Biografía del autor Anabel Ford is director of the MesoAmerican Research Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara and President of the non profit Exploring Solutions Past: The Maya Forest Alliance. She has done extensive research on patterns of Maya settlement and ecology, and is recognized for the discovery of the ancient Maya city center of El Pilar, on the border of Belize and Guatemala. Ronald Nigh is a professor at Centro Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS) in Chiapas, Mexico. He is the author of numerous studies and articles on agricultural, ecological, and environmental issues of concern to indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean. He is also director of Dana, A.C. a non-government organization that coordinates an experimental garden in San Cristobal de Las Casas for training and support of young Maya farmers in transition to agroecological technology. The conventional wisdom says that the devolution of Classic Maya civilization occurred because its population grew too large and dense to be supported by primitive neotropical farming methods, resulting in debilitating famines and internecine struggles. Using research on contemporary Maya farming techniques and important new archaeological research, Ford and Nigh refute this Malthusian explanation of events in ancient Central America and posit a radical alternative theory. The authors-show that ancient Maya farmers developed ingenious, sustainable woodland techniques to cultivate numerous food plants (including the staple maize);-examine both contemporary tropical farming techniques and the archaeological record (particularly regarding climate) to reach their conclusions;-make the argument that these ancient techniques, still in use today, can support significant populations over long periods of time. The Maya Forest Garden is an excellent addition to the New Frontiers in Historical Ecology series. Ford and Nigh's book presents readers a thorough, accessible, and holistic anthropological introduction to the nature of Maya agricultural practices, a review of past and present ecological and conservation conditions, and a convincing theory for adopting an interdisciplinary approach to studying this unique relationship between a people and its environment. This work should be of interest to Maya scholars; students in the fields of cultural ecology, sustainability, and archaeology; and others interested in the dynamics of sustainable ecological practices of complex societies.- Jeffrey L. Brewer, University of Cincinnati, USA, in American AnthropologistFord and Nigh bring decades of field research to this book and draw on ethnography, agroecology, ethno- and paleobotany, archaeology, historical climate data, and ethnohistory. Even today, Maya forest gardeners cultivate sustainably but are threatened by Euro-informed models of agriculture that view tropical lowlands as suitable mainly for destructive pasturing. Scholars interested in tropical swiddeners and Mesoamericans in particular should read this discussion. Summing Up: Highly recommended.- A. E. Adams, Central Connecticut State University, CHOICEThe book is a timely multidisciplinary exploration of not only the rich historical ecology of the Maya forest garden, but also of Maya culture, history and knowledge - and the risk of loosing all of it. The value of explorations like the one offered by this study need to be -- for the future of any form of sustainable humanity and in my modest opinion -- continued.- Alessandro Questa, Anthropology Book Forun (American Anthropological Association)An excellent contribution to the world literature on sustainable, indigenous land management. After rigorous paleo-botanical, archaeological and ecological research and on the ground consultation with existing practitioners, the authors conclude that the widely assumed cause of the collapse of the Mayan civilization due to
- Libro Impreso
- Edición:
- Editorial: Routledge
- Autor: Ford, Anabel
