The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492

Author(s): William M. Denevan

Source: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 82, No. 3, The Americas
before and after 1492: Current Geographical Research (Sep., 1992), pp. 369-385
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers
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The PristineMyth:The Landscape of the

Americasin 1492
William M. Denevan
of Geography,University
ofWisconsin,Madison,WI 53706
Department
Abstract.The mythpersiststhatin 1492 the
Americaswere a sparselypopulatedwilderness, "a world of barelyperceptiblehuman
disturbance."There is substantialevidence,
however,thatthe NativeAmericanlandscape
oftheearlysixteenth
century
was a humanized
landscape almost everywhere.Populations
were large. Forest compositionhad been
modified,grasslandshad been created,wildlife disrupted,and erosion was severe in
places. Earthworks,
roads, fields,and settlementswere ubiquitous.WithIndiandepopulationin the wake of Old Worlddisease, the
environment
recoveredin manyareas.A good
argumentcan be made thatthe humanpresence was lessvisiblein1750thanitwas in1492.
KeyWords: Pristine
myth,
1492,Columbus,Native
Americansettlementand demography,
prehistoric
New World,vegetationchange,earthworks.
"Thisis theforestprimeval. . . "
A TaleofAcadie
Evangeline:
(Longfellow,
1847).

HATwas the New Worldlikeat the

timeofColumbus?-"Geography
as
_ itwas," in the wordsof Carl Sauer
(1971,x).1TheAdmiralhimself
spokeofa "Terrestrial
Paradise,"beautifuland greenand fertile, teemingwith birds,withnaked people
livingtherewhomhe called"Indians."Butwas
the landscape encounteredin the sixteenth
a wilderness,
century
primarily
pristine,
virgin,
nearlyemptyof people, or was ita humanized
of nativeAmerilandscape,withthe imprint
The forcans being dramaticand persistent?
merstillseems to be the morecommonview,
butthe lattermaybe moreaccurate.
The pristineview is to a largeextentan inand
ventionof nineteenth-century
romanticist

primitivist
writers such as W.H. Hudson,
Cooper, Thoreau, Longfellow,and Parkman,
and painterssuch as Catlinand Church.2The
wildernessimagehas since become partofthe
Americanheritage,associated 'with a heroic
pioneer past in need of preservation"(Pyne
1982,17; also see Bowden1992,22). The pristineviewwas restatedclearlyin 1950 by John
Bakeless in his book The Eyes of Discovery:

Therewere notreallyverymanyof these redmen

... the landseemed emptyto invaderswho came
fromsettledEurope . . . thatancient,primeval,
wilderness. . . the streamssimply
undisturbed
boiledwithfish. . . so muchgame . . . thatone
huntercounteda thousandanimalsneara single
saltlick. . . thevirginwildernessof Kentucky
...
the forestedgloryof primitive
America(13, 201,
223,314,407).

Butthenhe mentionsthatIndian"prairiefires
.

. cause the often-mentioned oak open-

ings... Greatfieldsofcornspreadinall direc-

tions . . . the Barrens .

. withoutforest,"and

that"EarlyOhio settlersfoundthattheycould
driveaboutthroughthe forestswithsleds and
horses"(31,304,308,314).A contradiction?
In the ensuingfortyyears,scholarshiphas
shownthatIndianpopulationsintheAmericas
were substantial,
thatthe forestshad indeed
been altered,thatlandscapechangewas commonplace.Thismessage,however,seems not
to have reachedthe publicthroughtexts,essays,or talksby bothacademicsand popularizerswho havea responsibility
to knowbetter.3
Sale in 1990, in his widely reKirkpatrick
ported Conquest of Paradise, maintains that it

was the Europeanswho transformed

nature,
a patternset byColumbus.Although
following
Sale's book has some meritand he is awareof
large Indian numbersand theirimpacts,he
nonethelesschampions the widely-helddichotomyof the benignIndianlandscapeand
Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 82(3), 1992, pp. 369-385

? Copyright
1992 byAssociation
ofAmerican
Geographers

370

Denevan

the devastatedColonial landscape. He overstatesboth.

Seeds of Change:Christopher
CoSimilarly,
lumbusand the ColumbianLegacy,the popuInstitularbook publishedbytheSmithsonian
tion,continuesthe litanyof NativeAmerican
passivity:
Americawas stillthe FirstEden,a
pre-Columbian
pristinenaturalkingdom.The nativepeople were
inthe landscape,livingas naturaleletransparent
mentsof the ecosphere. Theirworld,the New
WorldofColumbus,was a worldofbarelypercep(Shetler1991,226).
tiblehumandisturbance

the Indianimpactwas neither

To the contrary,
benignnorlocalizedand ephemeral,norwere
resourcesalwaysused in a sound ecological
way. The concernhere is withthe formand
magnitude of environmentalmodification
ratherthanwithwhetheror not Indianslived
in harmonywithnaturewithsustainablesystems of resource management.Sometimes
theydid; sometimestheydidn't.Whattheydid
was to change theirlandscape nearlyeveryEurowhere,notto theextentofpost-Colonial
waysthatmeritattenpeans but in important
tion.
The evidence is convincing.By1492 Indian
theAmericashad modified
activity
throughout
createdand exforestextentand composition,
microrelief
pandedgrasslands,and rearranged
earthworks.
Agricultural
via countlessartificial
fields were common, as were houses and
townsand roads and trails.All of these had
hydrology,
local impactson soil,microclimate,
Thisis a largetopic,forwhichthis
and wildlife.
to the issues,
essay offersbutan introduction
misconceptions,and residualproblems.The
evidence,pieced togetherfromvague ethnohistoricalaccounts,fieldsurveys,and archaethatthe Indian
ology,supportsthe hypothesis
landscapeof 1492had largelyvanishedbythe
century,not througha Euromid-eighteenth
but because of the depean superimposition,
mise of the nativepopulation.The landscape
of 1750was more 'pristine"(less humanized)
thanthatof 1492.

IndianNumbers
The size of the nativepopulationat contact
is criticalto our argument.The prevailing
position,a recentone, is thattheAmericaswere
well-populatedratherthan relativelyempty
lands in 1492. In the words of the sixteenth-

century
Spanishpriest,Bartolomede las Casas,
who knewthe Indieswell:
Allthathas been discoveredup to the yearfortynine[1549]is fullof people, likea hiveof bees, so
thatitseems as thoughGod had placedall,or the
greaterpartof the entirehuman race in these
countries(Las Casas, in MacNutt1909,314).

