cambridge.org

Neo-environmental determinism and agrarian ‘collapse’ in Andean prehistory | Antiquity | Cambridge Core

  • ️Fri Feb 14 2025

Extract

In early anthropology, environmental determinism was used to explain race, human demography, material culture, cultural variation and cultural change. As anthropological interpretation evolved, simplistic reductionist thinking was replaced with more complex socio-cultural explanations. Despite these theoretical advances,environmental determinism continues to be invoked to explain Andean prehistory.

References

Abbott, M.G., Binford, M.W., Brenner, M., Curtis, J.H. & Kelts, K.R.. 1997. A 3,500 “Cyr high-resolution sediment record of lake level changes in Lake Titicaca, Bolivia/Peru, Quaternary Research 47(2): 16980.Google Scholar

Albarracín-Jordan, J. 1996. Tiwanaku: arqueología regional y dinámica segmentaria. La Paz: Editores Plural.Google Scholar

Albarracín-Jordan, J. & Mathews, J.E.. 1990. Asentamientos Prehispánicos del Valle de Tiwanaku. La Paz: Producciones CIMA. Tomo 1.Google Scholar

Ashmore, W. & Knapp, A.B. (ed.). 1999. The archaeologies of landscape: contemporary perspectives. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar

Bender, B. 1998. Stonehenge: making space. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar

Binford, M., Kolata, A., Brenner, M., Janusek, J., Seddon, M., Abbott, M. & Curtis, J.. 1997. Climate variation and the rise and fall of an Andean civilization, Quaternary Research 47: 23548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Blaikie, P. & Brookfield, H.C.. 1987. Land degradation and society. London: Methuen.Google Scholar

Botkin, D. 1990. Discordant harmonies: A new ecology for the twenty-first century. New York (NY): Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Browman, D.L. (ed.). 1987. Arid land use strategies and risk management in the Andes: a regional anthropological perspective. Boulder (CO): Westview Press.Google Scholar

Cardich, A. 1985. The fluctuating upper limits of cultivation in the central Andes and their impact on Peruvian prehistory, Advances in World Archaeology 4: 293333.Google Scholar

Crumley, C.L. (ed.). 1994. Historical ecology: cultural knowledge and changing landscapes. Santa Fe (NM): School of American Research.Google Scholar

Dejoux, C. & Iltis, A. (ed.). 1992. Lake Titicaca: a synthesis of limnological knowledge. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Erickson, C.L. 1993. The social organization of prehispanic raised field agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin, in Scarborough, V. & Isaac, B. (ed.), Economic aspects of water management in the prehispanic new world: 369426. Greenwich (CT): JAI Press. Research in Economic Anthropology Supplement 7.Google Scholar

Erickson, C.L. 1996. Investigación arqueológica del sistema agrícola de los camellones en la Cuenca del Lago Titicaca del Perú. La Paz: PIWA y el Centro de Información para el Desarollo.Google Scholar

Erickson, C.L. In press. The Lake Titicaca Basin: a pre-Columbian built landscape, in Lentz, D.L. (ed.), Pre-Columbian new world ecosystems. New York (NY): Columbia University Press.Google Scholar

Erickson, C.L. N.d. Waru Waru: Ancient Andean agriculture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Graffam, G. 1992. Beyond state collapse: rural history, raised fields, and pastoralism in the South Andes, American Anthropologist 94(4): 882904.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Kolata, A.L. 1993. The Tiwanaku. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar

Kolata, A.L. (Ed). 1996. Tiwanaku and its hinterland. Washington (DC): Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar

Kolata, A.L. & Ortloff, C.. 1996. Agroecological perspectives on the decline of the Tiwanaku state, in Kolata, (ed.): 181202.Google Scholar

Levieil, D.P. & Orlove, B.. 1990. Local control of aquatic resources: community and ecology in Lake Titicaca, Peru, American Anthropologist 92: 36282.Google Scholar

Morlon, P. (ed.). 1992. Comprender la agricultura campesina en los Andes centrales: Perú-Bolivia. Lima: Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos.Google Scholar

Monheim, F 1963. Contribucción a la climatología e hidrologia de la Cuenca del Lago Titicaca. Puno: Universidad Técnica del Altiplano.Google Scholar

Nuñez, M. 1984. Manejo y control de totorales en el Titicaca, Boletín del Instituto de Estudios Aymaras Serie 2, número 19, Abril: 419. Chucuito, Peru.Google Scholar

Posnansky, A. 1945. Tihuanacu: The eradle of American man. New York (NY): J.J. Augustin.Google Scholar

Puleson, A. 1976. Environment and empire: climatic factors in prehistoric Andean culture change, World Archaeology 8: 12132.Google Scholar

Seddon, M.T. 1994. Excavations in raised fields of the Rio Catari sub-basin, Bolivia. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago.Google Scholar

Shimada, I., Schaaf, C.B., Thompson, L.G. & Moseley-Thompson, E.. 1991. Cultural impacts of severe droughts in the prehistoric Andes: Applications of a 1,500-year ice core precipitation record, World Archaeology 22: 24770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Tilley, C. 1994. A phenomenology of landscape: places, paths, and monuments. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar

Zimmerer, K.S. 1994. Human geography and the ‘new ecology’: the prospect and promise of integration, Annals of the American Association of Geographers 84(1): 10825.CrossRefGoogle Scholar