The social knowledge inherent to land maps

Abstract

Tirty years afer we have started to rescue the autochthonous knowledge of soils at the Colegio de Posgraduados (specializing in soil science), we will systemize in this paper the achivments reached so far in a twofold manner: (1) Categorical knowledge, leading to the development of taxonomies, and geographic knowledge, resulting in the development of cognitive maps; however, a thourough reflection on this procedure requires philosophical analysis. (2) Land maps as a form of geographic and social knowledge, which involve farmers and academics in its generation; a topic that juxtaposes, rather than confronting the different approaches, perspectives and sociocultural environments, making a land map a social construct. While all this can be covered by a graphic sketch made by a farmer, usually not larger than the sheet of a notebook, the knowledge it conveys is much bigger.