Michael J Heckenberger
Biographic Data
| ID | 464 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael J Heckenberger |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael J |
| FAMILY NAME | Heckenberger |
| SIGNATURE | HECKENBERGER M J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Florida |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 358 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Participatory Mapping of Mid-Holocene Anthropogenic Landscapes in Guyana with Kite Aerial Photography
The nature and degree of human modifications of humid tropical forests in Amazonia have been widely debated over the past two decades. Many regions provide significant evidence of late Holocene anthropogenic influence by settled populations, but the antiquity of human interventions is still poorly understood due to a lack of earlier archaeological sites across the broad region, particularly pertaining to the mid-Holocene. Here we report on Amerin…
The Call of the Wild: Rethinking Food Production in Ancient Amazonia
The Amazon basin is accepted as an independent center of plant domestication in the world. A variety of important plants were domesticated in the Amazon and its surroundings; however, the majority of plants cultivated today in the Amazon are not domesticated, if this descriptor is understood to convey substantial genetic and phenotypic divergence from wild varieties or species. Rather, many domesticates are trees and tubers that occupy an interme…
Denise Pahl Schaan
Dark earths and the human built landscape in Amazonia: A Widespread Pattern of Anthrosol Formation
Pre-Columbian Urbanism, Anthropogenic Landscapes, and the Future of the Amazon
The archaeology of pre-Columbian polities in the Amazon River basin forces a reconsideration of early urbanism and long-term change in tropical forest landscapes. We describe settlement and land-use patterns of complex societies on the eve of European contact (after 1492) in the Upper Xingu region of the Brazilian Amazon. These societies were organized in articulated clusters, representing small independent polities, within a regional peer polity…
The legacy of cultural landscapes in the Brazilian Amazon: Implications for biodiversity
For centuries Amazonia has held the Western scientific and popular imagination as a primordial forest, only minimally impacted by small, simple and dispersed groups that inhabit the region. Studies in historical ecology refute this view. Rather than pristine tropical forest, some areas are better viewed as constructed or ‘domesticated’ landscapes, dramatically altered by indigenous groups in the past. This paper reviews recent archaeological rese…
Amazonian Dark Earths: Origin, Properties, Management . Johannes Lehmann , Dirse C. Kern , Bruno Glaser , William I. Woods
The Timing of Terra Preta Formation in the Central Amazon: Archaeological Data from Three Sites
The Ecology of Power
In 1884 a community of Brazilians was "discovered" by the Western world. The Ecology of Power examines these indigenous people from the Upper Xingu region, a group who even today are one of the strongest examples of long-term cultural continuity. Drawing upon written and oral history, ethnography, and archaeology, Heckenberger addresses the difficult issues facing anthropologists today as they "uncover" the muted voices of indigenous peoples and …
Amazonia 1492: Pristine Forest or Cultural Parkland?
Archaeology and indigenous history of Native Amazonian peoples in the Upper Xingu region of Brazil reveal unexpectedly complex regional settlement patterns and large-scale transformations of local landscapes over the past millennium. Mapping and excavation of archaeological structures document pronounced human-induced alteration of the forest cover, particularly in relation to large, dense late-prehistoric settlements (circa 1200 to 1600 A.D.). T…
The Enigma of the Great Cities: Body and State in Amazonia
This paper discusses issues of political power in Amazonia, particularly with regard to traditional definitions of the State, in general, and the body or person in Amazonia. Using the historical ethnography of the Upper Xingu region of southern Amazonia as a point of departure, issues of inequality, hierarchy, and social complexity are briefly discussed. Specifically, it is suggested that Xinguano cultural patterns, considered over the long term …
Of Lost Civilizations and Primitive Tribes, Amazonia: Reply to Meggers
Meggers's critique of views presented by DeBoer et al. (1996), Wüst and Barreto (1999), and Heckenberger et al. (1999) in Latin American Antiquity misrepresents these authors and others. Her criticisms, largely directed at the present authors, obfuscate fundamental points raised regarding the nature and variability of cultural formations and economic patterns in Amazonia. By conflating indigenous resource management systems, which we discuss, wit…
Village Size and Permanence in Amazonia: Two Archaeological Examples from Brazil
Recent archaeological investigations along the lower Negro and upper Xingu Rivers in the Brazilian Amazon provide important new evidence bearing on long-standing debates about the size and permanence of Amerindian settlements in the region. Preliminary regional surveys and more in-depth study of selected large (30-50 ha) sites, particularly analyses of the associations between structural features, anthropogenically altered soils, and artifact dis…
De onde surgem os modelos? As origens e expansões Tupi na Amazônia Central
Este artigo apresenta subsídios arqueológicos para o debate - revisitado por Franciso Noelli, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro e Greg Urban nas páginas da Revista de Antropologia - sobre a suposta origem das línguas do tronco Tupí na Amazônia central. Apresentamos aqui os resultados preliminares de nossas pesquisas arqueológicas na área de confluência dos rios Negro e Solimões que levantam restrições às premissas arqueológicas desse modelo, primeiramen…
Manioc agriculture and sedentism in Amazonia: The Upper Xingu example
This article challenges the prevailing view that Amazonian soils and the dispersed nature of game limit agricultural productivity and thus sedentism. Focusing on the Upper Xingu region, Heckenberger demonstrates how intensive manioc cultivation, combined with sophisticated landscape management techniques and the exploitation of aquatic resources, allowed for significant population density and long-term settlements. He argues that the rich archaeo…
