Indigenous horticulture
Encyclopedia
Indigenous Horticulture is practiced in various ways across all inhabited continent
s. Indigenous refers to the native peoples of a given area and horticulture
is the practice of small-scale plant cultivation.
we look at the farming practices of the Eggon, a Nigeria
n hill farming
community. The Eggon live in the Mada hills between Lafia
and Akwanga
. The hills lay between two rivers that Mada and Arikya. The altitude helps retain moisture on the hills due to early morning mists and fogs. The altitude also makes for earlier and longer crop cultivation. They practice bush fallow agriculture as well as mixed farming land management
styles. They focus on growing yam
s, cassava
, maize
, bean
s, and African rice
; much of what is produced is exported as a cash crop
and is their primary source of cash income. The Eggon use a terraced agricultural system to maximize space on the hills. The goat
s that they raise are kept mostly for fertilizer
used in farming. They are only killed on special occasions such as wedding
s. The Eggon use the diversity in their environment to maximize their production.
the Kissidougou
live on the savannah
dotted by dense areas of “forest islands” that was created by the Kissidougou. The Kissidougou practice intercropping
within the forest
ed areas. However, they also operate farm
s maintained on slopes or plateaus that are located between the forest islands. They prepare the savannah lands for forestation through farming and burning of the grass
es to fertilize the soils. The Kissidougou graze their cattle
on the savannah to help to maintain flammable grasses around the farms and the villages. The Kissidougou create diversity in their environment by farming and transforming savannah into lush, dense forest.
The prevalence of wetlands in West Africa has helped to support local indigenous horticulture. Seasonal flooding of major rivers in the region, such as the River Niger, the Sudd and the Senegal, have made it possible for flood cropping in many areas. Indigenous people have utilized a variety of irrigation techniques in order to take advantage of seasonal flooding. Additionally, they plan their plantings and harvests specifically around the flooding of local rivers. For example, some farmers choose to plant on rising floods and harvest as the flooding diminishes. This techniques is utilized when cultivating rice.
are one of the most affected by corporate farming
. In western Uganda
there is a farming society called the Banyankore
. Their land is part of the Rwampara hill country, that is between two flat, dry, and less populated areas of land. On the Hills Te average monthly rainfall are 970mm with two short dry months in June and July and a short less severe dry month in January. Seven months out of the year the rainfall is over 1000mm per month. Their primary production are banana
s and coffee
, they use these as cash crops. Farmers still use substantial areas for millet
farming. This is their main food crop. They have intensive home gardens to produce for the families needs and the outlying farming is used mostly for the cash crop production where coffee and banana are cultivated using intercropping methods.
the conglomerate farming companies has primarily written off the lands in northwest Zambia
. The land is mostly made of plateaus with lowers lands in the Kabompo
and Zambezi river valley
s. Much of the area is in the Congo
-Zambezi watershed, the area of land where all water runs into the same river basin. The land has several types of soil. There are areas of yellow clay
with higher concentrations of sand where higher rain falls causes soil erosion and makes farming in those areas difficult. There are also areas with fertile red clay that are rich soils good for cultivation of crops. Farmers in the area grow sorghum
, millet, sweet potato
es, pumpkin
and maize
. There is marginal maize production that is used as a cash crop for the community. The area is usually covered by thick forestation that must be cleared before crops can be cultivated, they do not practice agroforestry
. Traditionally spouses must maintain their own garden
s. The produce is shared communally but the practice leads to intensive home gardens that are maintained by the women of the villages.
receive most of their food from growing sweet potatoes Ipomoea batatas which they plant in mulch
mounds at elevations up to 2,700m or higher (Dove and Carpenter 2008). The mounds that the Enga make to plant their crops of potato
es are formed from by piling large amounts of grass taken from fallow, or unplanted, plots then by covering the grass with dirt (Wohlt 2004). The size of the mounds depends on elevation; the higher the elevation; the bigger the mounds will be. Mounds above 2,500m in altitude can have a height of 0.85m in height; while crops below 1,500m are not mounded at all (Dove and Carpenter 2008). The function of the mound is to protect the crops from the frequent frost
s that occur at the high altitudes of the Enga. With sweet potatoes having a very long maturation period, 9 months, the Enga also invest their time and space on the mounds with planting other crops that have much shorter maturation periods such as peas in case a heavy frost does claim the crop (Wohlt 2004).
The planting of the mounds is done so that the plants which have a higher frost tolerance, such as the Irish potatoes, are planted casually throughout the mound and the low tolerant sweet potatoes are planted in the best position to avoid the frost. Pea
s, bean
s, and cabbage
which are all highly tolerant to frost will be planted outside the circle of sweet potatoes and lower on the mound placing them closer to the cold temperatures of the ground (Dove and Carpenter 2008). The Enga practice fallow rotation where a garden will in crop for about four years followed by about four years of fallow grassland
to let the soil replenish (Wohlt 2004).
Garden size for an average Enga garden is about 0.21 hectare or about 2,100 square meters and can contain a few hundred mounds (Wohlt 2004). Another gardening strategy the Enga have implemented is the use of kin lands that are usually within one to two days walk from the farmers normal planting grounds (Dove and Carpenter 2008). The uses of multiple gardens at differing elevation and the ability access clan lands in different areas for gardening have allowed the Enga to adapt to their environment and survive under harsh conditions.
agriculture. The process is extensive because it requires a vast amount of land divided into several plots with one plot planted for a period of years, while the other plots lay fallow for a number of years (Hyde 2010).
