types of vegetation, to determine if ecological and sociocultural factors influence the attitude towards the mushrooms. The MycophiliaMycophobia Index was evaluated in 10 communities in which structured interviews were conducted with a representative number of people. Responses to 18 indicators were analyzed by statistical tests. In general, the population resulted mycophilic. There were significant differences between the Wixaritari and mestizo attitudes in 10 of the 18 indicators. The model that best explained the mycophilic attitudes was communitycultural group in which the vegetation type was involved. Nevertheless, the cultural group alone affected the perception towards some issues, as the indicators include here have shown. One Wixarika community in pineoak forest was extremely mycophilic, in contrast to a mestizo community in oak forest that was indifferent to the mushrooms; these attitudes were the result of historical events that have modified the lifestyle of people. The differences in the evaluated indicators were due to the cosmovision of each cultural group. Changes in lifestyle and diet have caused a lack of interest and an apathetic attitude towards wild mushrooms in a community, but the farthest communities showed a greater appreciation towards mushrooms, especially since these and the rest of the wild resources are used to meet their basic needs. These attitudes could have implications for biological conservation because of the appreciation of a strong dependence on the environment.

Perception of fungi by farmers in the Cerrado

“…In Latin America, Mexico stands out as the country with an expressive mycophile tradition. The popular knowledge of Mexican communities, mostly known as mycophillic people, on the edible mushrooms includes dozens of species, such as representatives of Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and even plasmodial slime molds from Amoebozoa such as myxomycetes (Montoya et al, 2019;Haro-Luna et al, 2020). Also notable is the commercial exploitation of native/wild mushroom species by Mexican communities, such as the Nahuatl-speaking peoples of the Nahua peoples (Contreras Cortés et al, 2018).…”

Sociocultural drivers of mycological knowledge: insights from Wixarika and Mestizo groups in western Mexico

“…The collection of images of basidiomycetes that were part of the visual stimuli used in indicator 2 was made from the works of Haro-Luna et al [ 18 , 44 , 45 ], who collected the mushrooms known and used by the people of both municipalities. The visual stimuli consisted in 30 color photographs of 30 species of mushrooms taken in situ, showing all angles and characteristics of each fungus, printed at 11 × 17″ size (list of species in Attachment 1).…”