ABSTRACT
This chapter simultaneously sheds light on two integrative and yet somewhat silenced layers of the Maya Forest. The first layer is chicle history, which refers to the chewing-gum hunting, production, and business that characterized the region for nearly a hundred years. Chicle trade, running from the 1890s to the 1980s, connected the countries and regions forming the Maya Forest today, creating forest communities and ecological knowledge. It also connected the Maya Forest to the global capitalist system. Second, chicle history connected the Maya Forest to science – namely, contemporary Archaeology and natural sciences – given that the chewing-gum hunters, knowledgeable about rainforest trails, were predominantly those who found the Maya ruins where the chicle trees, sapodillas, were also located. Nowadays, many biological stations are also situated in the ancient chicle camps, near Maya ruins. Contemporary biological stations and conservationists allow shedding light on the dynamics and history of the inner Maya Forest as go-betweens, curators, and places-in-knots that connect these historical forest layers, including the chicle.