For the Bine-speaking peoples of the New Guinea lowland
s swidden cultivation is a main practice for crop propagation. The main crop the Bine grow is the taro root, although the grow about 15 subsidiary crops including: sweet potato, banana, manioc, maize, yam, pawpaw
, sugar cane, pineapple
, and others (Eden 1993). The swiddens which can be placed in either savannas or forests are created by cutting down all the vegetation
in the area that the swidden will be. The farmers then pile all of the cut vegetation on the swidden plot and leave it to dry out through the dry season (Hyde 2010). Right before the wet season begins the piles are burned and the soil and ash are tilled together (Eden 1993). The process of tilling
the soil and ash mixes the carbon
and nitrogen
rich ash into the soil thereby fertilizing the soil for the coming crop. After the soil is tilled the crops are planted.
There are two planting years for a single swidden for the Bine farmers. In the first year the Bine plant primary taro root with a few subsidiary crops like bananas and sweet potatoes. In the second year taro root makes up about 50 percent of the swidden and the rest of the swidden is mixed with about 15 other plants. After the second year the Bine farmers move on to an adjacent swidden and allow the previous swidden to lay fallow or unplanted for a period of 5 to 10 years in order to repopulate the vegetation (Eden 1993). The number of years that a swidden will lay fallow is determined by the plants demand for the nitrogen in the soil. Some plants will leach the soil of nitrogen in a few years and require four or five times that fallow; while other plants can be planted for many years and lay fallow only one or two times the planting period (Hyde 2010). Swidden cultivation requires a lot of land in order to feed only a few people, but the Bine, whose numbers are low, make good uses of their land through swidden farming.
. Fishing
and the gathering of sago
, banana, and other tropical foods are the norm with very little organized agriculture. The Tabalu of Kiriwina
located in the Trobriand Islands
practice a form of agriculture called Kaylu’ebila, a form of garden magic (Malinowski 1965). The main crop for the Tabalu is the yam and there is a definite division of labour
according to sex when it comes to gardening
. Heavy work is done by the men and it includes clearing the vegetation, caring the yam supports, and planting the yam tuber
s in the ground (Malinowski 1987). The women aid by weeding the gardens.
Gardening for the Tabalu is a very long and in depth magical process; with special magicians and magical ingredients which have been handed down from family member to family member over time. Garden fields which are called Kwabila are fenced in on all sides to keep out the swine that are breed by the Tabalu. Kwabila are then divided into many smaller plots called baleko, these are the individual gardens that the crops will be planted in (Malinowski 1965).
consists of modern day Venezuela
, Colombia
, Ecuador
, Suriname
, Brazil
, Peru
, Bolivia
, Paraguay
, Uruguay
, Argentina
, and Chile
. South America has historically been a land exploited not only for its natural resource
s, but also for its indigenous knowledge and labor force
. The environmental diversification of South America has been at the foundation of its presence in the global economy as a resource for agriculture, forestry
, fishing, hunting
, livestock
, mining
and quarrying.
South America can be seen as cultural regions inhabited by Marginal tribe, Tropical Forest tribes, and the Circum-Caribbean tribes each with its own distinct way of agricultural cultivation (Lyon 1974:6).South America’s geographic regions are inhabited by regional tribes which include; the Chocó in the Northern Columbian area, The Kayapo
in the Eastern Para area, the Chono
in the Southern Fuegian area, and the Quechuas in the Western Peruvian area, (Lyon 1974:24). Each of these regions has adapted not only their own cultural identity and agricultural style,
The Eastern region of South America is known as the Para area in what is now modern day Brazil, and has for millennia been home to the tropical forest Kayapớ tribe. The Kayapớ lived in sedentary villages and were proficient in pottery
and loom-weaving, yet they did not domesticate animals or poses knowledge on metallurgy
. These Tropical forest Tribes can be characterized through their farming, dugout canoes, woven baskets, loom weaving
, and pole and thatch houses.
In the Para area the Kayapớ like most tribes of this region practiced intensive agriculture or clearing cultivation. Beginning their agricultural year with a low water season intensifies fishing. The low water season is then followed by the high water season or harvest season. It is during this harvest
season that the Kayapớ are able to exercise their leisure time before the cycle ends with (low water levels) and a return to intense fishing. Each changing season commences ceremonies for the Kayapớ that are directly tied to agriculture, hunting, or fishing. Unlike the Chocó the Kayapớ used an agricultural method known as the slash-burn method (shifting agriculture) .The Kayapớ cut the forest in April to September (dry season) and time their burns just before the raining season. The Kayapớ used circular plots for agricultural cultivation consisting of five rings (characterized as cultivation zones). The first circle or the inner circle was used for taro and sweet potatoes that thrive in the hotter soil found in the center of the plot .The second circle cultivated maize, manioc, and rice an area that needed various ash enrichment treatments and would experience short term growth. The third zone was an area of rich soil and best served mixed crops including the banana, urucu, papaya. The fourth zones consists of shade loving plants and are for a medical purpose, yet evidence of beans and yams have been also found here. The fifth zone or the outer ring was left as a protective zone that included trap animals protective insect
s and bird
s. This form of agriculture requires not only intense physical labor but also requires a knowledge of not only the land ,but various types of ground cover , shades and temperatures of local soils ,as well as cloud formations to time carful burning . When the Kayapớ manage their agricultural plots they must work with a variety of interacting factors including the background soil fertility ,the heterogeneous quality of ash and its distribution, crop nutrient requirements, cropping cycles, management requirements, and pest and disease
control clearly illustrating the common misconception that this form of agriculture is primitive and ineffiecnet.
It has often been thought that the slash-burn plots are abandoned after one or two years because of un productive soil ,but this is a common misconception. The Kayapớ revisit abandoned fields because plants can offer direct and indirect benefits. One direct benefit would be the ability to eat that which has been produced and an indirect benefit would be that open fields allow attract game for hunting and can produce long after they have been tended.
