Ecosymbiotic Complementarity, an Old Theory Applicable in Today's Ethnobiological Studies

Ethnobiology analyzes the interactions between people and their surrounding environments from various perspectives. Some studies have been criticized by social scientists, who argue that ethnobiologists have insufficiently considered the conflicts between the dominant economic and political model and rural communities' lives, which are often idealized. However, several ethnobiological studies have increasingly considered these aspects, and important initiatives in this direction have emerged from interactions with other research fields and frameworks, such as sustainability science, political ecology, agroecology, and social-ecological systems. To address criticism on what has been considered ethnobiological utopianism, it is valuable to theorize, develop methodological tools, and construct explanatory models. From such perspective, this work aims to recover an old theory called ecosymbiotic complementarity, which we propose can strengthen analytical approaches in the social-ecological systems framework. We recover the original proposal of the ecosymbiotic complementarity theory, emphasizing the relationships between rural communities and economic and political variables. We consider that the ecosymbiotic complementarity theory can contribute to the contextualization of rural societies analyzed in ethnobiological research. La etnobiologia ha estudiado desde diversas perspectivas las interacciones entre las personas y sus entornos. Algunas de sus investigaciones han sido criticadas por sociologos que consideran que la etnobiologia no ha abordado suficientemente el conflicto entre la modernidad capitalista y como afecta la vida de las comunidades rurales, la cual es frecuentemente idealizada. Sin embargo, se han realizado varios estudios que si consideran estos aspectos y han tomado impulso en la medida en que la etnobiologia interactua con otras disciplinas. Estas interacciones han derivado en marcos conceptuales como los de la ciencia para la sustentabilidad, la ecologia politica, la agroecologia, y los sistemas socio-ecologicos. Para atender la critica a lo que se considera utopismo en la etnobiologia, es valioso teorizar, adoptar nuevas herramientas metodologicas y construir modelos explicativos. Asi, el objetivo de este trabajo es recuperar una antigua teoria denominada complementariedad eco-simbiotica, e incluirla en el marco de los sistemas socio-ecologicos. Para ello, explicamos la teoria, poniendo enfasis en su utilidad para analizar la relacion de las comunidades rurales con variables economicas y politicas. En conclusion, hacemos un aporte metodologico para contextualizar mejor las investigaciones etnobiologicas.