Las Casas believedthatmorethan40 million

Indianshad died by the year1560. Did he exaggerate?In the 1930sand 1940s,AlfredKroeber,Angel Rosenblat,and JulianStewardbelieved that he had. The best counts then
availableindicateda populationof between815 millionIndians in the Americas.Subsequently,Carl Sauer, Woodrow Borah, SherburneF. Cook, HenryDobyns,George Lovell,
N. DavidCook, myself,
and othershaveargued
forlargerestimates.Manyscholarsnowbelieve
thattherewerebetween40-100millionIndians
inthehemisphere
(Denevan1992).Thisconclusion is primarily
based on evidence of rapid
earlydeclinesfromepidemicdisease priorto
the firstpopulationcounts (Lovell,this volume).
I have recently
suggesteda New Worldtotal
of 53.9 million (Denevan 1992, xxvii). This di-

vides into3.8 millionforNorthAmerica,17.2

millionfor Mexico, 5.6 millionfor Central
America,3.0 millionfor the Caribbean,15.7
millionfortheAndes,and 8.6 millionforlowlandSouthAmerica.Thesefiguresare based on
myjudgmentas to the mostreasonablerecent
tribaland regionalestimates.Acceptinga marginoferrorofabout20 percent,theNewWorld
populationwould lie between43-65 million.
Futureregionalrevisionsare likelyto maintain
the hemispheric
totalwithinthisrange.Other
recentestimates,none based on totalingregionalfigures,include43 millionbyWhitmore
(1991,483), 40 millionby Lord and Burke (1991),

40-50 millionby Cowley(1991),and 80 million

forjustLatinAmericabySchwerin(1991,40). In
anyevent,a populationbetween40-80 million
is sufficient
to dispel any notion of "empty
lands." Moreover,the native impacton the
landscapeof 1492reflectednotonlythe population then but the cumulativeeffectsof a
growingpopulationover the previous15,000
yearsor more.
Europeanentryintothe NewWorldabruptly
reversedthistrend.ThedeclineofnativeAmerican populationswas rapidand severe,probably the greatestdemographicdisaster ever
(Lovell,thisvolume).Old Worlddiseases were

The PristineMyth

371

theprimary
killer.In manyregions,particularly ingdegreesbyIndianactivity
priorto European
the tropicallowlands,populationsfell by 90
occupation.Agricultural
clearingand burning
had convertedmuchof theforestintosuccespercentor morein the firstcenturyaftercontact. Indianpopulations(estimated)declined
sional(fallow)growthand intosemi-permanent
in Hispaniolafrom1 millionin 1492to a few
grassyopenings (meadows, barrens,plains,
hundred50 years later,or by more than 99
glades, savannas,prairies),oftenof considerable size.4Muchofthematureforestwas charpercent; in Peru from9 millionin 1520 to
670,000in 1620 (92 percent);in the Basin of
acterizedbyan open, herbaceousunderstory,
Mexico from1.6 millionin 1519to 180,000in
reflecting
frequentgroundfires.'The de Soto
1607(89 percent);and in NorthAmericafrom
expedition,consistingof manypeople, a large
3.8 millionin 1492to 1 millionin 1800(74 perhorse herd,and manyswine,passed through
cent).Anoveralldropfrom53.9millionin1492
ten states withoutdifficulty
of movement"
to 5.6 millionin1650amountsto an 89 percent
(Sauer 1971,283). The situationhas been dereduction (Denevan 1992, xvii-xxix).The
scribed in detail by Michael Williamsin his
alrecenthistoryof Americanforests:'Much of
humanlandscapewas affected
accordingly,
thoughthereis notalwaysa directrelationship the'natural'forestremained,buttheforestwas
betweenpopulationdensityand humanimpact
not the vast, silent,unbroken,impenetrable
(Whitmore,
et al. 1990,37).
and dense tangle of trees beloved by many
writers
in theirromantic
The replacementof Indiansby Europeans
accountsof theforest
and Africanswas initially
a slow process. By
wilderness"(1989,33).5 'The resultwas a forest
1638 therewere onlyabout 30,000Englishin
of large,widelyspaced trees,fewshrubs,and
NorthAmerica(Sale 1990, 388), and by 1750
much grass and herbage . . . Selective Indian
there were only 1.3 millionEuropeansand
burningthus promotedthe mosaic qualityof
slaves (Meinig1986,247). ForLatinAmericain
New Englandecosystems,creatingforestsin
1750,Sainchez-Albornoz
manydifferent
statesofecologicalsuccession"
(1974,7) givesa total
(includingIndians)of12 million.Forthehemi(Cronon1983,49-51).
The extent,frequency,
sphere in 1750, the Atlas of WorldPopulation
and impactof Indian
Historyreports16 million(McEvedyand Jones
burningis notwithoutcontroversy.
Raup(1937)
1978,270).Thustheoverallhemispheric
popuarguedthatclimaticchange ratherthanIndian
lationin 1750was about 30 percentof whatit
burningcould account forcertainvegetation
mayhave been in 1492.The 1750population,
Russell(1983,86),assessingprechanges.Emily
however, was very unevenly distributed, 1700information
forthe Northeast,
concluded
mainlylocatedin certaincoastaland highland
that:'There is no strongevidencethatIndians
areas withlittleEuropeanization
elsewhere.In
purposelyburnedlargeareas,"butIndiansdid
NorthAmericain 1750,therewere onlysmall
'increasethefrequencyof firesabove the low
numberscaused by lightning,"creatingan
pocketsof settlement
beyondthecoastalbelt,
fromNew Englandto northern
stretching
Floropen forest.Butthen Russelladds: "In most
ida (see maps in Meinig1986,209,245). Elseareas climate and soil probablyplayed the
where,combinedIndianand Europeanpoputhe precolonialformajorrole in determining
lationswere sparse,and environmental
impact
ests." She regardsIndianfiresas mainlyacciwas relatively
minor.
dentaland "merely"augmentalto naturalfires,
and she discountsthe reliability
of manyearly
Indigenousimprintson landscapes at the
timeof initialEuropeancontactvariedregionaccountsof burning.
allyin formand intensity.
Formanand Russell(1983,5) expandthe arFollowingare examples for vegetationand wildlife,agriculture, gumentto NorthAmericain general: 'regular
and the builtlandscape.
and widespreadIndianburning(Day 1953)[is]
an unlikely
has been
thatregretfully
hypothesis
accepted in the popular literatureand consciousness."Thisconclusion,I believe,is unVegetation
warranted
givenreportsoftheextentofprehistoric human burningin NorthAmericaand
The EasternForests
Australia(Lewis1982), and Europe (Patterson
and Sassaman1988,130), and by myown and
The forestsof New England,the Midwest,
otherobservations
on currentIndianand peasand theSoutheasthad been disturbedto vary-

