Building ecological resistance: Late intermediate period farming in the south-central highland Andes (CE 1100–1450)

Langlie, BrieAnna S.

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2018.06.005

Cited by 29 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Native American farmers developed agronomic practices throughout the Western Hemisphere adapted to climatic and edaphic conditions and the degree of reliance on agricultural production for subsistence. Well known systems of groups who relied heavily on agricultural production include the terraced fields in the Andes of South America [1], the milpa systems of Central America [2], the irrigation systems of the American Southwest [3], and the ridge systems of the upper Mississippi drainage [4]. How these systems functioned is evinced by archaeological investigations of extant features, ethnohistorical documentation, and in some cases, ethnographic documentation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Maize δ15N values to assess soil fertility in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century ad Iroquoian agricultural fields

Hart

Feranec

2020

PLoS ONE

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Native Americans developed agronomic practices throughout the Western Hemisphere adapted to regional climate, edaphic conditions, and the extent of dependence on agriculture for subsistence. These included the mounding or "corn hill" system in northeastern North America. Iroquoian language speakers of present-day New York, USA, and Ontario and Qué bec, Canada were among those who used this system. While well-known, there has been little archaeological documentation of the system. As a result, there is scant archaeological evidence on how Iroquoian farmers maintained soil fertility in their oftenextensive agricultural fields. Using δ 15 N values obtained on fifteenth-and sixteenth-century AD maize kernels from archaeological sites in New York and Ontario, adjusted to take into account changes that result from charring as determined through experiments, we demonstrate that Iroquoian farmers were successful at maintaining nitrogen in their agricultural fields. These results add to our archaeological knowledge of Iroquoian agronomic practices. Our results also indicate the potential value of obtaining δ 15 N values on archaeological maize in the investigation of Native American agronomic practices. OPEN ACCESS Citation: Hart JP, Feranec RS (2020) Using Maize δ 15 N values to assess soil fertility in fifteenth-and sixteenth-century ad Iroquoian agricultural fields. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0230952. https://doi.org/ 10.Groups using the mounding system in northeastern North American included Iroquoian language family speaking peoples in present-day New York, USA, and Ontario and Québec, Canada. From the fourteenth century AD onwards, Iroquoians lived in villages and towns that were occupied for 20 to 40 years or more [9] and housed hundreds to well over 1,000 individuals [10][11][12]. A major source of calories for these communities derived from agricultural produce, primarily maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) [13], but also other crops, including common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), squash (Cucurbita pepo), and sunflower (Helianthus annuus) [14]. Non-cultivated foods included a wide range of terrestrial animals and plants [14,15], but with freshwater fish being an important source of animal protein for at least some populations [16,17]. The only domesticated animal present was dog (Canis lupus familiaris), which was consumed occasionally at feasts and ceremonies [18].The typical seventeenth-century AD ethnohistorically documented Iroquoian agricultural field consisted of many small mounds measuring approximately 46-120 cm in diameter and spaced 76-180 cm apart, which were formed with wooden, bone, antler, or stone hoes ([18], p. 178). Each mound contained 3-4 maize plants [18]. Common bean vines often were grown in the same hills with maize whose stalks acted as climbing poles for the bean vines, while squash vines were planted at intervals and occupied spaces around the mounds [19,20]. These fields were highly productive with some estimates suggesting they surpassed that of contemporaneous European and Euro-American farms [21]. While t...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Maize δ15N values to assess soil fertility in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century ad Iroquoian agricultural fields

Hart

Feranec

2020

PLoS ONE

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“…Ayawiri is located west of Lake Titicaca at an altitude of 4,100 m asl (Figure 1). The residential sector of the site covers more than 13 ha of the southern portion of a flat mesa; it is surrounded by steep, rainfed terraced hillsides that were constructed and maintained throughout the LIP (Langlie 2016, 2018; Figure 2). Ayawiri was inhabited by the Colla, an ethnic group that presided over the northern Lake Titicaca Basin during the LIP.…”

Section: The Site: Ayawirimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Along these same lines, the Colla at Ayawiri organized agricultural labor and logistics at the extended household level (Langlie 2018). This is evident in the radiating walls that ran from the top of the mesa, where Ayawiri was located, to the valley bottom, separating terraces into vertical tracts managed by extended families (apparent in Figure 2).…”

Section: The Site: Ayawirimentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Intermediate Period Plant Use at a Colla Hillfort, Puno, Peru (AD 1300–1450)

Langlie¹

2020

Latin Am. antiq.

