Harvard University

Department of Anthropology

ANTHRO 1180, Fall 2016

Amazonian Archaeology & the Future of Tropical Rainforests

Tuesdays-Thursdays -10-11:30 am
Peabody Museum, room 560
Eduardo G. Neves

Office hours and contact information:

Wednesdays, 2-4, or by appointment, eduardoneves@fas.harvard.edu.

Course description:

The Amazon is seen as one of the last surviving pristine areas in the world. Yet recent
archaeological research has been showing that parts of it were densely occupied in the past. If true,
those findings mean that many of those seemingly virgin natural landscapes have evolved from
the accumulating effects of human occupations over time. How can we reconcile such new
evidence with the needs to protect Amazonian environments and the livelihoods of its indigenous
societies? This course aims to address that question in two ways – by presenting an introduction
to the archaeology of the Amazon basin and by considering the contemporary situation of this
tropical rainforest and its peoples. The underlying premise is that archeology provides a privileged
source for the understanding of the long-term history of the native peoples of the Amazon. Classes
will follow an intellectual tradition that started in the 1950s, which aims to understand the ancient
history of the Amazon in relation to the ecological conditions of the area. A critical appraisal of
environmental determinism will be presented, as will an alternative perspective that is based on
the hypothesis that Amazonian biomes have been transformed by indigenous societies in the past.
The classes will draw from the contributions of cultural anthropology and linguistics and from the
lecturer’s own first-hand experience carrying out archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork in
different parts of the Amazon.

Course assignments and evaluation:

-Short paper 1: 1500 to 2000 words (40%), due Oct. 20.

-Final paper: 4000 to 4500 words (60%), due Dec. 10.

Please note that all paper assignments must be completed in order to pass the course.

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Required Books:

Balée, William Cultural Forests of the Amazon: A Historical Ecology of People and Their
Landscapes, Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2013 (ISBN 9780817317867)

Kopenawa, Davi and Albert, Bruce, The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman, Harvard
University Press, 2013 (ISBN: 9780674724686).

Rostain, Stéphen, Islands in the Rainforest: Landscape Management in Pre-Columbian

Amazonia, Left Coast Press, 2013 (ISBN 9781598746341).

Schaan, Denise, Sacred Geographies of Ancient Amazonia: Historical Ecology of Social

Complexity, Left Coast Press, 2012 (ISBN: 978159874505).

1) Sep 1st: Introduction to the course and presentation of its aims.

The course will be structured in blocks of normally two classes each, aiming to cover specific
topics. The literature is diversified, using sources from Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology,
Ecology, Linguistics, History and Paleoecology. We will also read, towards the end of the
semestre, parts of the first hand narrative of the personnal history of Davi Kopenawa, an
Yanomamo shaman, as recounted to French Anthropologist Bruce Albert in the book “The Falling
Sky”. I will use power point presentations and sometimes films as well to provide a background to
the discussions in the classroom.

2) Sep. 6: Biological, Cultural and Social Diversity in contemporary Amazon: legacies of the
ancient past? (1)

Heckenberger, M. J., Kuikuro A., Tabata Kuikuro, U., Russell, J. C., M. Schmidt, Fausto, C.,
Franchetto, B., Amazonia 1492: Pristine Forest or Cultural Parkland?, Science: 301: 1710-1714,
2003.

ter Steege Hans et al. Hyperdominance in the Amazonian Tree Flora, Science 342: DOI:
10.1126/science.1243092, 2013.

ter Steege Hans et al. Estimating the global conservation status of more than 15,000 Amazonian
tree species, Science Advances Vol. 1, no. 10, e1500936 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1500936, 2015.

3) Sep. 8: Biological, Cultural and Social Diversity in the contemporary Amazon: legacies of
the ancient past? (2)

Moore, D. Endangered Languages of Lowland Tropical South America, In Language Diversity

Endangered, edited by M Brenzinger, ed. Berlin · New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 29-58, 2007.

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Neves, E. G. Archaeological cultures and past identities in precolonial central Amazon, In:
Ethnicity in Ancient Amazonia: Reconstructing Past Identities from Archeology, Linguistics and
Ethnohistort, Boulder: University of Colorado Press, A. Hornborg, J. Hill eds. pp 31-56, 2011

4) Sep. 13: Pristine but Young? The Forestation of the Amazon (1)

Balée, W. An Estimate of Anthropogenesis, In: Cultural Forests of the Amazon: A Historical

Ecology of People and Their Landscapes, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, pp. 32-52,
2013.

Chambouleyron, Rafael et al. Formidable contagion’: epidemics, work and recruitment in

Colonial Amazonia (1660-1750). História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, v.18,
n.4, pp. 1-18 2011.

