Biosphere reserves and the “Yucatán” syndrome: another look at the role of NGOs

After centuries of cultural and economic conquest of the Americas by European and Euro-American conquistadors, contemporary rhetoric in ex-colonial powers heralds the decline of material and ideological imperialism. Instead, it is purported that today's world is peopled by a great brotherhood, with the more affluent striving to relieve their less fortunate, underdeveloped kith. This conviction is inherent in organizations which dispense money, information, training, and other resources in the name of community development and endangered species and environmental conservation. What is rarely perceived – and practically never said – is that these “benevolent” foreign aid activities typically result in the concentration of resources and power in the hands of a few, the building of empires, and the compounding of already difficult situations, counter-productive to stated objectives. The Yucatán Peninsula is a classic case of persistent imperialism: the geographic name is a corruption of the Mayan “matan cub a than” (“I do not understand you”), while contemporary development and conservation programs habitually exhibit cultural ignorance and dominance. This paper explores a diverse literature on non-governmental organizations, reflects on likely consequences of cultural dominance, and implores professional anthropologists to be adventurous in propagating anthropological knowledge relevant to environmental protection.