The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492

Author(s): William M. Denevan

Reviewed work(s):
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
Department ofWisconsin,Madison,WI 53706
Abstract.The mythpersiststhatin 1492 the
Americaswere a sparselypopulatedwilder-
ness, "a world of barelyperceptiblehuman
disturbance."There is substantialevidence,
however,thatthe NativeAmericanlandscape
oftheearlysixteenth centurywas a humanized
landscape almost everywhere.Populations
were large. Forest compositionhad been
modified,grasslandshad been created,wild-
life disrupted,and erosion was severe in
places. Earthworks, roads, fields,and settle-
mentswere ubiquitous.WithIndiandepopu-
lationin the wake of Old Worlddisease, the
environment recoveredin manyareas.A good
argumentcan be made thatthe humanpres-
ence was lessvisiblein1750thanitwas in1492.
KeyWords: Pristinemyth,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 "Ter-
restrialParadise,"beautifuland greenand fer-
tile, teemingwith birds,withnaked people
livingtherewhomhe called"Indians."Butwas
the landscape encounteredin the sixteenth
century primarily
pristine, a wilderness,
virgin,
nearlyemptyof people, or was ita humanized
landscape,withthe imprint of nativeAmeri-
cans being dramaticand persistent? The for-
merstillseems to be the morecommonview,
butthe lattermaybe moreaccurate.
The pristineview is to a largeextentan in-
ventionof nineteenth-century and
romanticist
primitivistwriters 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 pris-
tineviewwas restatedclearlyin 1950 by John
Bakeless in his book The Eyes of Discovery:
Therewere notreallyverymanyof these redmen
... the landseemed emptyto invaderswho came
fromsettledEurope . . . thatancient,primeval,
undisturbed wilderness. . . the streamssimply
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 com-
monplace.Thismessage,however,seems not
to have reachedthe publicthroughtexts,es-
says,or talksby bothacademicsand popular-
izerswho havea responsibilityto knowbetter.3
KirkpatrickSale in 1990, in his widely re-
ported Conquest of Paradise, maintains that it
was the Europeanswho transformed nature,
following a patternset byColumbus.Although
Sale's book has some meritand he is awareof
large Indian numbersand theirimpacts,he
nonethelesschampions the widely-helddi-
chotomyof 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 over-
statesboth.
Seeds of Change:Christopher
Similarly, Co-
lumbusand the ColumbianLegacy,the popu-
larbook publishedbytheSmithsonian Institu-
tion,continuesthe litanyof NativeAmerican
passivity:
pre-Columbian Americawas stillthe FirstEden,a
pristinenaturalkingdom.The nativepeople were
transparentinthe landscape,livingas naturalele-
mentsof the ecosphere. Theirworld,the New
WorldofColumbus,was a worldofbarelypercep-
tiblehumandisturbance (Shetler1991,226).
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 harmonywithnaturewithsustainablesys-
tems of resource management.Sometimes
theydid; sometimestheydidn't.Whattheydid
was to change theirlandscape nearlyevery-
where,notto theextentofpost-Colonial Euro-
peans but in important waysthatmeritatten-
tion.
The evidence is convincing.By1492 Indian
activitythroughouttheAmericashad modified
forestextentand composition, createdand ex-
pandedgrasslands,and rearranged microrelief
via countlessartificial
earthworks.Agricultural
fields were common, as were houses and
townsand roads and trails.All of these had
local impactson soil,microclimate, hydrology,
Thisis a largetopic,forwhichthis
and wildlife.
essay offersbutan introduction to the issues,
misconceptions,and residualproblems.The
evidence,pieced togetherfromvague ethno-
historicalaccounts,fieldsurveys,and archae-
ology,supportsthe hypothesis thatthe Indian
landscapeof 1492had largelyvanishedbythe
mid-eighteenth century,not througha Euro-
pean superimposition, but because of the de-
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 prevailingpo-
sition,a recentone, is thattheAmericaswere
well-populatedratherthan relativelyempty
lands in 1492. In the words of the sixteenth-
Spanishpriest,Bartolomede las Casas,
century
who knewthe Indieswell:
Allthathas been discoveredup to the yearforty-
nine[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 ex-
aggerate?In the 1930sand 1940s,AlfredKroe-
ber,Angel Rosenblat,and JulianStewardbe-
lieved that he had. The best counts then
availableindicateda populationof between8-
15 millionIndians in the Americas.Subse-
quently,Carl Sauer, Woodrow Borah, Sher-
burneF. Cook, HenryDobyns,George Lovell,
N. DavidCook, myself, and othershaveargued
forlargerestimates.Manyscholarsnowbelieve
thattherewerebetween40-100millionIndians
inthehemisphere (Denevan1992).Thisconclu-
sion is primarilybased on evidence of rapid
earlydeclinesfromepidemicdisease priorto
the firstpopulationcounts (Lovell,this vol-
ume).