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In the Lake Titicaca Basin during the Late Intermediate period (LIP; AD 1100–1450), people's lives were overwhelmingly structured by warfare. Previous research in the region has shed light on how martial conflict between and possibly among competing ethnic groups motivated people to live in fortified villages on defensive hilltops. At the same time, there was a centuries-long drought that threatened agricultural production. Little is known about the plant use of people living in hillforts during this arduous time. Drawing on macrobotanical information collected from Ayawiri, one of the largest hillforts in the northern Titicaca Basin, I argue that the food stuffs and plants used were locally grown. Additionally, these findings indicate a possible departure from earlier symbolically charged and ritually important plant consumption practices based on the lack of imported maize. This research sheds light on how people adapted their domestic and agricultural strategies to warfare and climate change during the LIP.

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“…Contrasting niche construction theory's focus on subsistence and adaptation (see critiques in Hodder ; Morrison a), research oriented toward political ecology examines the practices and discourses by which the environment can become the stakes of social struggle (Rosenzweig and Marston ). Such scholarship often explicitly recognizes that agricultural production and land modification can be political tactics to defend autonomy, declare rights to locality, or realize social objectives (Comstock and Cook ; Kosiba ; Kosiba and Hunter ; Langlie ; Morrison ). For instance, Acabado's () account of inland terrace complexes in the Philippines demonstrates that Indigenous people built these mountain‐slope agricultural systems in response to Spanish colonization, perhaps to avoid the surveillance and hegemonic reach of the state through the development of self‐governing communities and economies.…”

Section: Socionature and Political Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Arkush () draws on Kowalewski's (; see also J. Birch ) theory of coalescence —the “work of making community”—to investigate the social pressures of people living in a fortified town during a time of raiding and warfare (the Andean Late Intermediate Period [ca. 1000–1400 CE]) (see also Langlie ). In Arkush's (, 1) words, “Defensive interdependence places special demands on inhabitants to achieve mutual trust and solidarity.…”

Section: Decentralized Complexity and Collective Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Digs: Networks, Assemblages, and the Dissolution of Binary Categories in Anthropological Archaeology

Kosiba

2019

American Anthropologist

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Anthropological archaeology has long been a process of categorization. The history of the subdiscipline could be rendered in terms of an ongoing project to create, critique, and then refashion the categories by which archaeologists understand and explain social and ecological processes. Despite ever-changing theoretical tides, many archaeologists have continued to adhere to a lingua franca that demarcates their object of study, whether "the past," "nature," complexity, material culture, or historical knowledge. In 2018, strong currents in archaeological scholarship have both challenged and washed out the boundaries of many of these epistemological mainstays. This was more than a postmodern exercise to question metanarratives of history or to destabilize supposed social universals. The recent scholarship develops innovative theoretical perspectives and sophisticated methodological tools to shed light on the varied human interactions, practices, and projects that were previously occluded by research too sharply focused on bounded categories such as periods, polities, adaptations, and meanings. Furthermore, archaeologists are now more than ever critically examining the colonial institutions that they perpetuate and seeking to establish new common ground with Indigenous communities. A decidedly archaeological perspective seems to be taking shape.This is a view that sees social life from the ground up in terms of complicated relationships between people, things, and other organisms that cannot be reduced to catchall categories. [year in review, archaeology, archaeological theory, current issues, Indigenous archaeology, environmental anthropology] RESUMEN La arqueología antropológica ha sido durante mucho tiempo un proceso de categorización. La historia de la subdisciplina podría ser descrita en términos de un proyecto continuo de crear, criticar y luego rehacer las categorías a través de las cuales los arqueólogos entienden y explican los procesos sociales y ecológicos. A pesar de las mareas teóricas siempre cambiantes, muchos arqueólogos han continuado adhiriéndose a una lengua franca que demarca su objeto de estudio, ya sea "el pasado", "naturaleza", complejidad, cultura material o conocimiento histórico.En 2018, corrientes fuertes en la investigación arqueológica han tanto retado como difuminado los límites de muchos de los pilares epistemológicos. Esto fue más que un ejercicio posmoderno para cuestionar metanarrativas de la historia o para desestabilizar supuestos universales sociales. La reciente investigación desarrolla perspectivas teóricas innovadoras y herramientas metodológicas sofisticadas para arrojar luz sobre las variadas interacciones humanas, prácticas y proyectos que estuvieron previamente ocluidos por investigación excesivamente enfocada en categorías delimitadas tales como períodos, unidades políticas, adaptaciones y significados. Además, los arqueólogos ahora están más que nunca examinando críticamente las instituciones coloniales que perpetúan y buscando establecer un nuevo terreno común con las c...

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Building ecological resistance: Late intermediate period farming in the south-central highland Andes (CE 1100–1450)

Cited by 29 publications

References 42 publications

Using Maize δ15N values to assess soil fertility in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century ad Iroquoian agricultural fields

Using Maize δ15N values to assess soil fertility in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century ad Iroquoian agricultural fields

Late Intermediate Period Plant Use at a Colla Hillfort, Puno, Peru (AD 1300–1450)

New Digs: Networks, Assemblages, and the Dissolution of Binary Categories in Anthropological Archaeology

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