372

Denevan

ant burningin CentralAmericaand South

America;when unrestrained,
people burnfrequentlyand formanyreasons.Forthe Northeast,Patterson
and Sassaman(1988,129)found
were
thatsedimentary
charcoalaccumulations
greatestwhereIndianpopulationsweregreatest.
Elsewherein NorthAmerica,the Southeast
is muchmorefirepronethanis theNortheast,
withhumanignitionsbeingespeciallyimportant inwinter(Taylor1981).The Berkeleygeographerand IndianistErhardRostlund(1957,
1960)arguedthatIndianclearingand burning
created manygrasslandswithinmostlyopen
forestin the so-called "prairiebelt" of Alabama. As improbableas it mayseem, Lewis
(1982)found Indianburningin the subarctic,
and Dobyns(1981)in the Sonorandesert.The
characteristics
and impactsof firesset by Indians variedregionally
and locallywithdemography,resourcemanagement
techniques,and
butsuch firesclearlyhad differenvironment,
ent vegetationimpactsthandid naturalfires
in frequency,
owingto differences
regularity,
and seasonality.
ForestComposition
In NorthAmerica,burningnot only maintainedopen forestand smallmeadowsbutalso
and sun-lovingspeencouragedfire-tolerant
cies. "Fire created conditionsfavorableto
strawberries,blackberries,raspberries,and
other gatherablefoods" (Cronon 1983, 51).
Other useful plantswere saved, protected,
planted,and transplanted,
such as American
coffeetree,
chestnut,Canada plum,Kentucky
groundnut,and leek (Day 1953,339-40). Gilmore(1931)describedthe dispersalof several
nativeplantsby Indians.Mixed standswere
convertedto singlespeciesdominants,
includingvariouspines and oaks, sequoia, Douglas
fir,spruce,and aspen (M. Williams1989,4748). The longleaf,slash pine, and scrub oak
forestsoftheSoutheastare almostcertainly
an
subclimaxcreatedoriginally
anthropogenic
by
Indian burning,replaced in early Colonial
timesbymixedhardwoods,and maintained
in
part by firesset by subsequentfarmersand
woodlotowners(Garren1943).Lightning
fires
can account forsome fire-climax
vegetation,
but Indianburningwould have extendedand

maintained
suchvegetation(Silver1990,17-19,
59-64).
Even in the humid tropics,where natural
firesare rare, human firescan dramatically
influenceforestcomposition.A good example
isthepineforestsofNicaragua(Denevan1961).
Open pine standsoccur both in the northern
highlands(below5,000feet)and intheeastern
(Miskito)lowlands,wherewarmtemperatures
and heavyrainfall
generallyfavormixedtropiThe extensive
cal montaneforestor rainforest.
pineforestsofGuatemalaand Mexicoprimarily
grow in cooler and drier,higherelevations,
wheretheyare in largepartnaturaland prehuman(Wattsand Bradbury
1982,59). Pineforests
were definitely
presentin Nicaraguawhen Europeans arrived.They were found in areas
where Indiansettlementwas substantial,but
notintheeasternmountains
whereIndiandensitiesweresparse.The easternboundaryofthe
highlandpines seems to have movedwithan
easternsettlement
frontier
thathas fluctuated
The pines
back and forthsince prehistory.
occurtodaywheretherehas been clearingfollowedbyregularburningand thesame is likely
in the past. The Nicaraguanpines are firetolerantonce mature,and largenumbersofseediftheycan escape fire
lingssurviveto maturity
threeto sevenyears(Denevan
duringtheirfirst
1961,280). Where settlementhas been abandoned and fireceases, mixedhardwoodsgraduallyreplace pines. This succession is likely
similarwherepinesoccurelsewhereat low elevationsintropicalCentralAmerica,theCaribbean, and Mexico.
MidwestPrairiesand TropicalSavannas
Sauer (1950, 1958, 1975) argued early and
oftenthatthegreatgrasslandsand savannasof
the New Worldwere of anthropogenicrather
thanclimaticorigin,thatrainfall
was generally
sufficient
to supporttrees. Even nonagriculturalIndiansexpanded what may have been
pocketsof natural,edaphic grasslandsat the
expenseofforest.A fireburningto theedge of
a grass/forest
boundarywillpenetratethe drier
forestmarginand push back the edge, even if
the forestitselfis not consumed (MuellerDombois 1981,164). Grasslandcan therefore
in the wake of hundreds
advancesignificantly
ofyearsof annualfires.Lightning-set
firescan
have a similarimpact,but moreslowlyif less

The PristineMyth

frequentthanhumanfires,as in thewettropics.

Thethesisofprairiesas fireinduced,primarily by Indians,has its critics(Borchert1950;

Wedel1957),buttherecentreviewofthetopic
byAnderson(1990,14), a biologist,concludes
that most ecologists now believe that the
eastern prairies"would have mostlydisappeared ifithad notbeen forthe nearlyannual
burningof these grasslandsby the North
AmericanIndians,"duringthe last5,000years.
invaA case in pointis the nineteenth-century
sionofmanygrasslandsbyforests
afterfirehad
been suppressedin Wisconsin,Illinois,Kansas, Nebraska,and elsewhere (M. Williams
1989,46).
The largesavannasofSouthAmericaarealso
controversial
as to origin.Much,ifnotmostof
theopen vegetation
oftheOrinocoLlanos,the
Llanos de Mojos of Bolivia,the Pantanalof
Mato Grosso,the Bolivarsavannasof Colombia, the Guayassavannasof coastal Ecuador,
the campo cerradoof centralBrazil,and the
coastal savannasnorthof the Amazon,is of
naturalorigin.The vast campos cerradosoccupyextremely
senile,oftentoxicoxisols.The
seasonallyinundatedsavannasof Bolivia,Brazil, Guayas,and the Orinoco owe theirexistence to the intoleranceof woody species to
of lengthy
the extremealternation
floodingor
and severedesiccationduringa
waterlogging
long dry season. These savannas, however,
were and are burnedby Indiansand ranchers,
and such fireshave expanded the savannas
intotheforests
to an unknownextent.Itis now
wherea naturalforverydifficult
to determine
est/savanna
boundaryonce was located(Hills
and Randall1968; Medina1980).
Othersmallsavannashave been cut out of
andthenmaintherainforest
byIndianfarmers
tained by burning.An example is the Gran
Pajonalin the Andeanfoothillsin east-central
Peru, where dozens of small grasslands
(pajonales)have been createdbyCampa Indians-a processclearlydocumentedbyairphotos (Scott1978). Pajonales were in existence
whenthe regionwas firstpenetratedby Franciscan missionary
explorersin 1733.
The impact of human activityis nicely
illustrated
by vegetationalchanges in the basinsoftheSan Jorge,Cauca, and Sinuriversof
northernColombia. The southern sector,
whichwas mainlysavannawhenfirst
observed