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 millionforlow-
landSouthAmerica.Thesefiguresare based on
myjudgmentas to the mostreasonablerecent
tribaland regionalestimates.Acceptinga mar-
ginoferrorofabout20 percent,theNewWorld
populationwould lie between43-65 million.
Futureregionalrevisionsare likelyto maintain
the hemispheric totalwithinthisrange.Other
recentestimates,none based on totalingre-
gionalfigures,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 sufficientto dispel any notion of "empty
lands." Moreover,the native impacton the
landscapeof 1492reflectednotonlythe popu-
lation then but the cumulativeeffectsof a
growingpopulationover the previous15,000
yearsor more.
Europeanentryintothe NewWorldabruptly
reversedthistrend.ThedeclineofnativeAmer-
ican populationswas rapidand severe,proba-
bly 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
percentor morein the firstcenturyaftercon- had convertedmuchof theforestintosucces-
tact. 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 consider-
percent; in Peru from9 millionin 1520 to able size.4Muchofthematureforestwas char-
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 per- horse 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 de-
reduction (Denevan 1992, xvii-xxix).The scribed in detail by Michael Williamsin his
humanlandscapewas affected accordingly,al- recenthistoryof Americanforests:'Much of
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
The replacementof Indiansby Europeans writers in theirromantic 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 (1974,7) givesa total manydifferent statesofecologicalsuccession"
(includingIndians)of12 million.Forthehemi- (Cronon1983,49-51).
sphere in 1750, the Atlas of WorldPopulation The extent,frequency, and impactof Indian
Historyreports16 million(McEvedyand Jones burningis notwithoutcontroversy. Raup(1937)
1978,270).Thustheoverallhemispheric popu- arguedthatclimaticchange ratherthanIndian
lationin 1750was about 30 percentof whatit burningcould account forcertainvegetation
mayhave been in 1492.The 1750population, changes.Emily Russell(1983,86),assessingpre-
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
pocketsof settlement beyondthecoastalbelt, numberscaused by lightning,"creatingan
stretchingfromNew Englandto northern Flor- open forest.Butthen Russelladds: "In most
ida (see maps in Meinig1986,209,245). Else- areas climate and soil probablyplayed the
where,combinedIndianand Europeanpopu- majorrole in determining the precolonialfor-
lationswere sparse,and environmental impact ests." She regardsIndianfiresas mainlyacci-
was relatively minor. dentaland "merely"augmentalto naturalfires,
Indigenousimprintson landscapes at the and she discountsthe reliability of manyearly
timeof initialEuropeancontactvariedregion- accountsof burning.
allyin formand intensity. Followingare exam- Formanand Russell(1983,5) expandthe ar-
ples for vegetationand wildlife,agriculture, gumentto NorthAmericain general: 'regular
and the builtlandscape. and widespreadIndianburning(Day 1953)[is]
an unlikely hypothesisthatregretfullyhas been
accepted in the popular literatureand con-
Vegetation sciousness."Thisconclusion,I believe,is un-
warranted givenreportsoftheextentofprehis-
The EasternForests toric human burningin NorthAmericaand
Australia(Lewis1982), and Europe (Patterson
The forestsof New England,the Midwest, and Sassaman1988,130), and by myown and
and theSoutheasthad been disturbedto vary- otherobservations on currentIndianand peas-
372 Denevan
ant burningin CentralAmericaand South
America;when unrestrained, people burnfre-
quentlyand formanyreasons.Forthe North-
east,Pattersonand Sassaman(1988,129)found
thatsedimentary charcoalaccumulations were
greatestwhereIndianpopulationsweregreat-
est.
Elsewherein NorthAmerica,the Southeast
is muchmorefirepronethanis theNortheast,
withhumanignitionsbeingespeciallyimport-
ant inwinter(Taylor1981).The Berkeleygeog-
rapherand IndianistErhardRostlund(1957,
1960)arguedthatIndianclearingand burning
created manygrasslandswithinmostlyopen
forestin the so-called "prairiebelt" of Ala-
bama. As improbableas it mayseem, Lewis
(1982)found Indianburningin the subarctic,
and Dobyns(1981)in the Sonorandesert.The
and impactsof firesset by Indi-
characteristics
ans variedregionallyand locallywithdemog-
raphy,resourcemanagement techniques,and
environment, butsuch firesclearlyhad differ-
ent vegetationimpactsthandid naturalfires
owingto differences in frequency, regularity,
and seasonality.