The Southern region of South America is known as the Fuegian area and is occupied by the Chono, Alacaluf
and Yahgan . These Marginal tribes differed greatly from the other regions in that they were expert in making bark or plank canoes and domesticating dog
s, hunting, fishing and gathering. Nomad
s with simple socio-religious patterns, yet completely lacked the technology of pottery, loom-weaving, metallurgy and even agriculture . Since there was a lack of agriculture in this region the Chono ate native berries, roots, fruits, and wild celery
. The source of nutrition for the Chono, Yahgans, and Alcaaluf thus mainly consisted of sea food such as; whale
s, seal
porpoise
s, guanacos, and otter
s . The Southern tribes of South America distinguished themselves not in having a rare form of agriculture like the North’s slush-mush method or the having intensive agriculture like the East’s sophisticated slash-burn method , yet were able to distinguished themselves in being absent of this trait .
s were terraces, irrigation
, mound building, crop rotation
and seeding. Another astonishing plan of theirs was companion planting
. These unique techniques produced maximum yielding from their staple crops.
Terracing is an effective technique in a steep-sloped, semi-arid climate. The Indigenous farmers stair-stepped the hills so that soil erosion was minimal and land surface was better suited for farming. In the Southwest, including parts of New Mexico
, Arizona
, and parts of Northern Mexico
, terracing was extensive. Terraces were constructed by placing rock dams to redirect runoff water to canals that evenly dispersed rain water. The terraced field transformed the terrain into land suitable for farming maize (Keoke and Porterfield 2005, pg. 56). There is evidence that terracing has been used in the Southwest for about 2,500 years. The Anasazi people from this region built reservoirs and directed rain water through ditches to water the crops in the terraces. The natives grew corn, squash, and beans, along with other crops in the terraced fields.
Corn, squash, and beans were staple crops for Native Americans. They were grown throughout much of the North American continent. This trio became known as the Three Sisters. Where they were not grown, the locals traded for them (Berzok 2005, 9). Nomadic tribes, such as the Dakotas, would trade meat
for these vegetable staples. The Three Sisters were usually eaten in unison. They provide maximum nutrition when consumed together.
Ancient folklore
belief says that the Three Sisters represented three goddess
es. Each sister protected one of the three crops. The Three Sisters must never be separated and therefore be planted, cooked, and consumed together—always. This belief turns out to be a good thing. When maize, beans and squash are consumed together, they provide a perfect balance of nutrition. When the trio is eaten together, the body produces a protein
that replicates that of meat. This triad was grown together as well. The crops prospered from one another. Geographically, the Woodlands, Prairie, Plains, Great Basin, and Plateau native cultures all utilized the Three Sisters to some extent.
The Indian Triad was an example of symbiotic
planting. Native Americans were very good at farming. They found that when grown together, the harvest was much larger than when grown separately. Less land was required as well. The corn stalks functioned as a support for the beans. The beans transferred nitrogen into a usable form for the corn and squash, and the broad squash leaves provided shade for the soil, which aided in preventing evaporation
and weed control (Kowtko 2006, 54). As the success of the Three Sisters spread, many cultures turned from their hunting and gathering roots and relied much more on farming (Kowtko 2006, 55).
Another highly successful farming technique of Native American farmers is known as irrigation
. This technique was utilized through much of the Southwest and is useful where water is scarce. Irrigation was and is still used today throughout much of the world. Native Americans became very good at controlling the amount of water that reached their fields. They built long irrigation canal
s to redirect water from a source to water their crops. The Hohokam
people constructed about 600 miles of irrigation canals from AD 50 to 1450 near Phoenix, Arizona
(Berzok 2005, 51). Part of the canal is used by the City of Phoenix today. The Olmec
of Mesoamerica
built canals over 4,000 years ago.
Chinampa
s were invented by Maya
farmers. Chinampas are artificial islands in swampland
s and lake
s. Crops grown on these artificial fields flourished in Mesoamerica. Mesoamerica was very populated at this time, so they developed this technique for additional farming plots (Keoke and Porterfield 2005, 60). This technique was later used by the Aztec
. The Maya and Aztec civilizations grew and flourished due to food surplus.
In the Northeast Woodlands and the Great Lakes
region, an advanced society known as the Moundbuilders emerged (Berzok 2005, 13). This society lived in the flood plains of the Mississippi river basin. This culture farmed mainly maize. They had little need for foraging
and grew to an advanced civilization due to food surplus. They were the largest civilization north of the Rio Grande
.
Storing systems were advanced for the Native Americans. They developed sophisticated storage containers which allowed them to store seeds to plant during the next planting season. They also stored food in dug-out pits or holes in hillsides. Native Americans developed corn crib
s. These were storage bins that were elevated off the ground. This technique prevented moisture and animal intrusion (Berzok 2005, 122-123).
Seed selection also became advanced. Corn is a domestic plant and cannot grow on its own. The first corn grown by Native Americans had small ears. Only a few kernels were produced. By 2,000 years ago, single stalks with large ears were being produced (Keoke and Porterfield 2005, 55). Native Americans created over 700 varieties of corn by 1500 AD.
Continent
A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...
s. Indigenous refers to the native peoples of a given area and horticulture
Horticulture
Horticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic...
is the practice of small-scale plant cultivation.
North Africa
In North AfricaNorth Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
we look at the farming practices of the Eggon, a Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
n hill farming
Hill farming
Hill farming is extensive farming in upland areas, primarily rearing sheep, although historically cattle was often reared more intensively.Cattle farming is usually restricted by a scarcity of winter fodder, and sheep stocks, grazing at about 2 hectares per head, are often taken to lowland areas...
community. The Eggon live in the Mada hills between Lafia
Lafia
Lafia is a town in central Nigeria. It is the capital city of Nasarawa State and has a population of 330,712 inhabitants according to the 2006 census results .It is the largest town in Nasarawa state.- History :...
and Akwanga
Akwanga
Akwanga is a Local Government Area in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Akwanga.It has an area of 996 km² and a population of 113,430 at the 2006 census.The postal code of the area is 960....