373

in the sixteenthcentury,had revertedto

rainforest
by about 1750 followingIndiandecline,and had been reconverted
to savannafor
pastureby 1950 (Gordon 1957, map p. 69).
Sauer(1966,285-88;1976,8) and Bennett(1968,
53-55)cite earlydescriptionsof numeroussavannas in Panama in the sixteenthcentury.
Balboa's firstview of the Pacificwas froma
'treelessridge,"nowprobablyforested.Indian
settlementand agricultural
fieldswere common at the time,and withtheirdecline the
rainforest
returned.
Anthropogenic
TropicalRainForest
The tropicalrainforesthas long had a reputationforbeing pristine,whetherin 1492 or
1992. There is, however,increasingevidence
thattheforestsofAmazoniaand elsewhereare
largelyanthropogenicin formand composition.Sauer(1958,105)said as muchattheNinth
PacificScienceCongressin1957whenhe challengedthe statementof tropicalbotanistPaul
Richards
that,untilrecently,
thetropicalforests
havebeen largelyuninhabited,
and thatprehistoricpeople had 'no more influenceon the
vegetationthananyof the otheranimalinhabitants."Sauer counteredthatIndianburning,
swiddens,and manipulationof composition
had extensively
modifiedthetropicalforest.
"Indeed,in muchofAmazonia,itis difficult
to findsoilsthatare notstuddedwithcharcoal"
(Uhl,et al. 1990,30). The questionis, to what
extentdoes thisevidencereflectIndianburning in contrastto natural(lightning)
fires,and
whendid these firesoccur?The roleof firein
tropicalforestecosystemshas receivedconsidin recentyears,partly
as result
erableattention
in1982-83
ofmajorwildfiresinEastKalimantan
and smallforestfiresin the VenezuelanAmazon in 1980-84 (Goldammer1990). Lightning
fires,thoughrarein moisttropicalforest,do
occur in driertropicalwoodlands (MuellerwithlightDombois1981,149).Thunderstorms
ningare muchmorecommonin the Amazon,
comparedto NorthAmerica,butinthetropics
is usuallyassociatedwithheavyrain
lightning
and noncombustible,verdant vegetation.
Hence Indian firesundoubtedlyaccount for
withtheirimpactvarymostfiresin prehistory,
ingwiththe degreeof aridity.
In the Rio Negro regionof the ColombianVenezuelanAmazon,soilcharcoalis verycorn-

374

Denevan

mon in uplandforests.C-14dates rangefrom

6260-250 B.P., well within human times
(Saldarriagaand West1986).Mostof thecharcoal probablyreflectslocal swidden burns;
however,thereare some indications
of forest
firesat intervals
ofseveralhundredyears,most
likelyignitedby swidden fires.Recentwild
firesin the upperRio Negroregionwere in a
normally
moisttropicalforest(3530mmannual
rainfall)
thathad experiencedseveralyearsof
severe drought.Such infrequent
wildfiresin
prehistory,along with the more frequent
imgroundfires,could have had significant
and compactson forestsuccession,structure,
position.Examplesare the pine forestsof Nicaragua, mentionedabove, the oak forestsof
CentralAmerica,and the babassupalmforests
of eastern Brazil.Widespreadand frequent
burningmay have broughtabout the extinctionof some endemicspecies.
The Amazonforestis a mosaicof different
ages, structure,and compositionresulting
fromlocal habitatconditionsand disturbance
dynamics(Haffer1991). Naturaldisturbances
(treefalls,landslides,riveractivity)
have been
considerablyaugmentedby human activity,
Evena small
cultivation.
particularly
byshifting
numberof swiddenfarmers
can have a wideshortperiod of
spread impactin a relatively
time.IntheRroNegroregion,species-diversity
recovery
takes60-80yearsand biomassrecovery 140-200years (Saldarriagaand Uhl 1991,
312). Brownand Lugo (1990,4) estimatethat
todayaboutforty
percentofthetropicalforest
in LatinAmericais secondaryas a resultof
humanclearingand thatmostoftheremainder
has had some modification
low
despitecurrent
populationdensities.The speciescomposition
of earlystagesof swiddenfallowsdiffers
from
thatof naturalgaps and may"alterthespecies
compositionof the matureforeston a longterm scale" (Walschburgerand Von Hildebrand1991,262). Whilehumanenvironmental
is concendestructionin Amazoniacurrently
tratedalong roads,in prehistoric
timesIndian
in the upland(interflueve)
forestswas
activity
much less intense but more widespread
(Denevanforthcoming).
Indianmodification
of tropicalforestsis not
limitedto clearingand burning.Large expanses of LatinAmericanforestsare humanized forestsin whichthe kinds,numbers,and
distributions
of usefulspeciesare managedby

humanpopulations.Doubtless,thisappliesto
the pastas well. One important
mechanismin
forestmanagement
is manipulation
of swidden
fallows(sequential agroforestry)
to increase
useful species. The planting,transplanting,
sparing,and protectionof usefulwild,fallow
plants eliminatesclear distinctionsbetween
fieldand fallow(Denevan and Padoch 1988).
Abandonment
is a slow process,notan event.
Gordon (1982,79-98) describes managed regrowth
vegetationineasternPanama,whichhe
believes extendedfromYucatanto northern
Colombiain pre-European
times.The Huastec
of easternMexicoand the YucatecMaya have
similarformsof forestgardensor forestmanagement(Alcorn1981; Gomez-Pompa1987).
The Kayapoof the BrazilianAmazonintroduce
and/orprotectusefulplants in activityareas
("nomadicagriculture")
adjacentto villagesor
campsites,inforaging
areas,alongtrails,near
fields,and in artificialforest-mounds
in savanna (Posey1985). In managedforests,both
annuals and perennialsare plantedor transplanted,whilewild fruittrees are particularly
commonin earlysuccessionalgrowth.Weedingbyhandwas potentially
moreselectivethan
indiscriminate
weeding by machete (Gordon
1982, 57-61). Much dispersalof edible plant
seeds is unintentional
via defecationand spittingout.
The economicbotanistWilliamBalee (1987,
1989)speaks of "cultural"or "anthropogenic"
forestsinAmazoniainwhichspecieshavebeen
oftenwithouta reductionin natmanipulated,
uraldiversity.
These includespecializedforests
(babassu, Brazilnuts,lianas,palms,bamboo),
whichcurrently
make up at least11.8 percent
(measured)of the total upland forestin the
Brazilian
Amazon(Balee1989,14). Clearindications of past disturbanceare the extensive
zones of terrapreta(blackearth),whichoccur
alongtheedges ofthelargefloodplainsas well
as in the uplands (Balee 1989, 10-12; Smith
1980). These soils, with depths to 50 cm or
more,containcharcoaland culturalwastefrom
Givenhigh
prehistoric
burningand settlement.
carbon, nitrogen,calcium, and phosphorus
content,terrapretasoils havea distinctive
vegetationand are attractiveto farmers.Balee
(1989, 14) concludes that "large portionsof
Amazonianforestsappear to exhibitthe continuingeffectsof past human interference."
The same argumenthas been made for the

The PristineMyth

Mayalowlands(Gomez-Pompa,
et al. 1987)and
Panama (Gordon 1982). There are no virgin
tropicalforeststoday,norweretherein 1492.

