Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T19:28:30.097Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Drained Fields at La Tigra, Venezuelan Llanos: A Regional Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charles S. Spencer ,
Elsa M. Redmond  and
Milagro Rinaldi
Charles S. Spencer
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park W. at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192
Elsa M. Redmond
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park W. at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192
Milagro Rinaldi
Affiliation:
Laboratorio de Paleoecología, Centra de Ecología y Ciencias Ambientales, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Apartado 21827, Caracas 1020-A, Venezuela
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper discusses drained-field studies in Venezuela, beginning with the first investigations two decades ago that focused on field systems themselves and proceeding to recent research by the authors that examined the drained fields of La Tigra as part of a regional-scale project in the state of Barinas. The La Tigra fields are dated to the Late Gaván phase (A.D. 550-1000), a time of extensive habitation in the region. An analysis of excavated pollen samples from the drained fields and a nearby village site has revealed that whereas maize was the predominant plant, there was notable intersite variability in the secondary cultigens. The paper also considers whether population pressure could have prompted the construction of the La Tigra fields. A comparison of archaeological population estimates to estimates of potential population under varying assumptions of productive capacity yields no indication of demographic pressures. We suggest that drained-field construction in this case was motivated primarily by political-economic considerations, part of a strategy whereby the regional elite sought to stimulate and mobilize the production of surplus by village farmers.

Discutimos en este artículo los estudios sobre campos drenados en Venezuela, desde sus inicios hace veinte años, hasta llegar a la investigación reciente por los autores de esta obra sobre el estudio de los campos drenados de La Tigra, que forman parte de un proyecto a escala regional en el estado Barinas. Los campos corresponden a la fase Gaván Tardía (550-1000 D.C.), una época de ocupación extensiva en la región. El análisis palinológico de las muestras excavadas en los campos drenados y en un yacimiento cercano sugiere que el maíz fue el cultivo dominante, mientras que los cultígenos secundarios varían entre los dos sitios. También discutimos si los campos drenados de La Tigra fueron construidos en respuesta a presiones demográficas. Una comparación entre la estimación de la población arqueológica y estimaciones de la población potencial, bajo suposiciones variables, no produce indicaciones de presión demográfica. Sugerimos que los campos drenados de La Tigra fueron construidos por motivos político-económicos, y que formaron parte de una estrategia de la élite regional para estimular y movilizar la producción excedente.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 119 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Alcorn, J. B. 1984 Huastec Mayan Ethnobotany. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Alden, J. R. 1979 A Reconstruction of Toltec Period Political Units in the Valley of Mexico. In Transformations: Mathematical Approaches to Cultural Change, edited by C. Renfrew and K. Cooke, pp. 169–200. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Baker, P., and Sanders, W. 1972 Demographic Studies in Anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology 1:151–178.Google Scholar
Blanton, R., Kowalewski, S., Feinman, G., and Appel, J. 1982 Monte Albdn’s Hinterland, Part I: The Prehispanic Settlement Patterns of the Central and Southern Parts of the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoirs No. 15. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Boserup, E. 1965 The Conditions of Agricultural Growth. Aldine, Chicago.Google Scholar
Brumfiel, E. 1976 Regional Growth in the Eastern Valley of Mexico: A Test of the “Population Pressure” Hypothesis. In The Early Mesoamerican Village, edited by K. V. Flannery, pp. 234–249. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Coe, M. D., and Diehl, R. A. 1980 The People of the River. In the Land of the Olmec, vol. 2. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Cowgill, G. 1975 On the Causes and Consequences of Ancient and Modern Population Changes. American Anthropologist 75:505–525.Google Scholar
Cruxent, J. M. 1966 Apuntes sobre las calzadas de Barinas, Venezuela. Boletin Informativo del Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas 4:10–24.Google Scholar
