ETHNOBIOLOGICAL TRANSCENDENCE OF THE CONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE NATURE-CULTURE RELATIONSHIP IN JOSÉ MARTÍ

Abstract

The article presents one of the partial results of the main author's doctoral thesis. A detailed analysis of José Martí's campaign diaries, from the perspective of ethnobiology, allowed us to identify potentialities in the treatment of the nature-culture relationship that are expressed in these texts. They can favour the incorporation of this interdiscipline to the environmental training in pedagogical careers or others with a biological profile, as a response to one of the problems that must be faced in professional practice. As a result of the study, the behavioural and procedural qualities that Martí shows in his interaction with the culture of the visited regions are pointed. These have an important axiological wealth and an important behavioural, procedural and methodological pattern for the development of an ethnobiological and environmental culture. This qualities could be used as educational references both for educators in the field of biology and natural sciences in general, as well as for environmental managers or other professionals whose activity involves knowledge of traditional communities, their positive transformation or enrichment of the academy from this knowledge and his ancestral roots. It was determined that the analysed diaries constitute an important testimony for the ethnobiological study of the north western region of Hispaniola and a part of eastern Cuba at the end of the 19th century. The information in this regard can be useful to promote the rescue of a part of the rich symbolism, knowledge and practices of the communities of these regions.