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Extensive to intensive, or first fruits and then roots?

Manuel Arroyo-Kalin (Department of Archaeology)
Charles Clement (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia)
James Fraser (Department of Anthropology, University of Sussex)
Eduardo Neves (Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, University of Sao Paulo)

Abstract

Many late Holocene ceramic age settlements in Amazonia are expanses of anthrosols known as terras pretas; often these are surrounded by lighter-coloured anthrosols known as terras mulatas. This position paper first draws on geoarchaeological data on this distinction to support Denevan's thesis about the importance of spatially and pyrogenically 'intensive' cultivation prior to the introduction of metal tools. However, it next underscores the importance of discussing 'intensive' cultivation practices not only in relation to post-contact, spatially 'extensive' strategies but also looking back in time to their likely historical predecessor: the formation of anthropogenic concentrations of edible fruit trees, and attendant and interlinked processes of domestication and soil enrichment. We argue that in the Amazon basin these landscape transformations spawned embryonic conditions for itinerantly-tended gardens in which new food species, including root crops, could thrive. Later intensification of specific crops no doubt resulted in Denevan’s ‘intensive’ cultivation scenario.