Wildlife
The indigenousimpacton wildlifeis equivocal. The thesisthat"overkill"huntingcaused
theextinction
ofsome largemammalsinNorth
Americaduringthe latePleistocene,as wellas
subsequentlocaland regionaldepletions(Martin1978,167-72),remainscontroversial.
Bythe
timeofthearrivalofCortezin1519,thedense
populationsof CentralMexicoapparently
had
greatlyreduced the numberof large game,
givenreportsthat"theyeat any livingthing"
(Cook and Borah 1971-79,(3) 135, 140). In
Amazonia,localgamedepletionapparently
increases withvillagesize and duration(Good
1987). Huntingproceduresin manyregions
seem, however,to have allowedforrecovery
because of the "resting"of huntingzones inor as a resultof shifting
tentionally
of village
sites.
On the other hand, forestdisturbanceincreased herbaceous forageand edge effect,
and hence the numbers of some animals
(Thompsonand Smith1970,261-64)."Indians
createdideal habitatsfora hostofwildlife
species . . . exactly those species whose abun-

dance so impressedEnglishcolonists: elk,

deer, beaver,hare, porcupine,turkey,quail,
ruffedgrouse,and so on" (Cronon1983,51).
White-tailed
deer, peccary,birds,and other
game increases in swiddens and fallowsin
Yucatanand Panama(Greenberg
1991;Gordon
1982, 96-112; Bennett1968). Rostlund(1960,
407) believedthatthe creationof grassyopeningseastoftheMississippiextendedtherange
of the bison,whose numbersincreasedwith
Indian depopulation and reduced hunting
pressure between 1540-1700, and subsequentlydeclinedunderWhitepressure.

Agriculture
Fieldsand AssociatedFeatures
To observersin the sixteenthcentury,the
mostvisiblemanifestation
of the NativeAmerican landscapemusthave been the cultivated
fields,which were concentratedaround vil-

375

lages and houses. Most fieldsare ephemeral,

theirpresencequicklyerasedwhenfarmers
migrateor die, but thereare manyeye-witness
accountsof the greatextentof Indianfields.
On Hispaniola,Las Casas and Oviedo reported
individualfieldswiththousandsof montones
(Sturtevant
1961,73). These were maniocand
sweetpotatomounds3-4 m in circumference,
ofwhichapparently
none havesurvived.Inthe
Llanosde Mojos in Bolivia,the firstexplorers
mentionedpercheles,or corncribson pilings,
numberingup to 700 in a single field,each
holding30-45 bushelsof food (Denevan1966,
98). In northernFloridain 1539,Hernandode
Soto's armypassedthroughnumerousfieldsof
maize,beans,and squash,theirmainsourceof
provisions;in one sector,"greatfields . . .
were spread out as faras the eye could see
acrosstwo leagues of the plain"(Garcilasode
la Vega 1980, (2) 182; also see Dobyns1983,
135-46).
It is difficult
to obtain a reliableoverview
fromsuch descriptions.Aside frompossible
exaggeration,Europeanstended not to write
about field size, production,or technology.
More usefulare variousformsof relictfields
and fieldfeaturesthatpersistforcenturiesand
can stillbe recognized,measured,and excavated today.These extantfeatures,including
terraces,irrigation
works,raisedfields,sunken
fields,drainageditches,dams, reservoirs,
diversionwalls,and fieldbordersnumberin the
millionsand are distributedthroughoutthe
Americas(Denevan1980;see also Doolittleand
Whitmore
and Turner,thisvolume).Forexample, about 500,000 ha of abandoned raised
fieldssurviveintheSan JorgeBasinofnorthern
Colombia(Plazas and Falchetti
1987,485), and
at least600,000ha of terracing,
mostlyof prehistoricorigin,occur in the PeruvianAndes
(Denevan1988,20). Thereare 19,000ha ofvisible raisedfieldsin just the sustainingarea of
Tiwanakuat LakeTiticaca(Kolata1991,109)and
there were about 12,000 ha of chinampas
(raised fields) around the Aztec capital of
Tenochtitlan
(Sanders,et al. 1979,390). Complex canal systemson the northcoast of Peru
and in theSaltRiverValleyin Arizonairrigated
more land in prehistorythan is cultivated
today.About175 sitesof Indiangardenbeds,
up to severalhundredacres each, have been
reportedin Wisconsin(Gartner1992). These
variousremnantfieldsprobablyrepresentless

376

Denevan

than 25 percentof what once existed,most

beingburiedundersedimentor destroyedby
erosion, urbanization,plowing,and bulldozing. On the otherhand,an inadequateeffort
has been made to searchforancientfields.
Erosion
The size of nativepopulations,associated
and prolongedintensive
deforestation,
agriculture led to severe land degradationin some
regions.Such a landscapewas thatof Central
Mexico,whereby1519food productionpressures mayhave broughtthe Azteccivilization
to thevergeof collapse even withoutSpanish
intervention
(Cook and Borah1971-79(3),12976).6 There is good evidencethatsevere soil
erosion was alreadywidespread,ratherthan
just the resultof subsequentEuropeanplowing,livestock,and deforestation.
Cook examined the associationbetweenerosionalseverity(gullies,barrancas,sand and siltdeposits,
and sheeterosion)and pre-Spanish
population
density or proximityto prehistoricIndian
towns.He concludedthat"an important
cycle
of erosionand depositiontherefore
accompanied intensiveland use byhugeprimitive
populationsin centralMexico, and had gone far
towardthe devastationof the countrybefore
the whitemanarrived"(Cook 1949,86).
BarbaraWilliams(1972,618) describeswideformaspreadtepetate,an induratedsubstrate
tion exposed by sheet erosionresulting
from
prehistoric
agriculture,
as "one of the domiintheValleyofMexico."
nantsurfacematerials
On the other hand, anthropologist
Melville
(1990,27) arguesthatsoil erosionin the Valle
de Mezquital,just northof theValleyof Mexico, was the resultof overgrazing
by Spanish
before1600: "thereis an allivestockstarting
mosttotallack of evidenceof environmental
degradationbeforethe lastthreedecades of
The Butzers,however,
the sixteenthcentury."
in an examination
ofSpanishlandgrants,grazingpatterns,and soil and vegetationecology,
found thattherewas only lightintrusionof
Spanish livestock (sheep and cattle were
movedfrequently)
intothe southeastern
Bajro
near Mezquital untilafter1590 and thatany
degradationin 1590was "as mucha matterof
Indianland use as itwas of Spanish
long-term
intrusion"(Butzerand Butzerforthcoming).
The relativerolesof Indianand earlySpanish

impactsin Mexico stillneed resolution;both

were clearlysignificant
but variedin timeand
place. Under the Spaniards,however,even
witha greatlyreduced population,the landscape in Mexicogenerallydid not recoverdue
to accelerating
impactsfromintroducedsheep
and cattle.7

