Swidden Didn' Make All That Midden

The Search for Ancient Mayan Agronomies

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3006325
AutoresPhilip Drucker, John W Fox
Ano1982
Volume38
Fascículo2
Páginas179-193
Data de publicação1982-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Anthropological Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0091-7710 • E-ISSN: 2153-3806
EditoraUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/jar.38.2.3629596
OpenAlexW2332497550
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas22

Research strategies for understanding the subsistence base of ancient Mayan culture are evaluated, along with suggestions for future work. Better data and more sophisticated interpretations of ancient lowland Maya population densities force many Mayanists to consider low-yield extensive agronomy, specifically swidden farming, inadequate to support such large populations. Some innovative scholars have attempted to identify intensive agronomic systems by dirt archaeology, replicative experimenting, ethnographic analogy, computer simulation, and logical inference. They have found exciting pieces of evidence suggesting a great variety of intensive agronomic techniques. Beyond the pioneering level of investigation into this new field of inquiry, it is proposed that more progress could be sustained by systematic application of the comparative method to all of Mesoamerica and to the worldwide pantropic zone; systematic classification of Mesoamerican ecozones/econiches and correlation with cultivar ecologic requirements; and thorough consideration of potential field techniques for collecting and identifying evidence for a wide variety of intensive agronomies

Agriculture · Archaeology · Biology · Cartography · Dirt · Ethnography · Field (mathematics) · Geography · Maya · Mesoamerica · Midden · Paleoethnobotany · Population · Sociology · Subsistence agriculture · Variety (cybernetics) · Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Ecology · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies