Cultivated Landscapes of Native Amazonia and the Andes

(review)
Antoinette M. G. A. WinklerPrins

Journal of Latin American Geography, Volume 1, Number 1, 2002, pp. 111-113

(Review)

Published by University of Texas Press

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/lag.2007.0030

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/215274

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 Book Reviews 111

Book Reviews
Cynthia Simmons, Book Review Editor

Cultivated Landscapes of Native Amazonia and the Andes. William M. Denevan. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2001, xxx and 396 pp., maps, photos, appendices, and index.
$1120.00 (ISBN 0-19-823407-4).

Reviewed by Antoinette M. G. A. WinklerPrins, Department of Geography, Michigan

State University

As a first-year graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison a

summer of years ago, I took a summer hourly job with Bill Denevan. The first thing
that Bill did was hand me a copy of John Treacy’s dissertation1 and told me that I was
to find every reference in the bibliography and check that John had cited it corrected.
That summer I learned a lot about terraces in the Colca valley from Johns’ beautifully
put together dissertation. I also learned a great deal about scholarship and the craft of
writing for the academy. Over the next two years (the summer job morphed into a two
year opportunity) I worked with Bill on a number of projects, including early sections
of this book. I had not a clue that the job would have such a profound career-forming
influence over me, but it has. Bill demonstrated to me time and again a profound caring
and respect for the people he researches and writes about, which is reflected in this book.
In addition to opening up the world of Andean terraces to me, he opened up the world
of Amazonian cultural ecology, which has become my research focus. Because of my
personal experiences with Bill, it gives me great pleasure in writing this review of “the
book.”
Cultivated Landscapes of Native Amazonia and the Andes is part of a trilogy on
native landscapes being published by Oxford University Press. The others in the trilogy
are William Doolittle’s Cultivated Landscapes of Native North America (2000) and Cultivated
Landscapes of Middle America on the Eve of Conquest by Thomas Whitmore and B. L. Turner
(2002). As a whole these books demonstrate the sophistication of indigenous agricultural
techniques prior to the arrival of European colonization. Denevan’s book documents
evidence in two very different environments, the Amazonian lowlands (savanna and
rainforest), as well as the Andean highlands, two regions in which he spent his career
doing field research.
The book is divided into five parts. Part I is an overview section entitled
“Introduction: Fields and Associated Features.” After placing his work within geographical
cultural ecology and giving the reader a sense of the history of the research on the topics
at hand, mhe treats both Amazonia as well as the Andes with briedf descriptions of field
types (Chapter 2), crops, tools and “soft technology” (Chapter 3) used by indigenous
people. This part of the book serves as a guide and sampling to the rest of the book, and
will be helpful to readers who are new to the topic. Details of techniques are elaborated
in subsequent parts of the book and their chapters. Careful referencing will guide novice
readers to further reading in both this book as well as elsewhere.
The next three parts of the book are divided both thematically and well as
regionally. Part II focuses on cultivation in the Amazonian basin, broadly defined. The
reader is given very detailed descriptions of the complexity, heterogeneity, and diversity
of cultivation in riverine, upland and savanna environments. Chapter 4 is an overview
of all field types and cultivation techniques in the region. Chapter 5 presents case
material that Bill was personally involved in gathering (Mojos in Bolivia; Campa, Bora,

Journal of Latin American Geography, 1 (1), 2002

112 Journal of Latin American Geography

Shipibo in Peru; and Karinya in Venezuela). This chapter illustrates many of the field
types aned cultivation techniques listed in Chapter 4. In the last two chapters of this
section, Bill Tackles riverine and upland cultivation respectively, carefully placing the
described management techniques and evidence within theoretical interpretations and
implications.
Part II of the volume deals with Andean irrigation and terraces. Chapters 8
and 9 describe the variety of water management features as well as terrace types and
their distribution. Chapter 10 considers in detail terrace origins and reasons for their
abandonment, again based on Denevan’s own field experiences, this time in the Colca
valley of Peru.
Raised and drained fields are the topics in Part IV of the book. Relating
personal experiences, Bill discusses the discovery of “lost systems of cultivation” that are
raised fields (Chapter 11). He then deepens his descriptions of raised fields in two areas:
Mojos (Chapter 12) and Titicaca (Chapter 13). In each of these last three chapters Bill
not only describes prehistoric raised beds, but also considers their possible restoration.
Chapter 14 considers drained fields and canalization.
Part V of the volume consists of only one Chapter (15). This section is the
conclusion of the book, offering “Implications of Indigenous Agricultural Technology.”
Bill discusses his findings in terms of theoretical implications within cultural ecology and
archaeology. Included are such concepts as agrarian collapse, persistence of indigenous
techniques, carrying capacity, intensification, environmental limitations and sustainability.
Bill states that his book is “to a large extent a reference work” (p. xv). Perhaps that is
so, however, it is a unique reference work of material never put together in such an
accessible manner. This book sets the gold standard for years (decades?) to come, and
should be mandatory possession for anyone working on any of these topics in the region.
The referencing and bibliography are an absolute bounty. And having worked for Bill on
a bibliography, I know to what lengths he has gone to assure accuracy.
The book is highly descriptive and is a compendium of amasses evidence
(mostly agricultural techniques) to support the fundamental assertion of the book,
which is that people, and especially prehistoric South Americans, were not just pawns
in environments that determined their lifeways and cultural levels, but that they were
active agents in forming their landscapes. Bill intersperses his detailed descriptions of
techniques with sections on theoretical implications (especially in Chapters 6, 7, 10 and
15) to make and remake this fundamental point. However, he ends the book with the
rather humble statement that the information contained in it “should have some utility
for scholars and others with broader agendas” (p. 306).
The one problem I had with the book is its awkward organization. This is
because several chapters, or parts of them, are derivations of previously published
material. This resulted in duplications of material and odd repeats of even anecdotal
situations. It also means that links between sections do not always exist since they were
originally written as separate pieces. An overall smoothness and unity is lacking. It makes
the book not an “easy read”, in fact it is best read in sections, just as it was put together.
This book is Denevan’s lifelong effort in one volume. It puts on the table
Bill’s lifelong commitment to demonstrating, without a shadow of a doubt, that people
(especially in South America) are not “determined” by their environment, but that,
through and interaction of the environment and technology (part of culture) people have
shaped and formed the environment to suit their needs. And this he has done so very
convincingly. I hope that various actors in the region will read this volume, those who
already believe in these matters, but especially those who do not. Implications for what Bill
has painstakingly presented to us are broad and serious, and move chronologically both
 Book Reviews 113

backward to theories on prehistory as well as forward to future use of both regions.

I highly recommend this book to anyone working in the region or within the
theoretical issues discussed. Others should be sure that their institutional library obtains
a copy since it will be a key reference to the next several generations of scholars.
Key words: Amazonia, Andes, landscapes, cultural ecology.

La Gran Línea: Mapping the United States-Mexico Boundary, 1849-1857. Paula Rebert. Austin:
University of Texas Press. Xvi and 259 pp., maps, photos, notes, appendices and index.
$22.95 paper (ISBN 0-292-77111-8)

Reviewed by Eric P. Perramond, Department of Geography & Environmental Science,

Stetson University.

The mapping of geo-political boundaries has always been of primary interest to applied
and political geographers. The boundary between the United States and Mexico, and
the history of its mapping, is the central issue in Rebert’s concise volume. This book,
however, provides a service to the history of cartography not accomplished in previous
studies of the border’s creation.
In six chapters Rebert summarily discusses the importance of the international
field surveys, the boundary offices maintained by both the US and Mexico, the cooperation
and conflicts arising from surveying and mapping work, and the final products and
controversies created by the mapping commissions. The author systematically canvases
the importance of joint and separate survey work performed by the U. S. and Mexico
field teams. Here, it is clear that less conflict appeared between the two commissions,
although later conflicts arose when the actual field mapping occurred and discrepancies
were apparent. This book also clarifies the roles of the Boundary Offices for each
country, and how they were shaped by their respective national governments. Finally, the
work of both commissions is put into perspective, in terms of the technical difficulties
that each team faced to calculate an interminably long boundary that stretched across
rugged, arid and complex terrain.
Rebert not only discusses the difficulties and differences of 19th century
mapping technologies, she also successfully analyzes the structural causes of this
difference, in essence explaining much of the turmoil in the Mexican Commission due
to the lack of funding. Although Mexico had been independent as a sovereign nation for
almost thirty years by the time the boundary work was initiated, the young nation-state
was faced with internal political conflict, and limitations of technical instrumentation
available to the mapping team. To be sure, the author is careful in portraying the struggles,
while never failing to appreciate the final work that was produced by the Mexican field
survey team. Previous studies of the mapping commissions had severely underestimated,
or summarily dismissed, the contribution of the Mexican Commission in constructing
the border. Rebert does indeed follow these previous authors in so far as describing
how the Mexican authors in so far as describing how the Mexican team was occasionally
dependent on the US Commission for producing maps. But unlike previous contributors
to this issue, the author clearly describes the vast effort spent by the Mexican surveyors
and cartographers in accurately portraying topographical and cultural features. For the
US Commission, mapping the boundary was fixated on establishing a line in the sand, so
to speak. For the Mexicans involved in this work, this was clearly an issue of extant place
recognition, and understanding, and understanding how the boundary would disconnect
natural landscapes and physiography. This issue becomes central in the Río Grande (Río