Cultivated Landscapes of Native Amazonia and the Andes
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:9th Jan '03
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
The Andes and Amazonia are two of the harshest regions on earth. The opportunities for productive agriculture, even with modern methods, seem limited, given conditions of climate, terrain, and soils. Nevertheless, indigenous people, both prehistoric and more recent, have developed systems of cultivation that have been intensive, highly productive, and sustainable, reclaiming marginal lands and supporting large numbers of people and complex societies. This book examines Indian agriculture in South America. The focus is on field types and field technologies, including agricultural landforms such as terraces, canals, and drained fields, which have persisted for hundreds of years. The evidence utilized comes from abandoned fields, historical documents, and current practices. What emerges is a picture of mostly successful indigenous farming practices in rain forests, savannahs, swamps, rugged mountains, and deserts. And while this knowledge may not always be directly applicable to development today, it does provide us with some unique techniques and some basic principles for farming difficult environments.
One of the great strengths of the book is that Denevan draws on his extensive fieldwork experience in Amazonia and the Andes, and that this work of reference is supported by far greater personal involvement than is normally the case with works of synthesis on a continent-wide scale. * Landscape History *
[Denevan's] detailed focus on field systems provides students, researchers and other people with policy agendas with a considerable body of highly useful information. * Landscape History *
Denevan draws from his own field work and that of colleagues from various disciplines to present the state-of-the-art knowledge on several regions and themes, creating a significant and valuable synthesis for South America ... Cultivated Landscapes provides an excellent synthesis of indigenous South American agriculture. * Latin American Studies *
This book is well presented, with copious illustration, especially diagrams which are important to understanding the nature of some of the little known forms. The bibliography is extensive and up to date. This book should be of value to a wide spectrum of social scientists and Latin Americanists, both as a text and as a reference source on its subject matter. * The Agricultural History Review *
This is the first comprehensive coverage of a large body of scholarship which has been accumulating over the past forty years, on pre-Hispanic farming systems as evidenced in the visible landscapes of South America. It forms a milestone in this research. * The Agricultural History Review *
An excellent synthesis of indigenous South American agriculture. * Journal of Latin American Studies *
ISBN: 9780199257690
Dimensions: 233mm x 157mm x 24mm
Weight: 761g
426 pages