Field cultivation and tree management in tropical agriculture: a view from Gulf Coastal Mexico

Abstract

This paper explores tropical agriculture as a combination of field cultivation and tree management along Mexico's Gulf Coast during the Formative period (1400 bc–ad 300). I consider two complementary models of contemporary tropical agriculture and consider their applicability to the archaeological data. I argue that appropriate comparisons can be made between the past and present by focusing on cases with similar environments, logistical constraints and shared culture history. Archaeobotanical data are used to consider the shift from extensive to intensive field agriculture as it relates to the development of an agro-forestry system. The data indicate that Formative people increasingly focused maize production in fields located near the residence while simultaneously harvesting more tree fruits through time. I argue that the intensification of tree management is an outgrowth of systems of tropical field cultivation in Formative Gulf Coastal Mexico.

Keywords:

• Agriculture
• plant remains
• Olmec
• Mexico
• archaeobotany

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Greg Wilson, Cheryl Warren, Brenda Risch, Tammy Lewis, Barbara Graham and three anonymous reviewers for commenting on earlier drafts. Their thoughtful comments were invaluable for crafting this work. I am grateful to Philip Arnold and Chris Pool for providing access to the archaeobotanical assemblages. Finally, I acknowledge the National Science Foundation (grant # 9912271) for funding the research that led to this article.

Notes

Biographical Notes

Amber M. VanDerwarker is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Muhlenberg College (Pennsylvania, USA). Her primary research interest lies in the connection between prehistoric foodways and the political economy. She conducts her research in the New World (Mexico, Perú and the south-eastern United States) and approaches subsistence studies using a perspective that integrates both archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amber M van der Warker

Biographical Notes Amber M. VanDerwarker is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Muhlenberg College (Pennsylvania, USA). Her primary research interest lies in the connection between prehistoric foodways and the political economy. She conducts her research in the New World (Mexico, Perú and the south-eastern United States) and approaches subsistence studies using a perspective that integrates both archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data.