Piperno, D., McMichael, C,. Bush, M. Amazonia and the Anthropocene: What was the spatial
extent and intensity of human landscape modification in the Amazon Basin at the end of
prehistory? The Holocene Vol. 25(10) 1588–1597, 2015

5) Sep. 15: Pristine but Young? The Forestation of the Amazon (2)

Dean, W. Chapter 4. Estrangement: Depopulation and the Regrown Forest, In: With Broadax and
Firebrand: The Destruction of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Berkeley: University of California
Press, pp. 66-90, 1997.

Denevan, W., After 1492: Nature Rebounds, Geographical Review, Volume 106, Issue 3
Pp. 381–398, 2016.

Nevle, R. Bird, D. K. Ruddiman, W. A., Dull, R. A. Neotropical human–landscape interactions,

fire, and atmospheric CO2 during European conquest, The Holocene 21(5) 853–864, 2011.

6) Sep 20: Politics of Pristinity (1)

Safier, N. The Tenacious Travels of the Torrid Zone and the Global Dimensions of Geographical
Knowledge in the Eighteenth Century, Journal of Early Modern History 18 141-172, 2014.

Hecht, Susanna, “In the Times of Scrambles in the Land of the Amazons”, in The Scramble for the
Amazon and the "Lost Paradise" of Euclides da Cunha, 2013

Hecht, Susanna “Imperialisms, Revolutions, and Resolutions in the Caribbean Amazon”, in The
Scramble for the Amazon and the "Lost Paradise" of Euclides da Cunha, 2013

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7) Sep 22: Politics of Pristinity (2)

Hecht, Susanna “American Amazon”? Colonizations and Speculations”, in The Scramble for the
Amazon and the "Lost Paradise" of Euclides da Cunha, 2013.

Hecht, Susanna “Wall Street, Rebels, and Rio Branco”, in The Scramble for the Amazon and the
"Lost Paradise" of Euclides da Cunha, 2013.

Hecht, Susanna “Peru, Purús, Brazil” in The Scramble for the Amazon and the "Lost Paradise" of
Euclides da Cunha, 2013.

8) Sep. 27: Tree wars (1)

McMichael, C. H, Piperno, D. R., Bush, M. B. Silman, M. R. Zimmerman, A. F, Raczka, M. F.

Lobato, L. C. Sparse Pre-Columbian Human Habitation in Western Amazonia, Science 336: 1429-
1431, 2012.

Stahl, P. Interpreting interfluvial landscape transformations in the pre-Columbian Amazon, The

Holocene, 25(10) 1598–1603, 2015.

9) Sep. 29: Tree wars (2)

Bush, M. B., McMichael, C., Piperno, D. Silman, M., Barlow, J., Peres, C., Power, M. Palace, M.,
Anthropogenic influence on Amazonian forests in pre-history: An ecological perspective, Journal
of Biogeography 42, 2277–2288, 2015.

Clement, C., Denevan W., Heckenberger, M.,Junqueira, A. B., Neves, E. G., Woods, W., Teixeira,
W. The domestication of Amazonia before European conquest, Proceedings of the Royal Society
B 282: 20150813. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.0813, 2015.

10) Oct. 04: A Counterfeit Paradise? (1)

Lathrap, D. W. 1968. "Aboriginal Occupations and Changes in the River Channel on the Central
Ucayali, Peru." American Antiquity 33: 62-79, 1968.

Meggers, B. Recent Developments, In: Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise,
second edition, Chicago: Aldine, pp. 169-198, 1997.

Erickson, C. Amazonia: The Historical Ecology of a Domesticated Landscape, In: Handbook of

South American Archaeology, H. Silvermann, W. Isbell, eds. New York: Springer, 2008, pp. 157-
183.

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11) Oct. 06: A Counterfeit Paradise? (2)

Descola, P. Configurations of Continuity, In: Beyond Nature and Culture, Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press, pp 3-31, 2013.

Fausto, C. Images of Abundance and Scarcity, in Warfare and Shamanism in Amazonia, pp. 53-
89.

Rostain, S. A Natural Garden or a Domesticated Forest? In: Islands in the Rainforest: Landscape
Management in Pre-Columbian Amazoni, pp.

12) Oct. 11: Searching for the evidence (1).

Carson, J, Whitney, B., Mayle, F., Iriarte, J., Prümers, H. , Soto, J. D. , Watling J.
Environmental impact of geometric earthwork construction in pre-Columbian Amazonia, PNAS,
vol. 111, 29: 10497–10502, 2014.

Heckenberger, M., Neves, E. Amazonian Archaeology, Annual Review of Anthropology

Vol. 38: 251-266, 2009.