The Built Landscape

Settlement
The Spaniardsand otherEuropeanswere impressedby largeflourishing
Indiancitiessuch
as Tenochtitlan,
Quito, and Cuzco, and they
tooknoteoftheextensiveruinsofolder,abandoned cities such as Cahokia, Teotihuacan,
Tikal,ChanChan,and Tiwanaku(Hardoy1968).
Mostofthesecitiescontainedmorethan50,000
people. Less notable,or possiblymoretaken
for granted,was ruralsettlement-smallvillagesofa fewthousandor a fewhundredpeople, hamletsof a fewfamilies,and dispersed
farmsteads.The numbers and locations of
muchof thissettlement
willneverbe known.
Withthe rapiddecline of nativepopulations,
theabandonmentof houses and entirevillages
and the decay of perishablematerialsquickly
obscuredsites,especiallyin the tropicallowlands.
We do have some earlylistingsof villages,
especiallyforMexicoand Peru. Elsewhere,archaeologyis tellingus morethanethnohistory.
Afterinitially
focusingon largetempleand administrative
are nowexcenters,archaeologists
aminingruralsustaining
areas,withremarkable
results.See, forexample,Sanderset al. (1979)
on theBasinofMexico,Culbertand Rice(1991)
on the Maya lowlands,and Fowler(1989)on
Cahokiain Illinois.Evidenceof humanoccupation for the artisticSantaremCulturephase
(Tapajos chiefdom)on the lowerAmazonextends over thousands of square kilometers,
with large nucleated settlements(Roosevelt
1991,101-02).
Muchofthe ruralprecontactsettlement
was
semi-dispersed(rancherias),particularlyin
denselypopulatedregionsof Mexico and the
Andes,probablyreflecting
poorfoodtransport
Houses were bothsingle-family
and
efficiency.
communal(pueblos, Huronlong houses,Amazon malocas). Constructionwas of stone,

The PristineMyth

earth,adobe, daub and wattle,grass,hides,

brush,and bark.Muchofthedispersedsettlementnotdestroyedbydepopulationwas concentrated by the Spaniards into compact
grid/plazastyle new towns (congregaciones,
reducciones)foradministrative
purposes.
Mounds
James Parsons (1985, 161) has suggested
that: "An apparent'mania forearthmoving,
landscapeengineering
on a grandscale runsas
a threadthroughmuchof New Worldprehistory."Largequantitiesof bothearthand stone
were transferred
to createvariousraisedand
sunken features,such as agriculturallandforms,settlementand ritual mounds, and
causeways.
Mounds of different
shapes and sizes were
constructed
throughout
theAmericasfortemples, burials,settlement,
and as effigies.The
stone pyramidsof Mexico and the Andes are
well known,but equal monumentsof earth
were builtin the Amazon,the MidwestU.S.,
and elsewhere.The Mississippian
periodcomplex of 104 moundsat Cahokia near EastSt.
Louis supported30,000 people; the largest,
Monk's Mound, is currently
30.5 m highand
covers6.9 ha. (Fowler1989,90, 192). Cahokia
was the largestsettlementnorthof the Rfo
Grande untilsurpassedby New YorkCityin
1775.Anearlysurveyestimated"at least20,000
mounds"inWisconconical,linear,and effigy
sin (Stout1911,24). Overall,theremusthave
been several hundred thousand artificial
mounds in the Midwestand South. De Soto
described such featuresstill in use in 1539
(Silverberg1968,7). Thousandsof settlement
and othermoundsdot the savannalandscape
of Mojos in Bolivia (Denevan 1966). At the
mouthof the Amazonon Marajo Island,one
complexofforty
habitation
moundscontained
morethan10,000people; one ofthesemounds
is 20 m highwhile anotheris 90 ha in area
(Roosevelt1991,31, 38).
Not all of the variousearthworks
scattered
over the Americaswere in use in 1492.Many
had been long abandoned, but theyconstituteda conspicuouselementof the landscape
of 1492and some are stillprominent.
Doubtless,manyremainto be discovered,and others
remainunrecognizedas humanor prehistoric
features.

377

Roads,Causeways,and Trails
Largenumbersofpeople and settlements
necessitatedextensivesystemsof overlandtravel
routesto facilitate
administration,
trade,warfare, and social interaction(Hyslop 1984;
Trombold1991). Only hintsof theirformer
prominencesurvive.Manywere simpletraces
acrossdesertsor narrowpathscutintoforests.
A suggestionas to the importanceof Amazon
foresttrails is the existence of more than
500 kmof trailmaintainedby a singleKayapo
villagetoday (Posey 1985,149). Some prehistoricfootpaths
were so intensively
used forso
longthattheywereincisedintothegroundand
are stilldetectable,as has recentlybeen describedin Costa Rica(Sheetsand Sever1991).
Improvedroads, at times stone-linedand
overgreatdistances
drained,wereconstructed
inthe realmsofthe highcivilizations.
The Inca
road networkis estimatedto have measured
about40,000km,extendingfromsouthernColombiato centralChile(Hyslop1984,224). Prehistoriccauseways(raisedroads)were builtin
the tropicallowlands (Denevan 1991); one
Maya causewayis 100 kmlong,and thereare
morethan1,600kmofcausewaysinthe Llanos
de Mojos. Humboldtreportedlargeprehistoric
causewaysin the Orinoco Llanos. Ferdinand
Columbusdescribedroads on PuertoRico in
1493. Gaspar de Carvajal,travelingdown the
AmazonwithOrellanain1541,reported"highthe forestfromriverbank
ways" penetrating
villages.Josephde Acosta(1880,(1) 171)in1590
said thatbetweenPeruand Brazil,therewere
"waies as much beaten as those betwixt
Salamancaand Valladolid."Prehistoric
roadsin
Chaco Canyon,New Mexico are describedin
Trombold(1991). Some routeswere so well
establishedand located that they have remainedroadsto thisday.

Recovery
A strongcase can be made for significant
environmental
recoveryand reductionof culturalfeaturesbythe lateeighteenthcentury
as
a resultof Indian populationdecline. Henry
Thoreau(1949,132-37)believed,based on his
readingof WilliamWood, thatthe New Englandforestsof 1633 were more open, more
withmoreberriesand morewildlife,
park-like,