Cruxent, J. M., and Rouse, I. B. 1958 An Archaeological Chronology of Venezuela, vol. 1. Social Science Monographs No. 6. Pan American Union, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Darch, J. P. 1983 Drained Fields in the Americas: An Introduction. In Drained Field Agriculture in Central and South America, edited by J. P. Darch, pp. 1–10. BAR International Series 189. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darch, J. P. (editor) 1983 Drained Field Agriculture in Central and South America. BAR International Series 189. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Denevan, W. M. 1966 The Aboriginal Cultural Geography of the Llanos de Mojos of Bolivia. Ibero-Americana No. 48. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Denevan, W. M. 1982 Hydraulic Agriculture in the American Tropics: Forms, Measures, and Recent Research. In Maya Subsistence: Studies in Memory of Dennis E. Puleston, edited by K. V. Flannery, pp. 181–203. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Denevan, W. M. 1991 Prehistoric Roads and Causeways of Lowland Tropical America. In Ancient Road Networks and Settlement Hierarchies in the New World, edited by C. D. Trombold, pp. 230–242. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Denevan, W. M., and Bergman, R. W. 1975 Karinya Indian Swamp Cultivation in the Venezuelan Llanos. Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers 37:23–36.Google Scholar
Denevan, W. M., and Mathewson, K. 1983 Preliminary Results of the Samborondon Raised Field Project, Guayas Basin, Ecuador. In Drained Field Agriculture in Central and South America, edited by J. P. Darch. BAR International Series 189. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Denevan, W., and Schwerin, K. H. 1978 Adaptive Strategies in Karinya Subsistence, Venezuelan Llanos. Antropológica 50:3–91.Google Scholar
Denevan, W., and Zucchi, A. 1978 Ridged Field Excavations in the Central Orinoco Llanos, Venezuela. In Advances in Andean Archaeology, edited by D. L. Browman, pp. 235–245. Mouton, The Hague.Google Scholar
Denevan, W. M., Mathewson, K., and Knapp, G. (editors) 1987 Pre-Hispanic Agricultural Fields in the Andean Region. BAR International Series 359(i and ii). British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Erickson, C. L. 1980 Sistemas agrícolas prehispánicos en los Llanos de Mojos. América Indágena 40:731–755.Google Scholar
Erickson, C. L. 1987 The Dating of Raised-Field Agriculture in the Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru. In Pre-Hispanic Agricultural Fields in the Andean Region, edited by W. Denevan, K. Mathewson, and G. Knapp, pp. 373–384. BAR International Series 359(i and ii). British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Farrington, I. S. (editor) 1985 Prehistoric Intensive Agriculture in the Tropics. BAR International Series 232. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Federmann, N. 1958 [1555] Historia indiana o primer viaje de Nicolas Federmann. Editado por Juan Friede. Academia Colombiana de la Historia. Artes Gráficas, Madrid.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V. 1976 Empirical Determination of Site Catchments in Oaxaca and Tehuacán. In The Early Mesoamerican Village, edited by K. V. Flannery, pp. 103–117. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V. (editor) 1982 Prehispanic Maya Subsistence: Studies in Memory of Dennis E. Puleston. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Garson, A. G. 1980 Prehistory, Settlement and Food Production in the Savanna Region of La Calzada de Paez, Venezuela. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Gumilla, P. J. 1963 [1745] El Orinoco ilustrado y definido. Biblioteca de la Academia Nacional de la Historia No. 69. Fuentes para la Historia Colonial de Venezuela. Italgráfica, Caracas.Google Scholar
Kirkby, A. 1973 The Use of Land and Water Resources in the Past and Present Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Memoirs No. 5. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Kolata, A. L. 1991 The Technology and Organization of Agricultural Production in the Tiwanaku State. Latin American Antiquity 2:99–125.Google Scholar
Kowalewski, S. 1980 Population-Resource Balances in Period I of Oaxaca, Mexico. American Antiquity 45:151–165.Google Scholar
Marcos, J. G. 1987 Los campos elevados de la Cuenca del Guayas, Ecuador: El Proyecto Peñon del Ráo. In Pre-Hispanic Agricultural Fields in the Andean Region, edited by W. M. Denevan, K. Mathewson, and G. Knapp, pp. 217–224. BAR International Series 359(ii). British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Morey, N. 1975 Ethnohistory of the Colombian and Venezuelan Llanos. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Parsons, J. J. 1969 Ridged Fields in the Río Guayas Valley, Ecuador. American Antiquity 34:76–80.Google Scholar
Parsons, J. J., and Bowen, W. A. 1966 Ancient Ridged Fields of the San Jorge River Floodplain, Colombia. The Geographical Review 56:317–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons, J. R. 1971 Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Texcoco Region, Mexico. Memoirs No. 3. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Parsons, J. R. 1976 The Role of Chinampa Agriculture in the Food Supply of Aztec Tenochtitlan. In Culture Change and Continuity: Essays in Honor of James Bennett Griffin, edited by C. Cleland, pp. 233–257. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Plazas, C, and Falchetti de Saenz, A. M. 1981 Asentamientos prehispánicos en el bajo Río San Jorge. Fundación de Investigaciones Nacionales, Banco de la República, Bogotá.Google Scholar