Village Size and Permanence in Amazonia: Two Archaeological Examples from Brazil
Recent archaeological investigations along the lower Negro and upper Xingu Rivers in the Brazilian Amazon provide important new evidence bearing on long-standing debates about the size and permanence of Amerindian settlements in the region. Preliminary regional surveys and more in-depth study of selected large (30-50 ha) sites, particularly analyses of the associations between structural features, anthropogenically altered soils, and artifact dis…
Dark earths and the human built landscape in Amazonia: A Widespread Pattern of Anthrosol Formation
The Ecology of Power
In 1884 a community of Brazilians was "discovered" by the Western world. The Ecology of Power examines these indigenous people from the Upper Xingu region, a group who even today are one of the strongest examples of long-term cultural continuity. Drawing upon written and oral history, ethnography, and archaeology, Heckenberger addresses the difficult issues facing anthropologists today as they "uncover" the muted voices of indigenous peoples and …
Manioc agriculture and sedentism in Amazonia: The Upper Xingu example
This article challenges the prevailing view that Amazonian soils and the dispersed nature of game limit agricultural productivity and thus sedentism. Focusing on the Upper Xingu region, Heckenberger demonstrates how intensive manioc cultivation, combined with sophisticated landscape management techniques and the exploitation of aquatic resources, allowed for significant population density and long-term settlements. He argues that the rich archaeo…
The Call of the Wild: Rethinking Food Production in Ancient Amazonia
The Amazon basin is accepted as an independent center of plant domestication in the world. A variety of important plants were domesticated in the Amazon and its surroundings; however, the majority of plants cultivated today in the Amazon are not domesticated, if this descriptor is understood to convey substantial genetic and phenotypic divergence from wild varieties or species. Rather, many domesticates are trees and tubers that occupy an interme…
De onde surgem os modelos? As origens e expansões Tupi na Amazônia Central
Este artigo apresenta subsídios arqueológicos para o debate - revisitado por Franciso Noelli, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro e Greg Urban nas páginas da Revista de Antropologia - sobre a suposta origem das línguas do tronco Tupí na Amazônia central. Apresentamos aqui os resultados preliminares de nossas pesquisas arqueológicas na área de confluência dos rios Negro e Solimões que levantam restrições às premissas arqueológicas desse modelo, primeiramen…
Of Lost Civilizations and Primitive Tribes, Amazonia: Reply to Meggers
Meggers's critique of views presented by DeBoer et al. (1996), Wüst and Barreto (1999), and Heckenberger et al. (1999) in Latin American Antiquity misrepresents these authors and others. Her criticisms, largely directed at the present authors, obfuscate fundamental points raised regarding the nature and variability of cultural formations and economic patterns in Amazonia. By conflating indigenous resource management systems, which we discuss, wit…
The Enigma of the Great Cities: Body and State in Amazonia
This paper discusses issues of political power in Amazonia, particularly with regard to traditional definitions of the State, in general, and the body or person in Amazonia. Using the historical ethnography of the Upper Xingu region of southern Amazonia as a point of departure, issues of inequality, hierarchy, and social complexity are briefly discussed. Specifically, it is suggested that Xinguano cultural patterns, considered over the long term …
Participatory Mapping of Mid-Holocene Anthropogenic Landscapes in Guyana with Kite Aerial Photography
The nature and degree of human modifications of humid tropical forests in Amazonia have been widely debated over the past two decades. Many regions provide significant evidence of late Holocene anthropogenic influence by settled populations, but the antiquity of human interventions is still poorly understood due to a lack of earlier archaeological sites across the broad region, particularly pertaining to the mid-Holocene. Here we report on Amerin…
De onde surgem os modelos? As origens e expansões Tupi na Amazônia Central
Este artigo apresenta subsídios arqueológicos para o debate - revisitado por Franciso Noelli, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro e Greg Urban nas páginas da Revista de Antropologia - sobre a suposta origem das línguas do tronco Tupí na Amazônia central. Apresentamos aqui os resultados preliminares de nossas pesquisas arqueológicas na área de confluência dos rios Negro e Solimões que levantam restrições às premissas arqueológicas desse modelo, primeiramen…
Manioc agriculture and sedentism in Amazonia: The Upper Xingu example
This article challenges the prevailing view that Amazonian soils and the dispersed nature of game limit agricultural productivity and thus sedentism. Focusing on the Upper Xingu region, Heckenberger demonstrates how intensive manioc cultivation, combined with sophisticated landscape management techniques and the exploitation of aquatic resources, allowed for significant population density and long-term settlements. He argues that the rich archaeo…
Village Size and Permanence in Amazonia: Two Archaeological Examples from Brazil
Recent archaeological investigations along the lower Negro and upper Xingu Rivers in the Brazilian Amazon provide important new evidence bearing on long-standing debates about the size and permanence of Amerindian settlements in the region. Preliminary regional surveys and more in-depth study of selected large (30-50 ha) sites, particularly analyses of the associations between structural features, anthropogenically altered soils, and artifact dis…
Of Lost Civilizations and Primitive Tribes, Amazonia: Reply to Meggers
Meggers's critique of views presented by DeBoer et al. (1996), Wüst and Barreto (1999), and Heckenberger et al. (1999) in Latin American Antiquity misrepresents these authors and others. Her criticisms, largely directed at the present authors, obfuscate fundamental points raised regarding the nature and variability of cultural formations and economic patterns in Amazonia. By conflating indigenous resource management systems, which we discuss, wit…
Amazonia 1492: Pristine Forest or Cultural Parkland?
