Cultural forests of the Amazon a historical ecology of people and their landscapes - Balée, William L. (The University of Alabama Press, 2013)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-247) and index
Part I. Landscape Transformations. 1. Villages of Vines and Trees ; 2. An Estimate of Anthropogenesis ; 3. Comparison of High and Fallow Forests -- Part II: Contact and Attrition. 4. People of the Fallow Forest ; 5. Vanishing Plant Names ; 6. Conquest and Migration -- Illustrations -- Part III: Indigenous Savoir Faire. 7. From Their Point of View ; 8. Retention of Traditional Knowledge ; 9. Confection, Inflection -- Part IV: Dimensions of Diversity. 10. Discernment of Environmental Variation ; 11. Rethinking the Landscape -- Appendix I. Guajá Generic Plant Names -- Appendix II. Trees of the Anthropogenic Forest
Cultural Forests of the Amazon is a comprehensive and diverse account of how indigenous people transformed landscapes and managed resources in the most extensive region of tropical forests in the world. Until recently, most scholars and scientists, as well as the general public, thought indigenous people had a minimal impact on Amazon forests, once considered to be total wildernesses. William Balée's research, conducted over a span of three decades, shows a more complicated truth. In Cultural Forests of the Amazon, he argues that indigenous people