. The hills lay between two rivers that Mada and Arikya. The altitude helps retain moisture on the hills due to early morning mists and fogs. The altitude also makes for earlier and longer crop cultivation. They practice bush fallow agriculture as well as mixed farming land management
Land management
Land management is the process of managing the use and development of land resources. Land resources are used for a variety of purposes which may include organic agriculture, reforestation, water resource management and eco-tourism projects.-See also:*Sustainable land management*Acreage...
styles. They focus on growing yam
Yam (vegetable)
Yam is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea . These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania...
s, cassava
Cassava
Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...
, maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, bean
Bean
Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed....
s, and African rice
African rice
Oryza glaberrima, commonly known as African rice, is a domesticated rice species. African rice is believed to have been domesticated 2,000-3,000 years ago in the inland delta of the Upper Niger river, in what is now Mali...
; much of what is produced is exported as a cash crop
Cash crop
In agriculture, a cash crop is a crop which is grown for profit.The term is used to differentiate from subsistence crops, which are those fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food for the producer's family...
and is their primary source of cash income. The Eggon use a terraced agricultural system to maximize space on the hills. The goat
Goat
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
s that they raise are kept mostly for fertilizer
Fertilizer
Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
used in farming. They are only killed on special occasions such as wedding
Wedding
A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...
s. The Eggon use the diversity in their environment to maximize their production.
West Africa
In West AfricaWest Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
the Kissidougou
Kissidougou
Kissidougou is a city in southern Guinea. It is the capital of in the Kissidougou Prefecture, and had a population of 66,018 in the 1996 census. Following intensified conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia during the fall and winter of 2000, many people from the city of Guéckédou fled to...
live on the savannah
Savannah
Savannah or savanna is a type of grassland.It can also mean:-People:* Savannah King, a Canadian freestyle swimmer* Savannah Outen, a singer who gained popularity on You Tube...
dotted by dense areas of “forest islands” that was created by the Kissidougou. The Kissidougou practice intercropping
Intercropping
Intercropping is the practice of growing two or more crops in proximity. The most common goal of intercropping is to produce a greater yield on a given piece of land by making use of resources that would otherwise not be utilized by a single crop. Careful planning is required, taking into account...
within the forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
ed areas. However, they also operate farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
s maintained on slopes or plateaus that are located between the forest islands. They prepare the savannah lands for forestation through farming and burning of the grass
Grass
Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...
es to fertilize the soils. The Kissidougou graze their cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
on the savannah to help to maintain flammable grasses around the farms and the villages. The Kissidougou create diversity in their environment by farming and transforming savannah into lush, dense forest.
The prevalence of wetlands in West Africa has helped to support local indigenous horticulture. Seasonal flooding of major rivers in the region, such as the River Niger, the Sudd and the Senegal, have made it possible for flood cropping in many areas. Indigenous people have utilized a variety of irrigation techniques in order to take advantage of seasonal flooding. Additionally, they plan their plantings and harvests specifically around the flooding of local rivers. For example, some farmers choose to plant on rising floods and harvest as the flooding diminishes. This techniques is utilized when cultivating rice.
East Africa
The areas of East AfricaEast Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
are one of the most affected by corporate farming
Corporate farming
Corporate farming is a term that describes the business of agriculture, specifically, what is seen by some as the practices of would-be megacorporations involved in food production on a very large scale...
. In western Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
there is a farming society called the Banyankore
Ankole
Ankole, also referred to as Nkore, is one of four traditional kingdoms in Uganda. The kingdom is located in the southwestern Uganda, east of Lake Edward. It was ruled by a monarch known as The Mugabe or Omugabe of Ankole. The kingdom was formally abolished in 1967 by the government of President...
. Their land is part of the Rwampara hill country, that is between two flat, dry, and less populated areas of land. On the Hills Te average monthly rainfall are 970mm with two short dry months in June and July and a short less severe dry month in January. Seven months out of the year the rainfall is over 1000mm per month. Their primary production are banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
s and coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
, they use these as cash crops. Farmers still use substantial areas for millet
Millet
The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult...
farming. This is their main food crop. They have intensive home gardens to produce for the families needs and the outlying farming is used mostly for the cash crop production where coffee and banana are cultivated using intercropping methods.
Southern Africa
In Southern AfricaSouthern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...
the conglomerate farming companies has primarily written off the lands in northwest Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
. The land is mostly made of plateaus with lowers lands in the Kabompo
Kabompo River
The Kabompo River is one of the main tributaries of the upper Zambezi River river. It flows entirely in Zambia, rising to the east of the source of the Zambezi, in North-Western Province along the watershed between the Zambezi and Congo river basins which also forms the border between Zambia and DR...
and Zambezi river valley
River Valley
River Valley is the name of an urban planning area within the Central Area, Singapore's central business district.The River Valley Planning Area is defined by the region bounded by Orchard Boulevard, Devonshire Road and Eber Road to the north, Oxley Rise and Mohamed Sultan Road to the east, Martin...
s. Much of the area is in the Congo
Congo River
The Congo River is a river in Africa, and is the deepest river in the world, with measured depths in excess of . It is the second largest river in the world by volume of water discharged, though it has only one-fifth the volume of the world's largest river, the Amazon...
-Zambezi watershed, the area of land where all water runs into the same river basin. The land has several types of soil. There are areas of yellow clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
with higher concentrations of sand where higher rain falls causes soil erosion and makes farming in those areas difficult. There are also areas with fertile red clay that are rich soils good for cultivation of crops. Farmers in the area grow sorghum
Sorghum
Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...
, millet, sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
es, pumpkin
Pumpkin
A pumpkin is a gourd-like squash of the genus Cucurbita and the family Cucurbitaceae . It commonly refers to cultivars of any one of the species Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita mixta, Cucurbita maxima, and Cucurbita moschata, and is native to North America...
and maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
. There is marginal maize production that is used as a cash crop for the community. The area is usually covered by thick forestation that must be cleared before crops can be cultivated, they do not practice agroforestry
Agroforestry
Agroforestry is an integrated approach of using the interactive benefits from combining trees and shrubs with crops and/or livestock.It combines agricultural and forestry technologies to create more diverse, productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land-use systems.-Definitions:According to...
