184 

 Maya assistant translated or explained the questions, if necessary, during the 15 min interview. 

 Questions were asked in Spanish or Maya. 



If all gardens were the same in the sense that each household planted a single garden, then it 

 would be expected that the relationship between all gardens and wildlife would be comparable. 

 However, if some households shared in planting gardens or if outside labor was used, then the 

 relationship between gardens and wildlife might be different. Originally it was thought that each adult 

 man would plant a garden by himself for his immediate family. This would result in a certain duration 

 of work and frequency of visits to the garden site. During the gardener interviews, however, it became 

 apparent that this single pattern was not universally applicable at X-Hazil Sur and that there were 

 various arrangements by which gardens were planted and the crops harvested and distributed. These 

 differences potentially could affect wildlife use of gardens by substantially decreasing the rate at which 

 workers visited the garden. 



Another reason for not simmiarizing garden activities per household was because nonfamily 

 members often cooperated in garden activities. For example, an adult man could individually have a 

 single garden for the use of his immediate family, or he could share the work and the crop obtained 

 with a son, brother, or other relative. In other cases, two men might cooperate in planting one garden, 

 while individually planting other gardens. These arrangements changed during the growing season and 

 between years as gardeners died, became ill, or took temporary jobs outside of the ejido. As a result, 

 there was a great deal of flexibility regarding who worked in the garden and who shared in the harvest. 

 This complex situation suggested that a new term should be used to described the gardening unit. 



In this chapter, instead of trying to categorize and quantify the different gardening 

 arrangements, the single term garden group will be used to denote all of the people, except temporary 

 contract employees, who contributed to the production or consumption of garden crops from a 

 particular garden. Garden group is different from the term household in that garden group members 

 may not necessarily be related or eat or sleep in the same housing compound. Garden group is similar 



