Overview

The legendary El Dorado—the city of gold—remains a mere legend, but astonishing new discoveries are revealing a major civilization in ancient Amazonia that was more complex than anyone previously dreamed. Scholars have long insisted that the Amazonian ecosystem placed severe limits on the size and complexity of its ancient cultures, but leading researcher Denise Schaan reverses that view, synthesizing exciting new evidence of large-scale land and resource management to tell a new history of indigenous Amazonia. Schaan also engages fundamental debates about the development of social complexity and the importance of ancient Amazonia from a global perspective. This innovative, interdisciplinary book is a major contribution to the study of human-environment relations, social complexity, and past and present indigenous societies.

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9781598745061

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Historical ecological approaches have made important contributions, dispelling the myth that the environment constitutes an objective reality transcending the social context of its production and experience. At the same time, this perspective is equally critical of theories that reduce landscapes to a cultural construction and ignore the agency of meaningful places. Inspired by this approach, Schaan (Federal State Univ. of Pari, Brazil) has written an engaging study of the anthropogenic landscapes of the pre-Columbian Amazon, focusing on the development of the mound centers of the Marajoara culture. The author compares prehistoric land management practices with similar traditions in other regions of the Amazon. Compiling available archaeological data, her analysis successfully debunks the commonplace belief that the Amazon represents a pristine environment, and it provides a convincing reconstruction of the anthropogenically dynamic and diverse landscapes of the Amazonian Basin. Schaan further examines the intersection of managed ecology with Marajoara funerary rites, ancestor worship, social memory, and cosmology and devotes a chapter interpreting the remarkable geoglyphs of the western Amazonian region. The author concludes her study with a pointed critique of government development programs that disregard indigenous knowledge and ecological stewardship. For students of Amazonian archaeology and scholars interested in human-environment relations. Summing Up: Recommended. --CHOICE

Historical ecological approaches have made important contributions, dispelling the myth that the environment constitutes an objective reality transcending the social context of its production and experience. At the same time, this perspective is equally critical of theories that reduce landscapes to a cultural construction and ignore the agency of meaningful places. Inspired by this approach, Schaan (Federal State Univ. of Pari, Brazil) has written an engaging study of the anthropogenic landscapes of the pre-Columbian Amazon, focusing on the development of the mound centers of the Marajoara culture. The author compares prehistoric land management practices with similar traditions in other regions of the Amazon. Compiling available archaeological data, her analysis successfully debunks the commonplace belief that the Amazon represents a pristine environment, and it provides a convincing reconstruction of the anthropogenically dynamic and diverse landscapes of the Amazonian Basin. Schaan further examines the intersection of managed ecology with Marajoara funerary rites, ancestor worship, social memory, and cosmology and devotes a chapter interpreting the remarkable geoglyphs of the western Amazonian region. The author concludes her study with a pointed critique of government development programs that disregard indigenous knowledge and ecological stewardship. For students of Amazonian archaeology and scholars interested in human-environment relations. Summing Up: Recommended. <br><br>--CHOICE<br>

Author Information

An internationally renowned researcher, Denise Schaan is associate professor of archaeology at Federal University of Para in Belem, Brazil. Her groundbreaking research on geoglyphs in the Western Amazon have attracted worldwide media attention. Schaan has published 44 scientific articles and book chapters, authored three books and edited two volumes.

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