. Traditionally spouses must maintain their own garden
Garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...
s. The produce is shared communally but the practice leads to intensive home gardens that are maintained by the women of the villages.
Highlander Horticulture
The Enga of the Western Highlands Province in New GuineaNew Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
receive most of their food from growing sweet potatoes Ipomoea batatas which they plant in mulch
Mulch
In agriculture and gardening, is a protective cover placed over the soil to retain moisture, reduce erosion, provide nutrients, and suppress weed growth and seed germination. Mulching in gardens and landscaping mimics the leaf cover that is found on forest floors....
mounds at elevations up to 2,700m or higher (Dove and Carpenter 2008). The mounds that the Enga make to plant their crops of potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es are formed from by piling large amounts of grass taken from fallow, or unplanted, plots then by covering the grass with dirt (Wohlt 2004). The size of the mounds depends on elevation; the higher the elevation; the bigger the mounds will be. Mounds above 2,500m in altitude can have a height of 0.85m in height; while crops below 1,500m are not mounded at all (Dove and Carpenter 2008). The function of the mound is to protect the crops from the frequent frost
Frost
Frost is the solid deposition of water vapor from saturated air. It is formed when solid surfaces are cooled to below the dew point of the adjacent air as well as below the freezing point of water. Frost crystals' size differ depending on time and water vapour available. Frost is also usually...
s that occur at the high altitudes of the Enga. With sweet potatoes having a very long maturation period, 9 months, the Enga also invest their time and space on the mounds with planting other crops that have much shorter maturation periods such as peas in case a heavy frost does claim the crop (Wohlt 2004).
The planting of the mounds is done so that the plants which have a higher frost tolerance, such as the Irish potatoes, are planted casually throughout the mound and the low tolerant sweet potatoes are planted in the best position to avoid the frost. Pea
Pea
A pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the pod fruit Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas. Peapods are botanically a fruit, since they contain seeds developed from the ovary of a flower. However, peas are considered to be a vegetable in cooking...
s, bean
Bean
Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed....
s, and cabbage
Cabbage
Cabbage is a popular cultivar of the species Brassica oleracea Linne of the Family Brassicaceae and is a leafy green vegetable...
which are all highly tolerant to frost will be planted outside the circle of sweet potatoes and lower on the mound placing them closer to the cold temperatures of the ground (Dove and Carpenter 2008). The Enga practice fallow rotation where a garden will in crop for about four years followed by about four years of fallow grassland
Grassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
to let the soil replenish (Wohlt 2004).
Garden size for an average Enga garden is about 0.21 hectare or about 2,100 square meters and can contain a few hundred mounds (Wohlt 2004). Another gardening strategy the Enga have implemented is the use of kin lands that are usually within one to two days walk from the farmers normal planting grounds (Dove and Carpenter 2008). The uses of multiple gardens at differing elevation and the ability access clan lands in different areas for gardening have allowed the Enga to adapt to their environment and survive under harsh conditions.
Lowland Swidden Cultivation
Swidden cultivation is an extensive agriculture practice that is also known as Slash-and-BurnSlash and burn
Slash-and-burn is an agricultural technique which involves cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields. It is subsistence agriculture that typically uses little technology or other tools. It is typically part of shifting cultivation agriculture, and of transhumance livestock...
agriculture. The process is extensive because it requires a vast amount of land divided into several plots with one plot planted for a period of years, while the other plots lay fallow for a number of years (Hyde 2010).
For the Bine-speaking peoples of the New Guinea lowland
Lowland
In physical geography, a lowland is any broad expanse of land with a general low level. The term is thus applied to the landward portion of the upward slope from oceanic depths to continental highlands, to a region of depression in the interior of a mountainous region, to a plain of denudation, or...
s swidden cultivation is a main practice for crop propagation. The main crop the Bine grow is the taro root, although the grow about 15 subsidiary crops including: sweet potato, banana, manioc, maize, yam, pawpaw
Papaya
The papaya , papaw, or pawpaw is the fruit of the plant Carica papaya, the sole species in the genus Carica of the plant family Caricaceae...
, sugar cane, pineapple
Pineapple
Pineapple is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone. The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae...
, and others (Eden 1993). The swiddens which can be placed in either savannas or forests are created by cutting down all the vegetation
Vegetation
Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader...
in the area that the swidden will be. The farmers then pile all of the cut vegetation on the swidden plot and leave it to dry out through the dry season (Hyde 2010). Right before the wet season begins the piles are burned and the soil and ash are tilled together (Eden 1993). The process of tilling
Tilling
Tilling can mean:* Tilling * TILLING * Tilling is a fictional town in the Mapp and Lucia novels of E. F. Benson....
the soil and ash mixes the carbon
Carbon
Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
and nitrogen
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere...
rich ash into the soil thereby fertilizing the soil for the coming crop. After the soil is tilled the crops are planted.
There are two planting years for a single swidden for the Bine farmers. In the first year the Bine plant primary taro root with a few subsidiary crops like bananas and sweet potatoes. In the second year taro root makes up about 50 percent of the swidden and the rest of the swidden is mixed with about 15 other plants. After the second year the Bine farmers move on to an adjacent swidden and allow the previous swidden to lay fallow or unplanted for a period of 5 to 10 years in order to repopulate the vegetation (Eden 1993). The number of years that a swidden will lay fallow is determined by the plants demand for the nitrogen in the soil. Some plants will leach the soil of nitrogen in a few years and require four or five times that fallow; while other plants can be planted for many years and lay fallow only one or two times the planting period (Hyde 2010). Swidden cultivation requires a lot of land in order to feed only a few people, but the Bine, whose numbers are low, make good uses of their land through swidden farming.
