Ancient and Traditional Agriculture in South America: Highlands

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. Please check back later for the full article. The Andean highland region of South America was a center for the domestication of crops and the development of novel agricultural intensification strategies. These advances provided the social and economic foundations for one of the largest pre-Hispanic states in the Americas—the Inca—as well as numerous preceding and contemporaneous cultures. The legacy created by Andean agriculturalists includes terraced and raised fields that remain in use today as well as globally consumed foods including chili pepper (Capsicum spp.), potato (Solanum tuberosum), and quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa). Research on modern forms of traditional agriculture in South America by ethnographers, geographers, and agronomists can be grouped into three general themes: (1) the physical, social, and ritual practices of farming; (2) the environmental impacts of farming; and (3) agrobiodiversity and genetic conservation of crop varieties. Due to conquest by European invaders in the 16th century and the resulting demographic collapse, aspects of native knowledge and traditions were lost. Consequently, much of what is known about pre-Hispanic traditional agricultural practices is derived from archaeological research. To farm the steep mountainous slopes in the quechua and suni zones, native Andean peoples developed a suite of field types ranging from rainfed sloping fields to irrigated bench terracing that flattened the ground to increase surface area, raised soil temperatures, and reduced soil erosion. In the high plains or puna zone, flat wetlands were transformed into a patchwork of alternating raised fields and irrigation canals. By employing this strategy, Andean peoples created microclimates that resisted frost, managed moisture availability, and improved soil nutrient quality. These agricultural approaches cannot be divorced from enduring Andean cosmological and social concepts such as the ayni and minka exchange-labor systems based on reciprocity and the ayllu, a lineage and community group that also integrates the land itself and the wakas (nonhuman agentive beings) that reside there with the people. To understand traditional agriculture in the highland Andes and how it supported large populations in antiquity, facilitated the rapid expansion of the Inca Empire, and created field systems that are still farmed sustainably by populations today, it is essential to examine not only the physical practices themselves, but also the social context surrounding their development and use in ancient and modern times.

Camellones e agricultura pré-hispânica na Sabana de Bogotá-Colômbia: um exemplo de gestão da água em áreas inundáveis

O objetivo central do presente artigo foi o de analisar o sistema hidráulico de campos elevados de cultivo, camellones, construído ao longo de 2500 anos por populações pré-hispânicos da Sabana de Bogotá, Colômbia. A análise focou a relação estabelecida entre estas populações e a água, de modo a explicar os mecanismos pelos quais essa interação levou à construção duma paisagem agrícola, em particular no que diz respeito ao aproveitamento de recursos e de ocupação do território, durante o período Muisca Tardío (1000-1550 DC). A discussão baseou-se na perspectiva teórica da arqueologia da paisagem e esteve apoiada na metodologia da fotointerpretação bem como na análise de dados arqueológicos, paleo-ambientais e de documentação colonial, conseguindo assim concluir que o sistema de camellones foi o resultado da inter-relação homem-meio, pela qual as populações pré-hispânicas criaram uma forma de viver num meio alagado, fazendo da água o eixo e a rede de ligação entre os canais, plataformas para o cultivo, assentamentos, áreas de caça, de pesca e de mitigação das enchentes. Camellones and pre-hispanic agriculture in the Sabana de Bogotá-Colombia: an example of water management in flooded areasThe central theme of this article is the hydraulic system of raised fields, camellones, built throughout 2,500 years by the Prehispanic populations of the Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia. The analysis focused on the relationship established between these populations and water, in order to explain the mechanisms by which this interaction led to the construction of an agricultural landscape, in particular regarding the use of resources and the occupation of the territory, during the Late Muisca period (1000-1550 AD). The discussion was based on the theoretical perspective of landscape archeology and was supported by the methodology of photointerpretation as well as the analysis of archaeological, paleoenvironmental and colonial documentation data, thus concluding that the camellones system was the result of interrelationship man-environment, whereby the Pre-Hispanic populations created a way of living in a flooded environment, making water the axis and the network of connection between channels, cultivation platforms, settlements, hunting, fishing and flood mitigation areas . Keywords: Raised-fields, Muiscas, Sabana of Bogotá, prehispanic agriculture, landscape archaeology