Iriarte, J., Power M., Rostain, S., Mayle F., Jones H., Watling, J. Whitney, B. , McKeye, D. Fire-
free land use in pre-1492 Amazonian savanas, PNAS, vol. 109, 17:6473–6478, 2012.

13) Oct. 13: Searching for the evidence (2).

Roosevelt, A. The Amazon and the Anthropocene: 13,000 years of human influence in a tropical
rainforest, Anthropocene, Vol. 4, pp. 69-87, 2013.

Schmidt, M. et al. Dark earths and the human built landscape in Amazonia: awidespread pattern
of anthrosol formation, Journal of Archaeological Science 42: 152-165, 2014.

Schaan, D. Chapter 4: Ponds, Lakes, and Feasts: The Cultural Geography of Anthropogenic Soils, In:
Sacred geographies of ancient Amazonia. Walnut Creek, Calif.: Left Coast Press, 2011.

14) Oct. 18: How did it started. Back to the Pleistocene

Headland, T., Bailey, R. Introduction: Have hunter-gatherers ever lived in tropical rain forest
independently of agriculture? Human Ecololgy, 19: 115. doi:10.1007/BF00888742, 1991.

Lathrap, D. W. The "hunting" economies of the tropical forest zone of South America: An attempt
at historical perspective. In: Man the Hunter. R. Lee, Devore, I. eds. Aldine: Chicago, pp. 23-29,
1968.

Maslin, M., Ettwein, V. Boot, C., Bendle, J. Pancost, R. Amazon Fan biomarker evidence against
the Pleistocene rainforest refuge hypothesis? Journal of Quaternart Science 27(5) 451–460, 2012.

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Withney, B., Mayle, F., Punyasena S., Fitzpatrick, K., Burn, M., Guillen, R., Chavez, E., Mann,
D., Penninton, R. T., Metcalfe, S. A 45 kyr palaeoclimate record from the lowland interior of
tropical South America, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 307 (1-4) 177–
192, 2011.

15) Oct. 20: The first to suceed or the last to survive?

Dillehay, T. Profiles in Pleistocene History, In: Handbook of South American Archaeology, H.

Silvermann, W. Isbell, eds. New York: Springer, pp 29-43, 2008.

Politis, Gustavo G. Moving to Produce: Nukak Mobility and Settlement Patterns in

Amazonia. World Archaeology 27(3): 492-511, 1996.

Roosevelt, Anna et al. The Migrations and Adaptations of the First Americans: Clovis and Pré-
Clovis Viewed from South America, In: The First Americans, The Pleistocene Colonization of the
New World, N. Jablonski, ed. San Francisco: Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences
Number 27, pp. 159-235, 2002.

16) Oct. 25: Was there ever a neolithic in the neotropics?

Lévi-Strauss, C. The Concept of Archaism in Anthropology, In: Structural anthropology, New

York: Basic Books, pp. 117-130, 1963.

Oyuela-Caycedo, A. Rock versus clay: The evolution of pottery technology in the case of San
Jacinto 1, Colombia, In: The emergence of pottery. Technology and innovation in ancient societies,
Barnett, W., Hoopes, J., eds. pp 133-144, 1995.

Piperno, D. R. The origins of plant cultivation and domestication in the New World tropics:
patterns, process, and new developments. Current Anthropology 52 (4): S453–S470, 2011.

17) Oct. 27: Was there ever a Neolithic (or, for that matter, a formative) in the neotropics?

Roosevelt, Anna
Early Pottery in the Amazon. Twenty Years of Scholarly Obscurity. In: The Emergence of Pottery.
Technology and Innovation in Ancient Societies, Barnett, W., Hoopes, J., eds. Washington:
Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 115-131, 1995.

Valdez, F. Inter-Zonal Relationships in Ecuador, In: The Handbook of South American

Archaeology, Silverman H., Isbell, W. eds., , New York: Springer, pp. 865-888, 2008.

Williams, D. Early pottery in the Amazon: a correction, American Antiquity, 62(2): 342-352,
1997.

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18) Nov. 01: Agriculture without cultivation, anthropic dark soils and other quirks (1)

Arroyo-Kalin, M. Slash-burn-and-churn: Landscape history and crop cultivation in pre-Columbian

Amazonia, Quaternary International, 249, (6): 4–18.

Clement, C., Cristo-Araujo, M., D’Eeckenbrugge, G., Pereira, A., Picanço-Rodrigues, D., Origin
and Domestication of Native Amazonian Crops, Diversity 2010, 2(1), 72-106;
doi:10.3390/d2010072, 2010.

