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An artificial landscape-scale fishery in the Bolivian Amazon

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  • Clark L. Erickson

    (University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

Historical ecologists working in the Neotropics argue that the present natural environment is an historical product of human intentionality and ingenuity, a creation that is imposed, built, managed and maintained by the collective multigenerational knowledge and experience of Native Americans1,2. In the past 12,000 years, indigenous peoples transformed the environment, creating what we now recognize as the rich ecological mosaic of the Neotropics3,4,5,6. The prehispanic savanna peoples of the Bolivian Amazon built an anthropogenic landscape through the construction of raised fields, large settlement mounds, and earthen causeways7,8. I have studied a complex artificial network of hydraulic earthworks covering 525 km2 in the Baures region of Bolivia. Here I identify a particular form of earthwork, the zigzag structure, as a fish weir, on the basis of form, orientation, location, association with other hydraulic works and ethnographic analogy. The native peoples used this technology to harvest sufficient animal protein to sustain large and dense populations in a savanna environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Clark L. Erickson, 2000. "An artificial landscape-scale fishery in the Bolivian Amazon," Nature, Nature, vol. 408(6809), pages 190-193, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:408:y:2000:i:6809:d:10.1038_35041555
    DOI: 10.1038/35041555
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    Cited by:

    1. Thomas W. Lee & John H. Walker, 2022. "Forests and Farmers: GIS Analysis of Forest Islands and Large Raised Fields in the Bolivian Amazon," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-26, May.
    2. Marion Comptour & Sophie Caillon & Leonor Rodrigues & Doyle McKey, 2018. "Wetland Raised-Field Agriculture and Its Contribution to Sustainability: Ethnoecology of a Present-Day African System and Questions about Pre-Columbian Systems in the American Tropics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-23, August.
    3. Christiam Paúl Aguirre Merino & Raquel Piqué Huerta & Lady Nathaly Parra Ordoñez & Verónica Alexandra Guamán Cazho & Walter Oswaldo Valdez Bustamante, 2023. "The Archeological Landscape of the Chanchán Basin and Its Agroecological Legacies for the Conservation of Montane Forests in the Western Foothills of the Ecuadorian Andes," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-37, January.

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