ForestComposition
In NorthAmerica,burningnot only main-
tainedopen forestand smallmeadowsbutalso
encouragedfire-tolerant and sun-lovingspe-
cies. "Fire created conditionsfavorableto
strawberries,blackberries,raspberries,and
other gatherablefoods" (Cronon 1983, 51).
Other useful plantswere saved, protected,
planted,and transplanted, such as American
chestnut,Canada plum,Kentucky coffeetree,
groundnut,and leek (Day 1953,339-40). Gil-
more(1931)describedthe dispersalof several
nativeplantsby Indians.Mixed standswere
convertedto singlespeciesdominants, includ-
ingvariouspines and oaks, sequoia, Douglas
fir,spruce,and aspen (M. Williams1989,47-
48). The longleaf,slash pine, and scrub oak
forestsoftheSoutheastare almostcertainly an
anthropogenic subclimaxcreatedoriginally 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 generallyfavormixedtropi-
cal montaneforestor rainforest.
The extensive
pineforestsofGuatemalaand Mexicoprimarily
grow in cooler and drier,higherelevations,
wheretheyare in largepartnaturaland prehu-
man(Wattsand Bradbury 1982,59). Pineforests
were definitelypresentin Nicaraguawhen Eu-
ropeans arrived.They were found in areas
where Indiansettlementwas substantial,but
notintheeasternmountains whereIndianden-
sitiesweresparse.The easternboundaryofthe
highlandpines seems to have movedwithan
easternsettlement thathas fluctuated
frontier
back and forthsince prehistory. The pines
occurtodaywheretherehas been clearingfol-
lowedbyregularburningand thesame is likely
in the past. The Nicaraguanpines are firetol-
erantonce mature,and largenumbersofseed-
lingssurviveto maturityiftheycan escape fire
duringtheirfirstthreeto sevenyears(Denevan
1961,280). Where settlementhas been aban-
doned and fireceases, mixedhardwoodsgrad-
uallyreplace pines. This succession is likely
similarwherepinesoccurelsewhereat low el-
evationsintropicalCentralAmerica,theCarib-
bean, 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 nonagricul-
turalIndiansexpanded 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 (Mueller-
Dombois 1981,164). Grasslandcan therefore
advancesignificantlyin the wake of hundreds
ofyearsof annualfires.Lightning-set firescan
have a similarimpact,but moreslowlyif less
 The PristineMyth
frequentthanhumanfires,as in thewettrop-
ics.
Thethesisofprairiesas fireinduced,primar-
ily 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 mostlydisap-
peared ifithad notbeen forthe nearlyannual
burningof these grasslandsby the North
AmericanIndians,"duringthe last5,000years.
A case in pointis the nineteenth-century inva-
sionofmanygrasslandsbyforests afterfirehad
been suppressedin Wisconsin,Illinois,Kan-
sas, Nebraska,and elsewhere (M. Williams
1989,46).
The largesavannasofSouthAmericaarealso
controversialas to origin.Much,ifnotmostof
theopen vegetation oftheOrinocoLlanos,the
Llanos de Mojos of Bolivia,the Pantanalof
Mato Grosso,the Bolivarsavannasof Colom-
bia, the Guayassavannasof coastal Ecuador,
the campo cerradoof centralBrazil,and the
coastal savannasnorthof the Amazon,is of
naturalorigin.The vast campos cerradosoc-
cupyextremely senile,oftentoxicoxisols.The
seasonallyinundatedsavannasof Bolivia,Bra-
zil, Guayas,and the Orinoco owe theirexis-
tence to the intoleranceof woody species to
the extremealternation of lengthyfloodingor
waterlogging and severedesiccationduringa
long dry season. These savannas, however,
were and are burnedby Indiansand ranchers,
and such fireshave expanded the savannas
intotheforests to an unknownextent.Itis now
verydifficultto determine wherea naturalfor-
est/savanna boundaryonce was located(Hills
and Randall1968; Medina1980).
Othersmallsavannashave been cut out of
therainforest byIndianfarmers andthenmain-
tained by burning.An example is the Gran
Pajonalin the Andeanfoothillsin east-central
Peru, where dozens of small grasslands
(pajonales)have been createdbyCampa Indi-
ans-a processclearlydocumentedbyairpho-
tos (Scott1978). Pajonales were in existence
whenthe regionwas firstpenetratedby Fran-
ciscan missionary explorersin 1733.
