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Crop Diversity on Anthropogenic Dark Earths in Central Amazonia

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Abstract

A recent archaeological survey demonstrates that one of the most durable of all forms of pre-Columbian landscape transformation, Amazonian Dark Earths (ADE; soils formed by pre-Columbian settlement), are widespread along the course of the Madeira River, Central Amazonia, Brazil. We hypothesize that processes of crop cultivation and management by human populations today in landscapes that were intensively transformed during the pre-Columbian period will diverge from those in environments where human agency has not left such a heavy footprint. In order to test this hypothesis, we compare bitter manioc fields, homegardens and secondary forests on ADE with those on non-anthropogenic soils along the lower and middle Madeira River. We demonstrate that crop species and landrace populations diverge on anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic soils as a result of the interaction between human selection and management, soil physical and chemical properties, and plant responses over time. Hence, crop species selection and abundance and therefore agrobiodiversity is contingent on anthropogenic soils in Central Amazonia.

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Acknowledgments

JAF thanks the Leverhulme Trust for funding (Grant F/00 230/W) and the CNPq (Brazilian National Research Council) for granting research permission (EXC 022/05). ABJ thanks the CNPQ for his graduate scholarship, IIEB (The Brazilian International Institute of Education) and The Moore Foundation who provided financial support, and IdeaWild who provided equipment for his fieldwork. NCK thanks the University of Florida’s Latin American Studies Program for a Charles Wagley Research Fellowship and the CNPq for granting research permission (EXC 007-07-C). CPM thanks FAPESP (The State of São Paulo Research Foundation), for doctoral funding, Eduardo Góes Neves, and the CAP (Central Amazon Project). CRC thanks the CNPq for a research scholarship. We all thank William Denevan for commenting on an earlier draft.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9SJ, UK

    James Angus Fraser

  2. Department of Agronomic Sciences, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Av. Andre Araujo 2936-Aleixo, Manaus, Amazonas, 69011–970, Brazil

    André B. Junqueira & Charles R. Clement

  3. Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, 1112 Turlington Hall, P.O. Box 117305, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

    Nicholas C. Kawa

  4. Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 05508–900, Brazil

    Claide P. Moraes

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Correspondence to James Angus Fraser.

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Fraser, J.A., Junqueira, A.B., Kawa, N.C. et al. Crop Diversity on Anthropogenic Dark Earths in Central Amazonia. Hum Ecol 39, 395–406 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-011-9405-z

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