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PRECOLUMBIAN AGRICULTURE ON THE GUIANAS COAST
Professor Stephen Rostain, La Maison René Ginouvès d'Archéologie et d'Ethnologie, University of Paris X at Nanterre
It is generally accepted that slash-and-burn agriculture was the most common technique used by Precolumbian Indians. However, various other elaborate agricultural techniques were developed during Precolumbian times, such as the use of varzea, terra preta and/or raised fields. In the Guianas, between AD 650 and 1200, Arauquinoid people occupied a territory of approximately 600 km long, where the raised field technique was intensively used for almost one millennium before the European Conquest. Various plants were probably cultivated together. A large quantity of sweet potato is found, as well as is maize, ice cream bean (Inga spp.), some manioc and various other useful plants. Hydrological constructions are associated with the raised fields and causeways cut through the swamps to connect sand ridges. In western Suriname, villages were built on artificial mounds. Statistical calculations based on the surface area of the raised fields indicate that 50 to 100 inhabitants per km2 occupied the area. Precolumbian inhabitants of the Guianas coast systematically organized, managed and anthropomorphized their territory in a specific pattern.
Room Rinker 110. Friday 11/16, 4 p.m.