The impact of human activityis nicely
illustratedby vegetationalchanges in the ba-
sinsoftheSan Jorge,Cauca, and Sinuriversof
northernColombia. The southern sector,
whichwas mainlysavannawhenfirst observed
373
in the sixteenthcentury,had revertedto
rainforestby about 1750 followingIndiande-
cline,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 numeroussa-
vannas in Panama in the sixteenthcentury.
Balboa's firstview of the Pacificwas froma
'treelessridge,"nowprobablyforested.Indian
settlementand agricultural fieldswere com-
mon at the time,and withtheirdecline the
rainforestreturned.
Anthropogenic
TropicalRainForest
The tropicalrainforesthas long had a repu-
tationforbeing pristine,whetherin 1492 or
1992. There is, however,increasingevidence
thattheforestsofAmazoniaand elsewhereare
largelyanthropogenicin formand composi-
tion.Sauer(1958,105)said as muchattheNinth
PacificScienceCongressin1957whenhe chal-
lengedthe statementof tropicalbotanistPaul
Richards that,untilrecently,thetropicalforests
havebeen largelyuninhabited, and thatprehis-
toricpeople had 'no more influenceon the
vegetationthananyof the otheranimalinhab-
itants."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 thisevidencereflectIndianburn-
ing in contrastto natural(lightning)fires,and
whendid these firesoccur?The roleof firein
tropicalforestecosystemshas receivedconsid-
erableattention in recentyears,partlyas result
ofmajorwildfiresinEastKalimantan in1982-83
and smallforestfiresin the VenezuelanAma-
zon in 1980-84 (Goldammer1990). Lightning
fires,thoughrarein moisttropicalforest,do
occur in driertropicalwoodlands (Mueller-
Dombois1981,149).Thunderstorms withlight-
ningare muchmorecommonin the Amazon,
comparedto NorthAmerica,butinthetropics
lightning is usuallyassociatedwithheavyrain
and noncombustible,verdant vegetation.
Hence Indian firesundoubtedlyaccount for
mostfiresin prehistory, withtheirimpactvary-
ingwiththe degreeof aridity.
In the Rio Negro regionof the Colombian-
VenezuelanAmazon,soilcharcoalis verycorn-
374 Denevan
mon in uplandforests.C-14dates rangefrom
6260-250 B.P., well within human times
(Saldarriagaand West1986).Mostof thechar-
coal probablyreflectslocal swidden burns;
however,thereare some indications of forest
firesat intervalsofseveralhundredyears,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
groundfires,could have had significant im-
pactson forestsuccession,structure, and com-
position.Examplesare the pine forestsof Nic-
aragua, mentionedabove, the oak forestsof
CentralAmerica,and the babassupalmforests
of eastern Brazil.Widespreadand frequent
burningmay have broughtabout the extinc-
tionof 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,
particularly byshiftingcultivation.Evena small
numberof swiddenfarmers can have a wide-
spread impactin a relatively shortperiod of
time.IntheRroNegroregion,species-diversity
recovery takes60-80yearsand biomassrecov-
ery 140-200years (Saldarriagaand Uhl 1991,
312). Brownand Lugo (1990,4) estimatethat
todayaboutforty percentofthetropicalforest
in LatinAmericais secondaryas a resultof
humanclearingand thatmostoftheremainder
has had some modification despitecurrent low
populationdensities.The speciescomposition
of earlystagesof swiddenfallowsdiffers from
thatof naturalgaps and may"alterthespecies
compositionof the matureforeston a long-
term scale" (Walschburgerand Von Hilde-
brand1991,262). Whilehumanenvironmental
destructionin Amazoniacurrently is concen-
tratedalong roads,in prehistoric timesIndian
activity in the upland(interflueve) forestswas
much less intense but more widespread
(Denevanforthcoming).
Indianmodification of tropicalforestsis not
limitedto clearingand burning.Large ex-
panses of LatinAmericanforestsare human-
ized 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 re-
growth vegetationineasternPanama,whichhe
believes extendedfromYucatanto northern
Colombiain pre-European times.The Huastec
of easternMexicoand the YucatecMaya have
similarformsof forestgardensor forestman-
agement(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 sa-
vanna (Posey1985). In managedforests,both
annuals and perennialsare plantedor trans-
planted,whilewild fruittrees are particularly
commonin earlysuccessionalgrowth.Weed-
ingbyhandwas potentially moreselectivethan
indiscriminateweeding by machete (Gordon
1982, 57-61). Much dispersalof edible plant
seeds is unintentional via defecationand spit-
tingout.
The economicbotanistWilliamBalee (1987,
1989)speaks of "cultural"or "anthropogenic"
forestsinAmazoniainwhichspecieshavebeen
manipulated, oftenwithouta reductionin nat-
uraldiversity.