Island Horticulture
For most South Pacific Island cultures the main subsistence techniques are hunting and gatheringHunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
. Fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
and the gathering of sago
Sago
Sago is a starch extracted in the spongy center or pith, of various tropical palm stems, Metroxylon sagu. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Moluccas, where it is called saksak and sagu. A type of flour, called sago flour, is made from sago. The largest supply...
, banana, and other tropical foods are the norm with very little organized agriculture. The Tabalu of Kiriwina
Kiriwina
Kiriwina is the largest of the Trobriand Islands, with an area of 290.5 km². It is part of the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. Most of the 12,000 people who live in the Trobriands live on Kiriwina. The Kilivila language, also known as Kiriwina, is spoken on the island...
located in the Trobriand Islands
Trobriand Islands
The Trobriand Islands are a 450 km² archipelago of coral atolls off the eastern coast of New Guinea. They are situated in Milne Bay Province in Papua New Guinea. Most of the population of 12,000 indigenous inhabitants live on the main island of Kiriwina, which is also the location of the...
practice a form of agriculture called Kaylu’ebila, a form of garden magic (Malinowski 1965). The main crop for the Tabalu is the yam and there is a definite division of labour
Division of labour
Division of labour is the specialisation of cooperative labour in specific, circumscribed tasks and likeroles. Historically an increasingly complex division of labour is closely associated with the growth of total output and trade, the rise of capitalism, and of the complexity of industrialisation...
according to sex when it comes to gardening
Gardening
Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...
. Heavy work is done by the men and it includes clearing the vegetation, caring the yam supports, and planting the yam tuber
Tuber
Tubers are various types of modified plant structures that are enlarged to store nutrients. They are used by plants to survive the winter or dry months and provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season and they are a means of asexual reproduction...
s in the ground (Malinowski 1987). The women aid by weeding the gardens.
Gardening for the Tabalu is a very long and in depth magical process; with special magicians and magical ingredients which have been handed down from family member to family member over time. Garden fields which are called Kwabila are fenced in on all sides to keep out the swine that are breed by the Tabalu. Kwabila are then divided into many smaller plots called baleko, these are the individual gardens that the crops will be planted in (Malinowski 1965).
South America
South AmericaSouth America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
consists of modern day Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, Suriname
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, and Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
. South America has historically been a land exploited not only for its natural resource
Natural resource
Natural resources occur naturally within environments that exist relatively undisturbed by mankind, in a natural form. A natural resource is often characterized by amounts of biodiversity and geodiversity existent in various ecosystems....
s, but also for its indigenous knowledge and labor force
Labor force
In economics, a labor force or labour force is a region's combined civilian workforce, including both the employed and unemployed.Normally, the labor force of a country consists of everyone of working age In economics, a labor force or labour force is a region's combined civilian workforce,...
. The environmental diversification of South America has been at the foundation of its presence in the global economy as a resource for agriculture, forestry
Forestry
Forestry is the interdisciplinary profession embracing the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands...
, fishing, hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
, livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
, mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
and quarrying.
South America can be seen as cultural regions inhabited by Marginal tribe, Tropical Forest tribes, and the Circum-Caribbean tribes each with its own distinct way of agricultural cultivation (Lyon 1974:6).South America’s geographic regions are inhabited by regional tribes which include; the Chocó in the Northern Columbian area, The Kayapo
Kayapo people
The Kayapo people are the Gê-speaking native peoples of the plain lands of the Mato Grosso and Pará in Brazil, south of the Amazon Basin and along Rio Xingu and its tributaries.In 2003, their population was 7,096....
in the Eastern Para area, the Chono
Chono
Chono or Chona is a generic name for a nomadic, indigenous people of the Chiloé Archipelago, Chile. They are now extinct.The Chono became extinct during the 18th century with the last survivor going missing in 1875....
in the Southern Fuegian area, and the Quechuas in the Western Peruvian area, (Lyon 1974:24). Each of these regions has adapted not only their own cultural identity and agricultural style,
The Eastern region of South America is known as the Para area in what is now modern day Brazil, and has for millennia been home to the tropical forest Kayapớ tribe. The Kayapớ lived in sedentary villages and were proficient in pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
and loom-weaving, yet they did not domesticate animals or poses knowledge on metallurgy
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
. These Tropical forest Tribes can be characterized through their farming, dugout canoes, woven baskets, loom weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
, and pole and thatch houses.
In the Para area the Kayapớ like most tribes of this region practiced intensive agriculture or clearing cultivation. Beginning their agricultural year with a low water season intensifies fishing. The low water season is then followed by the high water season or harvest season. It is during this harvest
Harvest
Harvest is the process of gathering mature crops from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper...
season that the Kayapớ are able to exercise their leisure time before the cycle ends with (low water levels) and a return to intense fishing. Each changing season commences ceremonies for the Kayapớ that are directly tied to agriculture, hunting, or fishing. Unlike the Chocó the Kayapớ used an agricultural method known as the slash-burn method (shifting agriculture) .The Kayapớ cut the forest in April to September (dry season) and time their burns just before the raining season. The Kayapớ used circular plots for agricultural cultivation consisting of five rings (characterized as cultivation zones). The first circle or the inner circle was used for taro and sweet potatoes that thrive in the hotter soil found in the center of the plot .The second circle cultivated maize, manioc, and rice an area that needed various ash enrichment treatments and would experience short term growth. The third zone was an area of rich soil and best served mixed crops including the banana, urucu, papaya. The fourth zones consists of shade loving plants and are for a medical purpose, yet evidence of beans and yams have been also found here. The fifth zone or the outer ring was left as a protective zone that included trap animals protective insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s and bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s. This form of agriculture requires not only intense physical labor but also requires a knowledge of not only the land ,but various types of ground cover , shades and temperatures of local soils ,as well as cloud formations to time carful burning . When the Kayapớ manage their agricultural plots they must work with a variety of interacting factors including the background soil fertility ,the heterogeneous quality of ash and its distribution, crop nutrient requirements, cropping cycles, management requirements, and pest and disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
control clearly illustrating the common misconception that this form of agriculture is primitive and ineffiecnet.