378

Denevan

thanThoreauobservedin 1855.Cronon(1983,
108), Pyne(1982,51), Silver(1990,104),Martin
(1978,181-82),and Williams(1989,49) all maintain that the eastern forestsrecoveredand
filledinas a resultofIndiandepopulation,field
abandonment, and reduction in burning.
Whileprobablycorrect,thesewriters
givefew
specific examples, so furtherresearch is
needed. The sixteenth-century
fieldsand savannasof Colombiaand CentralAmericaalso
had revertedto forestwithin150 yearsafter
abandonment(Parsons1975, 30-31; Bennett
1968, 54). On his fourthvoyage in 1502-03,
Columbussailedalongthe northcoastof Panama (Veragua).His son Ferdinanddescribed
landswhichwerewell-peopled,fullof houses,
withmanyfields,and open withfewtrees.In
contrast,in 1681 LionelWaferfoundmostof
the Caribbeancoast of Panamaforestcovered
and unpopulated.On the Pacificside in the
eighteenthcentury,savannas were seldom
mentioned;the main economic activity
was
the loggingof tropicalcedar,a treethatgrows
on the sites of abandoned fieldsand other
disturbances(Sauer 1966,132-33,287-88).An
earlieroscillationfromforestdestructionto
recovery in the Yucatan is instructive.
Whitmore,et al. (1990,35) estimatethatthe
Maya had modified75 percentofthe environment by A.D. 800, and that followingthe
Mayancollapse,forestrecoveryin the central
lowlands was nearly complete when the
Spaniardsarrived.
The pace of forestregeneration,
however,
varied across the New World. Much of the
southeasternU.S. remainedtreeless in the
1750s accordingto Rostlund(1957,408, 409).
He notesthatthetangledbrushthatensnarled
the "WildernessCampaignof 1864 in Virginia
occupied the same land as did CaptainJohn
Smith's'open groveswithmuchgood ground
betweenwithoutanyshrubs"'in1624;vegetation had only partiallyrecoveredover 240
barrensin contrastwere
years.The Kentucky
cenlargelyreforested
bytheearlynineteenth
tury(Sauer 1963,30). The AlabamaBlackBelt
vegetationwas describedby WilliamBartram
in the 1770sas a mixtureof forestand grassy
plains, but by the nineteenthcentury,there
was only10 percentprairieand even less in
some counties (Rostlund1957, 393, 401-03).
Sections of coastal forestsnever recovered,
givencolonistpressures,butSale's (1990,291)
claimthat"the Englishwere well along in the

process of eliminatingthe ancient Eastern

woodlandsfromMaine to the Mississippi"in
thefirst
one hundredyears,is an exaggeration.
Wildlifealso partiallyrecoveredin eastern
NorthAmericawithreducedhuntingpressure
fromIndians;however,thisis also a storyyet
to be workedout. The white-tailed
deer apparentlydeclinedin numbers,probablyreflecting
reforestation
plus competitionfromlivestock.
Commercialhunting
was a factoron thecoast,
with80,000deer skinsbeingshippedoutyearly
fromCharlestonby1730(Silver1990,92). Massachusettsenacteda closed season on deer as
earlyas 1694,and in1718therewas a three-year
moratorium
on deer hunting(Cronon 1983,
100).Sale (1990,290) believesthatbeaverwere
depleted in the Northeastby 1640. Otherfur
bearers,game birds,elk, buffalo,and carnivoreswerealso targetedbywhitehunters,but
much game probablywas in the process of
recoveryin manyeasternareas untila general
reversalafter1700-50.
As agricultural
fieldschangedto scruband
were grownover. All the
forest,earthworks
raised fields in Yucatan and South America
were abandoned. A largeportionof the agriculturalterracesin the Americaswere abandoned in the early colonial period (Donkin
1979,35-38). In the Colca Valleyof Peru,measurementon air photos indicates61 percent
terraceabandonment(Denevan1988,28). Societies vanished or declined everywhereand
wholevillageswiththem.The degreeto which
settlement
featureswereswallowedup byvegetation,sediment,and erosionis indicatedby
thedifficulty
themtoday.MachuPicoffinding
chu, a late prehistoric
site,was not rediscovered until1911.
The renewalof human impactalso varied
regionally,
comingwiththe Revolutionary
War
in NorthAmerica,withthe rubberboom in
Amazonia,and withtheexpansionof coffeein
southernBrazil(1840-1930).The swamplands
of GulfCoast Mexicoand the GuayasBasinof
Ecuadorremainedhostileenvironments
to Europeansuntilwell intothe nineteenth
century
or later(Siemens1990; Mathewson1987). On
the other hand, HighlandMexico-Guatemala
and theAndes,withgreaterIndiansurvival
and
withtheestablishment
of haciendasand intensive mining,show less evidence of environmentalrecovery.Similarly,
Indianfieldsin the
Caribbeanwere rapidlyreplacedby European
livestockand sugarplantationsystems,inhibit-

The PristineMyth

inganysufficient
recovery.
The same is trueof
the sugarzone of coastalBrazil.

Conclusions
By1492,Indianactivity
had modified
vegetationand wildlife,
caused erosion,and created
earthworks,
roads, and settlements
throughouttheAmericas.Thismaybe obvious,butthe
humanimprint
was muchmoreubiquitousand
enduringthanis usuallyrealized.The historical
evidence is ample,as are data fromsurviving
earthworks
and archaeology.
Andmuchcan be
inferredfrompresent human impacts.The
weightof evidencesuggeststhatIndianpopulationswere large,notonlyin Mexicoand the
Andes,butalso in seeminglyunattractive
habitatssuch as the rainforests
of Amazonia,the
swampsof Mojos, and thedesertsofArizona.
Clearly,the mosthumanizedlandscapesof
theAmericasexistedinthosehighlandregions
wherepeople were the mostnumerous.Here
were the largestates,characterizedby urban
centers,road systems,intensiveagriculture,
a
dense ruralsettlement
dispersedbut relatively
patternof hamletsand farmsteads,
and widespread vegetationand soil modification
and
wildlifedepletion.Therewere other,smaller
regionsthatsharedsome ofthesecharacteristics,suchas thePueblolandsinthesouthwestern U.S., the Sabana de Bogota in highland
Colombia,and thecentralAmazonfloodplain,
where builtlandscapeswere locallydramatic
and are stillobservable.Finally,
therewerethe
immensegrasslands,deserts,mountains,and
forestselsewhere,withpopulationsthatwere
sparse or moderate,withlandscape impacts
thatmostly
wereephemeralor notobviousbut
neverthelesssignificant,
forvegeparticularly
tationand wildlife,as in Amazoniaand the
northeastern
U.S. Inaddition,landscapesfrom
themoredistantpastsurvived
to 1492and even
to 1992,suchas thoseoftheirrigation
statesof
north coast Peru, the Classic Maya, the
Mississippian mound builders, and the
TiwanakuEmpireof LakeTiticaca.
Thisessay has rangedoverthe hemisphere,
an enormous area, making generalizations
about and providingexamplesof Indianlandas of 1492. Examplesof
scape transformation
some of the survivingculturalfeaturesare
shown in Figure1. Ideally,a series of hemisphericmaps should be providedto portray

