O determinismo agrícola na arqueologia amazônica

Abstract

Este texto foi originalmente construído como parte de minha tese de doutorado. A proposta é discutir interpretações alternativas para pensar o surgimento de grandes contingentes populacionais na Amazônia antiga. Os motivos que levaram populações nativas a entrar em conflito por territórios. As causas de uma diminuição da população observada no registro arqueológico depois do ano mil de nossa era. O processo de formação de terra preta nos sítios arqueológicos. E principalmente a apresentação de uma proposta diferente da visão tradicional de complexidade sociopolítica necessariamente atrelada a populações mono agricultoras. Para apresentar essa proposta são utilizados dados arqueológicos coletados principalmente na região de Iranduba e no baixo rio Madeira, ambos no estado do Amazonas, Brasil.

The origins of Amazonian landscapes: Plant cultivation, domestication and the spread of food production in tropical South America

“…The contributors to Rethinking Agriculture , highlighted the differences in the nature of plant domestication and spread of agriculture in tropical regions of the world against the Eurasian perspectives characterised by clear morphogenetic changes in plants or animals, environmental transformations resulting in forest clearance for agriculture, and packages of associated cultural, political and social traits (see also Denham et al, 2003;Whitehouse and Kirleis, 2014). The fact that Eurasian processes of 'becoming agricultural' and the definition of agriculture itself are not necessarily transferable to Amazonia has been restated in different works since then (Arroyo-Kalin, 2010;Cunha, 2019;Fausto and Neves, 2018;Moraes, 2015;Neves, 2007Neves, , 2013Neves and Heckenberger, 2019;Oliver, 2008;Shepard et al, 2020).…”

Human niche construction and population growth in pre-Columbian Amazonia

“…This scenario seems unlikely given both the ancient history of plant management in Amazonia and the fact that different domesticated crops -maize, cucurbits, manioc, cacao, and potentially domesticated rice -were present already by the end of the mid Holocene in different regions of the tropical lowlands (Bush et al 2000;Bush, Piperno and Colinvaux 1989;Hilbert et al 2017;Morcote-Rios et al 2013;Piperno and Pearsall 1998;Shock et al 2013;Zarrillo 2012). Can we then reject the role of agriculture, propose that ethnographic crop use patterns are largely artefacts of European colonisation, and explain population growth as a primary outcome of the exploitation of aquatic resources (Moraes 2015;Neves 2007)? On the one hand, a pattern dominated by opportunistic agroforestry (Neves 2013) seems inconsistent with continued population growth.…”

Was there ever a Neolithic in the Neotropics? Plant familiarisation and biodiversity in the Amazon

“…There is mounting evidence, however, that Amazonian societies have consistently maintained such mixed strategies from the Early Holocene to the present day. Arguably, the transition from plant domestication to agriculture was never completed (Neves 2013; Moraes 2015).…”