Landscape management and polyculture in the ancient gardens and fields at Joya de Cerén, El Salvador

Slotten, Venicia; Lentz, David L.; Sheets, Payson

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101191

Cited by 19 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The same statement can be applied to most SMP, including semiarid areas (e.g., Valley of Oaxaca, Feinman and Nicholas, 2020). Many plants, including maize, squash, and beans, were poly-cultivated, as revealed by palaeoecological studies in Joya de Cerén, Salvador (Slotten et al, 2020). Still, more studies and multiple approaches are needed to provide accurate quantitative assessments of such impacts in Mesoamerica (Harvey et al, 2021a) and to understand the complex biocultural interactions that caused the rise and decline of pre-Columbian human settlements (Castanet et al, 2022).…”

Section: Human Colonizationmentioning

confidence: 93%

Biophysical and Biocultural Upheavals in Mesoamerica, a Conservation Perspective: Mountains, Maize-Milpa, and Globalization

Castillo

2022

Front. For. Glob. Change

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Three upheavals shaped southern Mexico to Panama (SMP) biodiversity: 1. The Great American Interchange that allowed migrations between the Neotropical and the Nearctic biogeographic realms; 2. human colonization with the generation of Mesoamerican cultures; and 3. the Spaniards’ arrival and globalization.Tectonic events generated a narrow piece of land with steep topography and high environmental heterogeneity, demanding high levels of local adaptation. Habitat size is usually restricted and reduced by frequent disturbances. Topography imposes few options for individuals forced to displace. Thus, extinction risks should be unusually high. Humans initiated an ongoing defaunation process and introduced the maize and the milpa, an itinerant maize-based slash-and-burn polyculture, which depends on revegetation to re-establish soil fertility. Also, the milpa is a most important pre-Hispanic legacy, a biocultural and landrace reservoir actively affecting landscape configuration, succession, soil development, and the genetic architecture of the species. Unprecedented human epidemics and soil, biodiversity, and culture erosion followed behind the Spanish aftermath and the subsequent globalization. > 63 million people and ≈100 ethnic groups inhabit SMP in 2020, which, with the biota, share the same problems of climate change, disturbance, and acculturation. SMP has been the scenario of severe climate change, fastest and deadliest extinction events (amphibians), a most spectacular exotic-species invasion (Africanized honeybees), and accelerated deforestation, defaunation, and acculturation. Biocultural conflicts between native and non-native people are globalization byproducts and sources of habitat destruction and species decline. Bottom-up initiatives are likely the best option for conservation in indigenous areas, whereas honest (i.e., with truly conservation intentions) top-down initiatives are helpful if the affected people are considered subjects (no objects) of conservation plans. We suggest some unique areas requiring conservation attention and analyzed current conservation initiatives. Not a single initiative is best suited for all conservation needs in SMP. Protection of all successional stages is critical for resilience and revegetation. Conservation of the milpa system (crop fields and subsequent fallows) is an optimal option for minimizing tradeoffs between conservation and people needs and safeguarding traditional culture and local landraces but is limited to areas with indigenous people and may not work for species with large home ranges.

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Section: Human Colonizationmentioning

confidence: 93%

Biophysical and Biocultural Upheavals in Mesoamerica, a Conservation Perspective: Mountains, Maize-Milpa, and Globalization

Castillo

2022

Front. For. Glob. Change

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“…Records from the conquest and colonial times show practices comparable with the present (Terán and Rasmussen, 1995;Graham, 2006;Altieri et al, 2012;Ford and Clarke, 2019;Sánchez-Suárez et al, 2021). This system, developed from ancient adaptations and historical practices (Roys, 1952;Farriss, 1984;Terán and Rasmussen, 1995;Alexander, 2006;Zetina Gutiérrez, 2007;Zetina Gutiérrez and Faust, 2011;Rushton et al, 2020;Slotten et al, 2020), presents an effective subsistence adaptation for ancient Maya land use.…”

Section: The Milpa Cyclementioning

confidence: 99%

Scrutinizing the paleoecological record of the Maya forest

Ford

2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Human expansion into and occupation of the New World coincided with the great transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene epoch, yet questions remain about how we detect human presence in the paleoecological record. In the Maya area of southern Mesoamerica, archeological evidence of the human imprint is largely invisible until ∼4,000 years ago. How do environmental changes after that time correspond and relate to human impacts? Are the archeological signatures of initial settlements in the Early Preclassic detected? Later, by ∼2,000 years ago when the Maya had fully settled the landscape, how does the evidence of forest compositional changes relate to human intervention? This paper evaluates published paleoecological data in light of the rise of the Maya civilization and reflects on interpretations of how swidden agriculture and the milpa cycle impacted the environment. Evaluating the contrast between the long archeological sequence of successful Maya development and paleoecological interpretations of destructive human-induced environmental impacts requires a concordance among pollen data, archeological evidence, ethnohistoric observations, ethnological studies of traditional Maya land use, and the historical ecology of the Maya forest today.

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“…Houselots are known from ethnographic research in the Maya lowlands, including contemporary use of pole fencing marking garden boundaries at Cobá (Fletcher & Kintz 1983;Kintz 1990). In the village of Joya de Cerén, El Salvador, the multipurpose garden areas in which polyculture was practiced were so composed that household association was clearly delineated without the need for material demarcation (Slotten et al 2020). Becker (2001) proposes spatial models for the division of houselots: completely contiguous land- (Barnhart, 2001;Liendo Stuardo, 2002).…”

Section: Integrated Open Space In Maya Urban Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%