Carneiro, R. Slash-and-Burn Cultivation Among the Kuikuru and Its Implications for Cultural
Development in the Amazon Basin. In Native South Americans, Lyon, P., ed. Boston: Little,
Brown & Co. pp. 122-132, 1974. (Originally published in 1961)

19) Nov. 03: Agriculture without cultivation, anthropic dark soils and other quirks (2)

Dickau, R., Bruno, M., Iriarte, J., Prümers, H., Betancourt, C., J., Holst, I., Mayle, F. Diversity of
cultivars and other plant resources used at habitation sites in theLlanos de Mojos, Beni, Bolivia:
evidence from macrobotanical remains, starchgrains, and phytoliths, Journal of Archaeological
Science 39 (2012) 357-370, 2012.

Kohn, E. Trans-Species Pidgins, In: How Forests Think: Toward na Anthropology Beyond the
Human, Berkeley: University of Calfornia Press, pp. 131-150, 2013.

Neves, E. Was Agriculture a Key Productive Activity in Pre-Colonial Amazonia? The Stable
Productive Basis for Social Equality in the Central Amazon, In: Human-Environment Interactions:
Current and Future Directions, Brondízio, E., Moran, E, eds. Pp. 371-388, 2011.

20) Nov. 08: Trees Again

Arroyo-Kalin, M. Landscaping, Landscape Legacies, and Landesque Capital in Pre-Columbian

Amazonia, In: Oxford Handbook of Historical Ecology and Applied Archaeology, Isendahl, C.,
Stump D., eds., Oxford University Press, DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199672691.013.16, 2015

Balée, W. People of the Fallow Forest, In: Cultural Forests of the Amazon: A Historical Ecology
of People and Their Landscapes. The University of Alabama Press, pp. 53-69, 2013.

Clement, C. Fruit trees and the transition to food production in Amazonia. In: Balée, W., Erickson,
C. eds, Time and Complexity in the Neotropical Lowlands: Studies in Historical Ecology. New
York: Columbia University Press, pp. 165-185, 2006.

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21) Nov. 10: More Trees!

Rival, L. Harvesting the Forest's Natural Abundance, In: Trekking Through History The Huaorani
of Amazonian Ecuador, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 68-93, 2002.

Shepard, G.H. & Ramirez, H., “Made in Brazil”: Human Dispersal of the Brazil Nut (Bertholletia
excelsa, Lecythidaceae) in Ancient Amazonia, Economic Botany 65: 44. doi:10.1007/s12231-011-
9151-6, 2011.

22) Nov. 15: The Amazon in 1491 (1)

Neves, E., & Petersen, J. The Political Economy of Late Pre-Colonial Social Formations in the
Central Amazon, In: Neotropical Historical Ecology, Balée, B., & Erickson, C. eds. New York:
Columbia University Press, 2006.

Heckenberger, M. Social Dynamics Before Europe, In: The Ecology of Power: Culture, Place and
Personhood in the Southern Amazon, AD 1000-2000, pp. 113-142, 2005.

Schaan D. Chapter 5: Marks on the Earth: Territoriality and Memory, In:

Sacred geographies of ancient Amazonia. Walnut Creek, Calif. : Left Coast Press, 2011.

23) Nov. 17: The Amazon in 1491 (2)

Rostain, S. Terra Cognita: 10,000 years of Human Impact, In: Islands in the Rainforest:
Landscape Management in Pre-Columbian Amazonia, Left Coast Press, pp. 91-134, 2013

Walker, J. Llanos de Mojos, In: The Handbook of South American Archaeology, Silverman H.,
Isbell, W. eds., New York: Springer, pp. pp. 927-939, 2008

24) Nov. 22 Words from the forest

Kopenawa, D. “Metal Smoke”, in: Kopenawa, D. and Albert, B., The Falling Sky: Words of a
Yanomami Shaman, Harvard University Press, pp 155-298, 2013.

25) Nov. 29 Open roads, open future?

Lins J, Lima HP, Baccaro FB, Kinupp VF, Shepard GH, Jr, Clement CR Pre-Columbian Floristic
Legacies in Modern Homegardens of CentralAmazonia. PLoS ONE 10(6): e0127067.
doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.012706, 2015

Emperaire, L. Eloy, L. Amerindian Agriculture in an Urbanising Amazonia (Rio Negro, Brazil),

Bulletin of Latin American Research, 34 (1): 70–84, 2015.

Hecht, S. Morrison, K., Padoch C. From Fragmentation to Forest Resurgence: Paradigms,

Representations, and Practices, In: The Social Lives of Forests: Past, Present, and Future of
Woodland Resurgence, Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 1-8, 2014.

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26) Dec. 01 The Relative Native

Viveiros de Castro, E. The relative native, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 3 (3): 473–502,
2013

Walker RS, DC Kesler, KR Hill. Are isolated indigenous populations headed toward extinction?
PLoS ONE 11: e0150987, 2016.