Land use and Field Ecologies in Southwest China

Summary

This paper complements prevailing studies on prehistoric domestication and agriculture with an eye toward the interrelated problem of land use and food security in south China. In ecologies characterized by monsoonal variability, rugged terrain, and dense vegetation, what are the conditions that challenge or enable the cultivation of a range of staples? Using archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic data, I examine how extensification of field practices enabled the cultivation of wet/dry crops such as millet, rice, and wheat during the Late Holocene. Management of these inter-cropped fields may have enabled adaptation to climatic variability and addressed long term issues of food security in the tropics.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• LandCover6K: Using Archaeology to Improve Climate Models

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14434