Man and Nature: Symbiotic Compromises

This past summer I had the privilege of studying abroad in the Yucatan. One of my favorite stops along our cultural tour was Kaxil Kiuic, Millsaps College’s biocultural reserve and archaeological dig site. The thing that struck me most there was the seemingly symbiotic relationship between the reserve’s workers and students and the environment. Each needed the other and compromised accordingly to take care of each other. The environment (if I may personify it) compromised by allowing people to build their shelters and research facilities at Kiuic. In return, the people made sure they intruded into and messed up as little of the natural environment as possible while working and studying the site’s ruins and living organisms. For example, while there, our group was asked to use a special shampoo that, when used, would have none of the harmful effects on nature regular shampoo might cause. Also, the reserve uses clean, eco-friendly solar power for electricity, thereby reducing the damage that could be done to the environment. Both sides are rewarded in this context: the people get to find and study amazing ruins and creatures, and the environment gains protection from people that might otherwise have harmed and/or destroyed it. In this way, we can see the beauty of nature (the tall, protective trees, the birds singing and flying overhead, the clean, earthy scents stirred up by occasional breezes…) with people interacting with it in a mutually beneficial relationship, almost becoming a part of the environment themselves.

--Jennifer Gandy