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Chapter 7:
Wade Davis provides the opening quotation in One River (New York: Touchstone, 1996).
Information on the African pygmies, including details about their hunting methods, population density, cultural practices, and trade relationships with Bantu farmers is provided in Turnbull, C.M. Ed., Mbuti Pygmies : Change and Adaptation, New York: Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1997; Turnbull, C.M., The forest people, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961; and Kenrick, J., "People of the African Forests," Rainforests: The Illustrated Library of the Earth, ed. N. Myers, Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodale Press, 1993.
Current threats to the traditional way of life for pygmies are addressed in Kenrick, J., "People of the African Forests," Rainforests: The Illustrated Library of the Earth, ed. N. Myers, Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodale Press, 1993; Kristof, N.D., "Pygmies' Simple Way of Life in Congo Jungles is Threatened," New York Times, 6/16/97; and Strieker, G. "Rainforest Aborigines Crowded out by Newcomers, Loggers." Cable News Network, 3/11/97
Brief histories of colonization of Southeast Asia by three waves of immigrants are given in Brookfield, H., Potter, L., and Byron, Y. (In Place of the Forest: Environmental and Socio-economic Transformation in Borneo and the Eastern Malay Peninsula (New York: United Nations University Press, 1995); and Wachtel, P.S., "People of the Asian Forests." Rainforests: The Illustrated Library of the Earth. ed. N. Myers, Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodale Press, 1993.
The historical relationships and conflicts (religious, cultural, economic) between coastal Malays and forest dwelling Dyaks are addressed by Brookfield, H., Potter, L., and Byron, Y., In Place of the Forest: Environmental and Socio-economic Transformation in Borneo and the Eastern Malay Peninsula (New York: United Nations University Press, 1995. Williams, L. ("1,200 go missing in ethnic warfare," The Sydney Morning Herald, 3/5/97) and Solomon, J. ("Indonesia seems unable to stop rampage," The Wall Street Journal, 1999) report on the current bloodshed between the two groups.
The "Indigenous Population in Selected Latin American Countries" table comes from Commission of Development and Environment for Amazonia 1992, Amazonia Without Myths, Inter-American Development Bank and UN Development Programme, Washington, D.C. 1992.
In his One River {New York: Touchstone, 1996), Wade Davis provides an fascinating look into the genius of the Inca including their complex cultivation techniques and highly developed political bureaucracies. They managed the land to suit their needs and when When Pizarro arrived in Peru, more land was under cultivation and more food was being produced in the Andean region than is today. Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998) offers a further insightful look into Incan culture and the early history of their civilization.
Estimates for Amerindian population before the arrival of Europeans are found in A. Roosevelt, Parmana. New York: Academic Press, 1980; Smith, N.J.H. "Anthrosols and human carrying capacity in Amazônia," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 70: 553-566, 1980; Dobyns, H., Their Numbers Became Thin, University of Tennessee Press: Knoxville, 1983; MacDonald, T., "People of the Central and South American Forests," Rainforests: The Illustrated Library of the Earth. ed. N. Myers, Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodale Press, 1993; Smith, N.J.H. et al., Amazonia - Resiliency and Dynamism of the Land and its People, New York: United Nations University Press, 1995; and Diamond, J., Guns, Germs, and Steel New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998.
The history of settlement in the Amazon, including the development of pottery and agriculture is discussed in A. Roosevelt, Parmana, New York: Academic Press, 1980; Roosevelt, A., "Resource management in Amazônia before the conquest: Beyond ethnographic projection," Advances in Economic Botany 7: 30-62, 1989; Bush, M. A., D. R. Piperno, and P. A. Colinvaux, "A 6,000 year history of Amazonian maize cultivation," Nature 340: 303-305, 1989; Roosevelt, A., Moundbuilders of the Amazon: Geophysical archaeology on Marajo Island, Brazil, San Diego: Academic Press, 1991; Smith, N.J.H. et al., Amazonia - Resiliency and Dynamism of the Land and its People, New York: United Nations University Press, 1995; Nishizawa, T. and J. I. Uitto, eds., The Fragile Tropics of Latin America: Sustainable Management of Changing Environments, New York: United Nations University Press, 1995; A.C. Roosevelt, et al., "Paleoindian cave dwellers i n the Amazon: The peopling of the Americas," Science 272:373-384, 1996; and Diamond, J., Guns, Germs, and Steel New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998.
Large-scale forest clearing and management by pre-Colombian populations is reviewed in Richards, P.W.," Tropical forests and woodlands: An overview," Agro-Ecosystems 3: 225-238, 1977; Dufour, D.L., "Use of tropical rainforests by native Amazonians," Bioscience 40: 652-659, 1990; Denevan, V.M., "The pristine myth: The landscape of the Americas in 1492," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 82: 369-385, 1992; and Meggers, B.J., "Archaeological perspectives on the potential of Amazonia for intensive exploitation," in Nishizawa, T. and J. I. Uitto, eds., The Fragile Tropics of Latin America: Sustainable Management of Changing Environments, New York: United Nations University Press, 1995. At least 11.8% of terra firme forests are believed to be of an anthropogenic form according to Balée, W., "The culture of Amazonian forests," Advances in Economic Botany 7: 1-21, 1989; and Nishizawa, T. and J. I. Uitto, eds., The Fragile Tropics of Latin America: Sustainable Management of Changing Environments, New York: United Nations University Press, 1995.
The notion of a sparsely populated Amazon is a testament to the best weapon possessed by Europeans in their conquering of the New World: their diseases. These diseases, especially smallpox, devastated unsuspecting native populations native populations, killing as much as 95%. The massive Amerindian die-off is described in innumerable works, but this book draws on the following sources: Prescott W.H., History of the Conquest of Peru, New York 1847; McNeill W.H., Plagues and Peoples, New York: History Book Club, 1976; H. Dobyns, Their Numbers Became Thin, Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1983; Caufield, C., In the Rainforest, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984; A.W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism-The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986; Nishizawa, T. and J. I. Uitto, eds., The Fragile Tropics of Latin America: Sustainable Management of Changing Environments, New York: United Nations University Press, 1995; and Diamond, J., Guns, Germs, and Steel New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998. |