Archaeology and indigenous history of Native Amazonian peoples in the Upper Xingu region of Brazil reveal unexpectedly complex regional settlement patterns and large-scale transformations of local landscapes over the past millennium. Mapping and excavation of archaeological structures document pronounced human-induced alteration of the forest cover, particularly in relation to large, dense late-prehistoric settlements (circa 1200 to 1600 A.D.). T…
The Enigma of the Great Cities: Body and State in Amazonia
This paper discusses issues of political power in Amazonia, particularly with regard to traditional definitions of the State, in general, and the body or person in Amazonia. Using the historical ethnography of the Upper Xingu region of southern Amazonia as a point of departure, issues of inequality, hierarchy, and social complexity are briefly discussed. Specifically, it is suggested that Xinguano cultural patterns, considered over the long term …
The Timing of Terra Preta Formation in the Central Amazon: Archaeological Data from Three Sites
The Ecology of Power
In 1884 a community of Brazilians was "discovered" by the Western world. The Ecology of Power examines these indigenous people from the Upper Xingu region, a group who even today are one of the strongest examples of long-term cultural continuity. Drawing upon written and oral history, ethnography, and archaeology, Heckenberger addresses the difficult issues facing anthropologists today as they "uncover" the muted voices of indigenous peoples and …
Amazonian Dark Earths: Origin, Properties, Management . Johannes Lehmann , Dirse C. Kern , Bruno Glaser , William I. Woods
The legacy of cultural landscapes in the Brazilian Amazon: Implications for biodiversity
For centuries Amazonia has held the Western scientific and popular imagination as a primordial forest, only minimally impacted by small, simple and dispersed groups that inhabit the region. Studies in historical ecology refute this view. Rather than pristine tropical forest, some areas are better viewed as constructed or ‘domesticated’ landscapes, dramatically altered by indigenous groups in the past. This paper reviews recent archaeological rese…
Pre-Columbian Urbanism, Anthropogenic Landscapes, and the Future of the Amazon
The archaeology of pre-Columbian polities in the Amazon River basin forces a reconsideration of early urbanism and long-term change in tropical forest landscapes. We describe settlement and land-use patterns of complex societies on the eve of European contact (after 1492) in the Upper Xingu region of the Brazilian Amazon. These societies were organized in articulated clusters, representing small independent polities, within a regional peer polity…
Dark earths and the human built landscape in Amazonia: A Widespread Pattern of Anthrosol Formation
Denise Pahl Schaan
The Call of the Wild: Rethinking Food Production in Ancient Amazonia
The Amazon basin is accepted as an independent center of plant domestication in the world. A variety of important plants were domesticated in the Amazon and its surroundings; however, the majority of plants cultivated today in the Amazon are not domesticated, if this descriptor is understood to convey substantial genetic and phenotypic divergence from wild varieties or species. Rather, many domesticates are trees and tubers that occupy an interme…
Participatory Mapping of Mid-Holocene Anthropogenic Landscapes in Guyana with Kite Aerial Photography
The nature and degree of human modifications of humid tropical forests in Amazonia have been widely debated over the past two decades. Many regions provide significant evidence of late Holocene anthropogenic influence by settled populations, but the antiquity of human interventions is still poorly understood due to a lack of earlier archaeological sites across the broad region, particularly pertaining to the mid-Holocene. Here we report on Amerin…
Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory (12 works) · Amazon rainforest (10 works) · Biology (10 works) · Geography (10 works) · Ecology (9 works) · Indigenous Health and Education (8 works) · Archaeology (7 works) · Ecology (5 works) · Amazonian (4 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (4 works)