Multispecies ethnography in the mayan máasewaalo'ob solar sites: care practices and more-than-human worlds

This article explores care practices between mayan máasewáalo’ob women and the animals that inhabit the solares in Chancah Derrepente, Quintana Roo, Mexico, based on ethnographic work carried out since 2016. It analyzes how care configures spatial relations, commensality, and shared labor. It highlights the central role of women in the maintenance and transformation of solares, where cultural norms and female bodily characteristics condition the activities assigned to each gender. The research addresses five types of links between people and animals: protection and hunting, appreciation and entertainment, respect and reverence, feeding and distancing. The article makes visible the agency of animals in each of these relationships, questioning the limits of care and notions of human possession, as well as the categories of domestic and wild. It also explores the relationship between gender, health, mobility, and multispecies care, challenging anthropocentric perspectives and opening new lines of analysis.

KEYWORDS
care; gender; multispecies; maya máasewáal; animals