The Seri Indians<i>Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1895-96.</i>

Russell, Frank

doi:10.1086/278009

Cited by 2 publications

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“…It is perceivable that floodwaters entered canals when headgates failed or at the tail end of those events when velocities declined. Thus, a more plausible source of water for flushing salts from Hohokam fields was irrigation itself (e.g., Castetter & Bell, 1942, p. 123; Russell, 1908, p. 87).…”

Section: Empirically Assessing Soil Salinization and Waterlogging In ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

A critical evaluation of soil salinization, waterlogging, and agricultural productive capacity in Hohokam irrigation of the Phoenix Basin, Arizona, USA

Caseldine

2023

J of Env Quality

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A causal link between environmental degradation and societal collapse has captivated the imagination of generations of archaeologists, historians, and the public. At its core, it is believed that the agricultural aspirations of societies outstrip what the environment can offer. The Hohokam, who farmed the Phoenix Basin of Arizona, USA, for nearly a millennium (AD 475–1450), have been repeatedly used as an exemplar of incongruence between the environment and agricultural practices leading to crop failures and ultimately societal collapse. Contributing to the collapse narrative is crop failures that spread across the lower Salt River Valley during the late 1800s. Unacknowledged by collapse narratives is that unproductive fields were brought back to life at the start of the twentieth century with techniques not beyond the capability of the Hohokam. Hohokam farmers and their descendants maintained and prospered in the valley for more than a millennium, so the assumed unidirectionality toward degraded productive capacity warrants examination. In this article, five lines of evidence are used to assess the relationships among soil salinization, waterlogging, and agricultural productive capacity. The multistep approach reveals that available evidence fails to substantiate soil salinization and waterlogging as primary catalysts in the decline of Hohokam irrigation. As such, establishing causality between environmental factors and societal decline in the past requires multiple lines of evidence producing contextually detailed syntheses, rather than simple models.

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Section: Empirically Assessing Soil Salinization and Waterlogging In ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

A critical evaluation of soil salinization, waterlogging, and agricultural productive capacity in Hohokam irrigation of the Phoenix Basin, Arizona, USA

Caseldine

2023

J of Env Quality

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“…While irragric horizons cannot always be unequivocally attributed to deliberate management, they commonly improve soils for agriculture by increasing topsoil volume, replenishing soil fertility, and reducing soil salinity. Awareness of the benefits of moderate sedimentation in traditional agricultural fields in renewing and improving soils and crop production indicates that, in many cases, this is intentional management (Doolittle 2000;Nabhan and Sheridan 1977;Russell 1908;Williams 1981). However, a balance between the benefits of slight to moderate sedimentation and the detrimental effects of excess sedimentation was not easy to achieve (e.g., Dart 1986;Woodson et al 2015).…”

Section: Soil-geomorphic and Soil Physical Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic Soil Change in Ancient and Traditional Agricultural Fields in Arid to Semiarid Regions of the Americas

Sandor¹,

Homburg²

2017

Journal of Ethnobiology

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Soils form the foundation for agriculture and are changed by farming through active management and unintentionally. Soil change from agriculture ranges from wholesale transformation to ephemeral and subtle modification. The archaeological record of early agricultural systems holds information about soil change on centurial to millennial scales, with important implications for long-term soil condition and land use sustainability. Knowledge of early agricultural management can also be inferred from soils, including farming strategies in dynamic, challenging environments. This paper discusses soil change processes and outcomes mainly using studies of ancient and traditional agriculture in arid regions of the Americas. The potential and limitations of soil change research methods in ancient agriculture are also considered. Soil anthropogenic change involves complex and interactive physical, chemical, and biological processes across a wide range of spatial and time scales. Soil change outcomes in early agriculture relating to soil health and productivity vary from improvement to degradation. Soil productivity improvement commonly resulting from management includes soil-landscape physical stabilization for crops, increased topsoil thickness and plant-available water capacity, and improved soil tilth and fertility. Degradation commonly results from unintentional soil-geomorphic-ecosystem changes that cause accelerated erosion, destabilization of soil structure and compaction, and decreases in plant nutrients and soil fertility. Soil change outcomes vary across space and time in response to complex environmental, agricultural, and social factors.

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The Seri IndiansSeventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1895-96.

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

A critical evaluation of soil salinization, waterlogging, and agricultural productive capacity in Hohokam irrigation of the Phoenix Basin, Arizona, USA

A critical evaluation of soil salinization, waterlogging, and agricultural productive capacity in Hohokam irrigation of the Phoenix Basin, Arizona, USA

Anthropogenic Soil Change in Ancient and Traditional Agricultural Fields in Arid to Semiarid Regions of the Americas

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