Intensification without Modification: Tropical Swidden and the Maya

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Finding Fields: Locating and Interpreting Ancient Agricultural Landscapes" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As we look at agricultural intensification and the archaeological correlates, we need to understand that capital based investment and arable farming are only one path to intensification. Labor-based economies, especially those of the Americas before European conquest, present an entirely distinct track toward intensification. Tropical settings in general, and the Maya in particular, demonstrate a mastery of nature, cultivating biological capital as a product of their culture. Embedded fields transform to forests in a poly-cultivation practice that emphasize diversity that prevails in the tropics. The Maya milpa cycle reduces temperature and evapotranspiration, conserves water, promotes biodiversity, builds fertility, inhibits erosion, and nurtures people. These labor investments do not leave direct evidence on the landscape, save the implicit density of settlement, yet the imprint of their management is in the forest itself.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Finding Fields: Locating and Interpreting Ancient Agricultural Landscapes   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 31980