Plazas, C, and  , A. M. 1987 Poblamiento y adecuacion hidráulica en el bajo Río San Jorge, Costa Atlantica, Colombia. In Pre-Hispanic Agricultural Fields in the Andean Region, edited by W. M. Denevan, K. Mathewson, and G. Knapp, pp. 483–503. BAR International Series 359(ii). British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Redmond, E. M., and Spencer, C. S. 1989 Investigaciones en el piedemonte andino y los llanos altos de Barinas. Boletín de la Asociación Venezolana de Arqueología 5:4–24.Google Scholar
Rinaldi, M. 1990 Informe de las Muestras 54, 114, 442. Laboratorio de Paleoecología, Centro de Ecología y Ciencias Ambientales, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Caracas. Manuscript on file, Department of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York.Google Scholar
Roosevelt, A. C. 1980 Parmana: Prehistoric Maize and Manioc Subsistence Along the Amazon and Orinoco. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Rouse, I. B., and Cruxent, J. M. 1963 Venezuelan Archaeology. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Salgado de Labouriau, M. 1979 Apendice 2: Resultados del análisis palinológico. In Campos elevados e historia cultural prehispánica en los llanos occidentales de Venezuela, by A. Zucchi and W. M. Denevan, pp. 97–99. Universidad Católica Andres Bello, Caracas.Google Scholar
Sanders, W. T., Parsons, J. R., and Santley, R. S. 1979 The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Schnee, L. 1973 Plantas comunes de Venezuela. Universidad Central de Venezuela, Facultad de Agronomía, Institito de Botánica Agrícola, Maracay.Google Scholar
Schwerin, K. 1966 Oil and Steel: Processes of Karinya Culture Change in Response to Industrial Development. Latin American Studies No. 4. University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Spencer, C. S. 1979 Irrigation, Administration, and Society in Formative Tehuacán. In Prehistoric Social, Political, and Economic Development in the Area of the Tehuacán Valley, edited by R. D. Drennan, pp. 13–109. Technical Reports No. 11. University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Spencer, C. S. 1987 Rethinking the Chiefdom. In Chiefdoms in the Americas, edited by R. D. Drennan and C. A. Uribe, pp. 369–390. University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Spencer, C. S. 1990 On the Tempo and Mode of State Formation. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9:1–30.Google Scholar
Spencer, C. S. 1991 Coevolution and the Development of Venezuelan Chiefdoms. In Profiles in Cultural Evolution: Papers from a Conference in Honor of Elman R. Service, edited by A. T. Rambo and K. Gillogly, pp. 137–165. Anthropological Papers No. 85. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Spencer, C. S., and Redmond, E. M. 1992 Prehispanic Chiefdoms of the Western Venezuelan Llanos . World Archaeology 24:134–157.Google Scholar
Turner, B. L. II 1974 Prehistoric Intensive Agriculture in the Maya Lowlands. Science 185:118–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, B. L. II, and Harrison, P. D. 1982 Pulltrouser Swamp: A Preliminary Study of Habitat, Land Use, and Settlement of the Prehistoric Maya. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Wagner, E. 1973 The Mucuchíes Phase: An Extension of the Andean Cultural Pattern into Western Venezuela. American Anthropologist 75:195–213.Google Scholar
Wagner, E., and Schubert, C. 1972 Pre-Hispanic Workshop of Serpentinite Artifacts, Venezuelan Andes, and Possible Raw Material Source. Science 175:888–890.Google Scholar
Whitehead, N. 1988 Lords of the Tiger Spirit: A History of the Caribs in Colonial Venezuela and Guyana, 1498–1820. Dordrecht, Netherlands.Google Scholar
Zucchi, A. 1967 La Betania: Un yacimiento arqueológico del occidente de Venezuela. 2 tomos. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Departamento de Antropologia, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas.Google Scholar
Zucchi, A. 1972 Aboriginal Earth Structures of the Western Venezuelan Llanos. Caribbean Journal of Science 12(1–2):95–106.Google Scholar
Zucchi, A. 1973 Prehistoric Human Occupations of the Western Venezuelan Llanos. American Antiquity 38:182–190.Google Scholar
Zucchi, A. 1976 Caño Caroní: Un grupo prehispánico de la selva de los llanos de Barinas. Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas.Google Scholar
Zucchi, A. 1985 Recent Evidence for Pre-Columbian Water Management Systems in the Western Llanos of Venezuela. In Prehistoric Intensive Agriculture in the Tropics, edited by I. S. Farrington, pp. 167–180. BAR International Series 232. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Zucchi, A., and Denevan, W. 1979 Campos elevados e historia cultural prehispánica en los llanos occidentales de Venezuela. Universidad Católica Andres Bello, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Caracas.Google Scholar