Aboriginal Agricultural Development in the Valley of Sonora, Mexico

Bibliographic Data

ID4487302
AuthorsW E Doolittle (0000-0002-7927-6792, corresponding author)
Year1980
Volume70
Issue3
Pages328
Publication date1980-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeographical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-7428 • E-ISSN: 1931-0846
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/214260
OpenAlexW2067299401
LanguageEN
Citations received11

POPULATION pressure has been long recognized as a principal cause of agricultural change, but only recently has the relationship been subjected to systematic analyses.' Expansion and intensification were probably the most common agricultural changes made in response to population pressure among prehistorical cultivators.2 Both responses resulted from the need to increase production as demand (population pressure) rose; the particular response chosen was presumably the more efficient to yield the higher possible output per unit of labor input. Because it is a quick and easy way to increase output, the expansion of cultivated area has always been the major response to population pressure for traditional societies.3 This response assumes that additional land similar to that already under cultivation is available. If more land is unavailable, cultivators would be forced to intensify agriculture, that is, to increase the output per unit of area and of time on the cultivated land. Ester Boserup stimulated the recent discussions of this argument when she contended that population increases are responsible for shifts in agriculture from extensive to intensive systems.4 The processes of expansion and intensification are not exclusive but often operate in concert. B. L. Turner II and his colleagues, elaborating a theme presented by Harold C. Brookfield, maintained that cultivators are confronted with a variety of agricultural land qualities that are predicated on physical conditions of the habitat and on technology.5 Land types, designated on their continuum of agricultural feasibility, range from optimal to marginal in terms of the ease in which they may be prepared and maintained for cultivation; optimal land requires little work whereas marginal land requires much work. Available technology is a critical factor in determination of the relative ease by

Agricultural development · Agriculture · Agroforestry · Archaeology · Environmental protection · Geography · Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond · Environmental Science · Latin American rural development · Mexican Socioeconomic and Environmental Dynamics

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