It has often been thought that the slash-burn plots are abandoned after one or two years because of un productive soil ,but this is a common misconception. The Kayapớ revisit abandoned fields because plants can offer direct and indirect benefits. One direct benefit would be the ability to eat that which has been produced and an indirect benefit would be that open fields allow attract game for hunting and can produce long after they have been tended.
The Southern region of South America is known as the Fuegian area and is occupied by the Chono, Alacaluf
Alacaluf
The Alacaluf are a South American people living in Chile on the Strait of Magellan , Chile. Their traditional language is known as Kawésqar.- Economy :They were a nomadic sea-faring people until the twentieth century...
and Yahgan . These Marginal tribes differed greatly from the other regions in that they were expert in making bark or plank canoes and domesticating dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
s, hunting, fishing and gathering. Nomad
Nomad
Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...
s with simple socio-religious patterns, yet completely lacked the technology of pottery, loom-weaving, metallurgy and even agriculture . Since there was a lack of agriculture in this region the Chono ate native berries, roots, fruits, and wild celery
Celery
Apium graveolens is a plant species in the family Apiaceae commonly known as celery or celeriac , depending on whether the petioles or roots are eaten: celery refers to the former and celeriac to the latter. Apium graveolens grows to 1 m tall...
. The source of nutrition for the Chono, Yahgans, and Alcaaluf thus mainly consisted of sea food such as; whale
Whale
Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
s, seal
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
porpoise
Porpoise
Porpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae; they are related to whales and dolphins. They are distinct from dolphins, although the word "porpoise" has been used to refer to any small dolphin, especially by sailors and fishermen...
s, guanacos, and otter
Otter
The Otters are twelve species of semi-aquatic mammals which feed on fish and shellfish, and also other invertebrates, amphibians, birds and small mammals....
s . The Southern tribes of South America distinguished themselves not in having a rare form of agriculture like the North’s slush-mush method or the having intensive agriculture like the East’s sophisticated slash-burn method , yet were able to distinguished themselves in being absent of this trait .
North America
A few remarkable farming methods developed by Native AmericanIndigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
s were terraces, irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
, mound building, crop rotation
Crop rotation
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.Crop rotation confers various benefits to the soil. A traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals...
and seeding. Another astonishing plan of theirs was companion planting
Companion planting
Companion planting is the planting of different crops in proximity , on the theory that they assist each other in nutrient uptake, pest control, pollination, and other factors necessary to increasing crop productivity...
. These unique techniques produced maximum yielding from their staple crops.
Terracing is an effective technique in a steep-sloped, semi-arid climate. The Indigenous farmers stair-stepped the hills so that soil erosion was minimal and land surface was better suited for farming. In the Southwest, including parts of New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, and parts of Northern Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, terracing was extensive. Terraces were constructed by placing rock dams to redirect runoff water to canals that evenly dispersed rain water. The terraced field transformed the terrain into land suitable for farming maize (Keoke and Porterfield 2005, pg. 56). There is evidence that terracing has been used in the Southwest for about 2,500 years. The Anasazi people from this region built reservoirs and directed rain water through ditches to water the crops in the terraces. The natives grew corn, squash, and beans, along with other crops in the terraced fields.
Corn, squash, and beans were staple crops for Native Americans. They were grown throughout much of the North American continent. This trio became known as the Three Sisters. Where they were not grown, the locals traded for them (Berzok 2005, 9). Nomadic tribes, such as the Dakotas, would trade meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
for these vegetable staples. The Three Sisters were usually eaten in unison. They provide maximum nutrition when consumed together.
Ancient folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
belief says that the Three Sisters represented three goddess
Goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....
es. Each sister protected one of the three crops. The Three Sisters must never be separated and therefore be planted, cooked, and consumed together—always. This belief turns out to be a good thing. When maize, beans and squash are consumed together, they provide a perfect balance of nutrition. When the trio is eaten together, the body produces a protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
that replicates that of meat. This triad was grown together as well. The crops prospered from one another. Geographically, the Woodlands, Prairie, Plains, Great Basin, and Plateau native cultures all utilized the Three Sisters to some extent.
The Indian Triad was an example of symbiotic
Symbiosis
Symbiosis is close and often long-term interaction between different biological species. In 1877 Bennett used the word symbiosis to describe the mutualistic relationship in lichens...
planting. Native Americans were very good at farming. They found that when grown together, the harvest was much larger than when grown separately. Less land was required as well. The corn stalks functioned as a support for the beans. The beans transferred nitrogen into a usable form for the corn and squash, and the broad squash leaves provided shade for the soil, which aided in preventing evaporation
Evaporation
Evaporation is a type of vaporization of a liquid that occurs only on the surface of a liquid. The other type of vaporization is boiling, which, instead, occurs on the entire mass of the liquid....
and weed control (Kowtko 2006, 54). As the success of the Three Sisters spread, many cultures turned from their hunting and gathering roots and relied much more on farming (Kowtko 2006, 55).
Another highly successful farming technique of Native American farmers is known as irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
. This technique was utilized through much of the Southwest and is useful where water is scarce. Irrigation was and is still used today throughout much of the world. Native Americans became very good at controlling the amount of water that reached their fields. They built long irrigation canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
s to redirect water from a source to water their crops. The Hohokam
Hohokam
Hohokam is one of the four major prehistoric archaeological Oasisamerica traditions of what is now the American Southwest. Many local residents put the accent on the first syllable . Variant spellings in current, official usage include Hobokam, Huhugam and Huhukam...
people constructed about 600 miles of irrigation canals from AD 50 to 1450 near Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
(Berzok 2005, 51). Part of the canal is used by the City of Phoenix today. The Olmec
Olmec
The Olmec were the first major Pre-Columbian civilization in Mexico. They lived in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the modern-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco....
of Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
built canals over 4,000 years ago.
