Earth-Responsive Material Transformation: The Chorotega Indigenous System Under Climate Variability

Policy analysis submitted to the UNFCCC Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP) March 2026

Author: Stephanie Zabriskie
ORCID: 0009-0000-9273-1529
Affiliation: Humanculture (Indigenous-led nonprofit organization)
Capacity: Founder and Executive Director

Abstract

This paper documents the Chorotega Indigenous system of earth-responsive material transformation as a living governance system operating under climate variability. Practiced by the Chorotega community within the Masaya region of Nicaragua, the system organizes the sourcing, recognition, preparation, and transformation of earth materials through intergenerational knowledge transmission, collective authority, and place-based ecological observation across a regional landscape of volcanic zones, upland forests, lake systems, coastal waters, and cultivated lands.

Ceramic production functions not simply as craft, but as a governed relationship between community and land. Clay, Tague Earths, Colored Earth materials, sand, and other locally sourced inputs are gathered across multiple ecological zones through knowledge-guided movement and master-led evaluation. Moisture, wind, humidity, and seasonal timing are interpreted as informational signals that determine when sourcing, drying, and firing may responsibly occur.

The paper shows how governance structures, knowledge sovereignty boundaries, apprenticeship transmission, and environmental interpretation function together to sustain continuity under changing climatic conditions. The Chorotega case provides a grounded example of Indigenous climate governance in practice and contributes to LCIPP dialogue on Indigenous systems as functioning infrastructures of environmental interpretation, stewardship, and collective response under climate variability.

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Earth-Responsive Material Transformation: The Chorotega Indigenous System Under Climate Variability