379

typesof
the spatialpatternsof the different
impactsand culturalfeatures,but such maps
are not feasiblenor would theybe accurate
givenpresentknowledge.Thereare a fewrelevantregionalmaps,however,thatcan be referredto. Forexample,see Butzer(1990,33,45)
and
for Indiansettlementstructures/mounds
inthe U.S.; Donkin(1979,
subsistencepatterns
terracing;Doolittle(1990,
23) foragricultural
inMexico; Parsonsand
109)forcanalirrigation
Denevan(1967)forraisedfieldsinSouthAmerica; Trombold(1991) for various road networks; Hyslop (1984,4) for the Inca roads;
Hardoy(1968,49) forthe mostintenseurbanizationin LatinAmerica;and Gordon(1957,69)
for anthropogenicsavannas in northernColombia.
The pristinemythcannotbe laid at the feet
of Columbus.While he spoke of "Paradise,"
his was clearlya humanizedparadise.He describedHispaniolaandTortugaas denselypopulated and "completelycultivatedlike the
countrysidearound Cordoba" (Colon 1976,
165). He also notedthat"theislandsare notso
wooded as to be impassable,"suggestthickly
ing openingsfromclearingand burning(Columbus1961,5).
The rootsofthepristinemythlie in partwith
earlyobserversunawareofhumanimpactsthat
maybe obviousto scholarstoday,particularly
for vegetationand wildlife.8But even many
such as raisedfieldshave onlyreearthworks
centlybeen discovered(Denevan1966; 1980).
mostof our eyewitnessdeEquallyimportant,
ofwildernessand emptylandscome
scriptions
1750-1850when
froma latertime,particularly
interior
landsbeganto be exploredand occupied byEuropeans.By1650,Indianpopulations
inthe hemispherehad been reducedbyabout
90 percent,while by 1750 Europeannumbers
were not yet substantialand settlementhad
onlybegunto expand. As a result,fieldshad
been abandoned,whilesettlements
vanished,
The
forestsrecovered,and savannasretreated.
landscapedid appear to be a sparselypopulatedwilderness.Thisis theimageconveyedby
Bakelessin
Parkmaninthenineteenth
century,
as 1991.Therewas
1950,and Shetleras recently
some Europeanimpact,of course, but itwas
localized.After1750and especiallyafter1850,
populationsgreatlyexpanded,resourceswere
more intensivelyexploited, and European
of the environment
accelerated,
modification
to the present.
continuing

380

Denevan
.-4. ..

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virginforestwas not encounteredin the sixteenthand seventeenth
centuries;[butthat]it
was inventedin the lateeighteenthand early
nineteenthcenturies"(Pyne1982,46). However, "paradoxicalas it mayseem, therewas
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1850than in 1650" (Rostlund1957,409). Thus

the "invention"of an earlierwildernessis in
and is notsimplya delibpartunderstandable
erate creationwhichennobled the American
enterprise,
as suggestedby Bowden(1992,2023). In any event,while pre-Europeanlandscape alterationhas been demonstratedpre-

The PristineMyth

viously,includingbyseveralgeographers,
the
case has mainlybeen made forvegetation
and
mainlyforeasternNorthAmerica.As shown
here,the argumentis also applicableto most
of the restof the New World,includingthe
humidtropics,and involvesmuchmorethan
vegetation.
The humanimpacton environment
is not
simplya processof increasingchangeor degradation in response to linear population
growthand economicexpansion.It is instead
interrupted
byperiodsof reversaland ecological rehabilitation
as culturescollapse,populations decline, wars occur, and habitatsare
abandoned. Impactsmaybe constructive,
benign,or degenerative
(all subjectiveconcepts),
butchangeis continualat variableratesand in
different
directions.Even mild impactsand
slow changes are cumulative,and the longtermeffects
can be dramatic.Is itpossiblethat
the thousandsof yearsof humanactivity
before Columbus created more change in the
visible landscape than has occurred subsequently with European settlement and
resourceexploitation?
The answeris probably
yes formostregionsforthe next250 yearsor
so, and forsome regionsrightup to the presenttime.Americanflora,fauna,and landscape
were slowlyEuropeanizedafter1492,but beforethattheyhad alreadybeen Indianized."It
is upon this imprintthat the more familiar
Euro-American
landscapewas grafted,rather
than created anew" (Butzer1990, 28). What
does all thismeanforprotectionist
tendencies
today?Muchofwhatis protectedor proposed
to be protectedfromhumandisturbancehad
native people present, and environmental
modification
occurredaccordingly
and in part
is stilldetectable.
The pristineimage of 1492 seems to be a
myth,
then,an imagemoreapplicableto 1750,
followingIndian decline, althoughrecovery
had only been partialby thatdate. There is
somesubstanceto thisargument,
and itshould
hold up underthe scrutiny
of further
investigationof the considerableevidenceavailable,
bothwritten
and in the ground.
Acknowledgments
The fieldand libraryresearchthatprovidedthe
forthisessaywas undertaken
background
overmany
yearsin LatinAmerica,Berkeley,
and Madison.Mentorswho have been particularly
influential
are Carl
0. Sauer, ErhardRostlund,JamesJ. Parsons,and

381

WoodrowBorah,all investigators
oftopicsdiscussed
here.

Notes
1. Sauer had a life-long
interestin thistopic (1963,
1966,1971,1980).
2. See Nash (1967)on the "romantic
wilderness"of
America;Bowden (1992,9-12) on the 'invented
tradition"of the "primevalforest"of New England;and Manthorne
(1989,10-21)on artists'images ofthetropical'Eden" ofSouthAmerica.Day
(1953,329) providesnumerousquotationsfrom
Parkman
and
on 'wilderness"and "vast,""virgin,"
"icontinuous"
forest.
3. Forexample,a 1991advertisement
fora Time-Life
video refersto "the unspoiledbeaches, forests,
and mountainsof an earlierAmerica"and "the
shoresof ChesapeakeBayin 1607."
pristine
4. On theotherhand,theabilityof Indiansto clear
largetreeswithinefficient
stoneaxes,assistedby
girdlingand deadeningby fire,mayhave been
overestimated(Denevan forthcoming).Silver
(1990,51) notesthattheuplandforestsofCarolina
werelargelyuninhabited
forthisreason.
5. Similarconclusionswere reached by foresters
Maxwell(1910)and Day (1953); by geographers
Sauer(1963),Brown(1948,11-19),Rostlund(1957),
histoand Bowden(1992);and byenvironmental
riansPyne(1982,45-51),
Cronon(1983,49-51),and
Silver(1990,59-66).
6. B. Williams(1989,730) findsstrongevidenceof
ruraloverpopulation(66 percentin poor crop
years,11 percentinaverageyears)inthe Basinof
Mexicovillageof Asunci6n,ca. A.D. 1540,which
was probably"notunique buta widespreadphenomenon."For a contrary
conclusion,thatthe
Aztecsdid notexceed carrying
see Ortiz
capacity,
de Montellano(1990,119).
7. HighlandGuatemalaprovidesanotherprehistoric
involving
exampleof "severehumandisturbance"
and "massive"soil erosion(slopes)
deforestation
anddeposition(valleys)(Murdy1990,186).Forthe
centralAndesthereis some evidencethatmuch
of the puna zone (3200-4500m), now grassand
times(White
scrub,was deforestedin prehistoric
1985).
8. The Englishcolonistsin partjustifiedtheiroccupationof Indianlandon the basis thatsuch land
had notbeen "subdued"and therefore
was "land
freeto be taken"(Wilson1992,16).

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