Island, River, and Field
Landscape Archaeology in the Llanos de Mojos
Archaeologists have long associated the development of agriculture with the rise of the state. But the archaeology of the Amazon Basin, revealing traces of agriculture but lacking evidence of statehood, confounds their assumptions. John H. Walker's innovative study of the Bolivian Amazon addresses this contradiction by examining the agricultural landscape and analyzing the earthworks from an archaeological perspective. The archaeological data is presented in ascending scale throughout the book. Scholars across archaeology and environmental anthropology will find the methodology and theoretical arguments essential for further study.
The seasonally flooded Llanos de Mojos region of eastern Bolivia has long been an enigmatic and little-known corner of Greater Amazonia. John Walker, with his empirically rich and theoretically path-making study, brings its past landscapes and lifeways into clear and coherent focus.'--Kent Matthewson, coeditor of Dangerous Harvest: Drug Plants and the Transformation of Indigenous Landscapes
John H. Walker is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. He is also the author of Agricultural Change in the Bolivian Amazon: Cambio Agrícola En La Amazonía Boliviana.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Chapter One. Archaeology in the Amazon
Chapter Two. From Calculation to Taskscape
Chapter Three. Within the Circle
Chapter Four. Between Field and Island
Chapter Five. West Central Mojos and Its Neighbors
Chapter Six. Farmers, Fishers, and Foresters
Chapter Seven. Taking Place, Making Places
Appendix
References
Index