Chinampa
Chinampa
Chinampa is a method of ancient Mesoamerican agriculture which used small, rectangle-shaped areas of fertile arable land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of Mexico.-Description:...
s were invented by Maya
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
farmers. Chinampas are artificial islands in swampland
Swampland
In physics, the term swampland is used in contrast to the term "landscape," to indicate physical theories or aspects of such theories which could be true if gravity wasn't an issue, but which are not compatible with string theory...
s and lake
Lake
A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...
s. Crops grown on these artificial fields flourished in Mesoamerica. Mesoamerica was very populated at this time, so they developed this technique for additional farming plots (Keoke and Porterfield 2005, 60). This technique was later used by the Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
. The Maya and Aztec civilizations grew and flourished due to food surplus.
In the Northeast Woodlands and the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
region, an advanced society known as the Moundbuilders emerged (Berzok 2005, 13). This society lived in the flood plains of the Mississippi river basin. This culture farmed mainly maize. They had little need for foraging
Foraging
- Definitions and significance of foraging behavior :Foraging is the act of searching for and exploiting food resources. It affects an animal's fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce...
and grew to an advanced civilization due to food surplus. They were the largest civilization north of the Rio Grande
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...
.
Storing systems were advanced for the Native Americans. They developed sophisticated storage containers which allowed them to store seeds to plant during the next planting season. They also stored food in dug-out pits or holes in hillsides. Native Americans developed corn crib
Corn crib
A corn crib or corncrib is a type of granary used to dry and store corn. It is also known as a cornhouse or corn house, though this term can refer to any granary....
s. These were storage bins that were elevated off the ground. This technique prevented moisture and animal intrusion (Berzok 2005, 122-123).
Seed selection also became advanced. Corn is a domestic plant and cannot grow on its own. The first corn grown by Native Americans had small ears. Only a few kernels were produced. By 2,000 years ago, single stalks with large ears were being produced (Keoke and Porterfield 2005, 55). Native Americans created over 700 varieties of corn by 1500 AD.
Africa
- Chabatama, Chewe Mebbiens. 1999. "Peasant Farming, the State, and Food Security in the North-Western Province of Zambia, 1902--1964." Diss. University of Toranto, 1999.
- Dorward, David. 1987. "The Impact of Colonialism on a Nigerian Hill-Farming Society: A Case Study of Innovation among the Eggon." International Journal of African Historical Studies 20.2: 201-24.
- Dove, Michael, and Carol Carpenter. 2008. Environmental Anthropology: a Historical Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.
- Kent, Susan. 2002. Ethnicity, Hunter-gatherers, and the "other": Association or Assimilation in Africa. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
- Simon Heck. 1998. "In the Presence of Neighbors: Land, Property, and Community in Ankole, Uganda." Diss. Boston University.
South Pacific
- Boyd, David J. 2001. Life without Pigs: Recent Subsistence Changes among the Irakia Awa, Papua New Guinea. Human Ecology 29(3):259-282.
- Dove, Michael R., and Carol Carpenter, eds. 2008. Environmental Anthropology: A Historical Reader: Blackwell Publishing.
- Eden, Michael J. 1993. Swidden Cultivation in Forest and Savanna in Lowland Southwest Papua New Guinea. Human Ecology 21(2):145-166.
- Hogbin, Ian, ed. 1973. Anthropology in Papua New Guinea. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
- interKnowledgeCorp. 2006. PAPUA NEW GUINEA: For the Serious Adventure Traveller. Pp. Papua New Guinea Tourism, Vol. 2010: interKnowledge Corp
- Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1961. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.
- — 1965. Soil-Tilling and Agricultural Rites in the Trobriand Islands. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- — 1987. The sexual life of savages in North-western Melanesia : an ethnographic account of courtship, marriage, and family life among the natives of the Trobriand Islands, British New Guinea. Boston: Beacon Press.
- Wohlt, Paul B. Descent Group Composition and Population Pressure in a Fringe Enga Clan, Papua New Guinea. Human Ecology 32(2):137-162.
South America
- Europa. 1926. The Eurpopa year book 1982 A World Survey. Volume (I-II). Europa Publications.
- Cooper, M. John. 1967. Analyitical and Critical Bibliography of the Tribes of the Tierra Del Fuego and the Adjacent Territory. Netherlands: Anthropological Publications.
- Lyon, Patricia. 1974. Native South Americans Ethnology of the Least Known Continent. Boston: Little Brown and Company.
- Osborne, Harold. 1952. Indians of the Andes Aymaras and Quechuas. London and New York: Routledge.
- Posey, A. Darrell. 2002. Kayapo Ethnoecology and Culture. London and New York: Routledge.
- Williams, A. Caroline. 2004. Between Resistance and Adaption: Indigenous Peoples and the Colonisation of the Choco, 1510-1753. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press.
North America
- Berzok, Linda Murray. American Indian Food. Greenwood Press, 2005.
- Carlson, Leonard A. Indians, Bureaucrats and Land: The Dawes Act and the Decline of Indian Farming. Greenwood Press, 1981.
- Duer, Douglas, Nancy J. Turner. Keeping It Living: Traditions of Plant Use and Cultivation on the Northwest Cost of North America. University of Washington Press, 2005.
- Keoke, Emory Dean, Kay Marie Porterfield. Food, Farming, and Hunting. Facts on File, 2005.
- Kowtko, Stacy. Nature and the Environment in Pre-Columbian American Life. Greenwoods Press, 2006.
- Sandor, J.A., P.L.Gersper, and J.W. Hawley. 1990. Prehistoric Agriculture Terraces and Soils in the Mimbres Area, New Mexico. World Archaeology 22,no.5 (June , 1990).