These includespecializedforests
(babassu, Brazilnuts,lianas,palms,bamboo),
whichcurrently make up at least11.8 percent
(measured)of the total upland forestin the
BrazilianAmazon(Balee1989,14). Clearindica-
tions 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
prehistoricburningand settlement. Givenhigh
carbon, nitrogen,calcium, and phosphorus
content,terrapretasoils havea distinctive veg-
etationand are attractiveto farmers.Balee
(1989, 14) concludes that "large portionsof
Amazonianforestsappear to exhibitthe con-
tinuingeffectsof 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 equivo-
cal. The thesisthat"overkill"huntingcaused
theextinctionofsome largemammalsinNorth
Americaduringthe latePleistocene,as wellas
subsequentlocaland regionaldepletions(Mar-
tin1978,167-72),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 in-
creases withvillagesize and duration(Good
1987). Huntingproceduresin manyregions
seem, however,to have allowedforrecovery
because of the "resting"of huntingzones in-
tentionallyor as a resultof shifting
of village
sites.
On the other hand, forestdisturbancein-
creased herbaceous forageand edge effect,
and hence the numbers of some animals
(Thompsonand Smith1970,261-64)."Indians
createdideal habitatsfora hostofwildlifespe-
cies . . . 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 grassyopen-
ingseastoftheMississippiextendedtherange
of the bison,whose numbersincreasedwith
Indian depopulation and reduced hunting
pressure between 1540-1700, and subse-
quentlydeclinedunderWhitepressure.
Agriculture
Fieldsand AssociatedFeatures
To observersin the sixteenthcentury,the
mostvisiblemanifestationof the NativeAmer-
ican landscapemusthave been the cultivated
fields,which were concentratedaround vil-
375
lages and houses. Most fieldsare ephemeral,
theirpresencequicklyerasedwhenfarmers mi-
grateor 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 exca-
vated today.These extantfeatures,including
terraces,irrigation
works,raisedfields,sunken
fields,drainageditches,dams, reservoirs, di-
versionwalls,and fieldbordersnumberin the
millionsand are distributedthroughoutthe
Americas(Denevan1980;see also Doolittleand
Whitmore and Turner,thisvolume).Forexam-
ple, about 500,000 ha of abandoned raised
fieldssurviveintheSan JorgeBasinofnorthern
Colombia(Plazas and Falchetti 1987,485), and
at least600,000ha of terracing, mostlyof pre-
historicorigin,occur in the PeruvianAndes
(Denevan1988,20). Thereare 19,000ha ofvis-
ible 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). Com-
plex 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 bulldoz-
ing. On the otherhand,an inadequateeffort
has been made to searchforancientfields.
Erosion
The size of nativepopulations,associated
deforestation, and prolongedintensive agricul-
ture led to severe land degradationin some
regions.Such a landscapewas thatof Central
Mexico,whereby1519food productionpres-
sures mayhave broughtthe Azteccivilization
to thevergeof collapse even withoutSpanish
intervention (Cook and Borah1971-79(3),129-
76).6 There is good evidencethatsevere soil
erosion was alreadywidespread,ratherthan
just the resultof subsequentEuropeanplow-
ing,livestock,and deforestation. Cook exam-
ined the associationbetweenerosionalsever-
ity(gullies,barrancas,sand and siltdeposits,
and sheeterosion)and pre-Spanish population
density or proximityto prehistoricIndian
towns.He concludedthat"an important cycle
of erosionand depositiontherefore accompa-
nied intensiveland use byhugeprimitive pop-
ulationsin centralMexico, and had gone far
towardthe devastationof the countrybefore
the whitemanarrived"(Cook 1949,86).
BarbaraWilliams(1972,618) describeswide-
spreadtepetate,an induratedsubstrate forma-
tion exposed by sheet erosionresulting from
prehistoric agriculture,as "one of the domi-
nantsurfacematerials intheValleyofMexico."
On the other hand, anthropologist Melville
(1990,27) arguesthatsoil erosionin the Valle
de Mezquital,just northof theValleyof Mex-
ico, was the resultof overgrazing by Spanish
livestockstarting before1600: "thereis an al-
mosttotallack of evidenceof environmental
degradationbeforethe lastthreedecades of
the sixteenthcentury." The Butzers,however,
in an examination ofSpanishlandgrants,graz-
ingpatterns,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
long-term Indianland use as itwas of Spanish
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 land-
scape in Mexicogenerallydid not recoverdue
to accelerating
impactsfromintroducedsheep
and cattle.7
The Built Landscape
Settlement
The Spaniardsand otherEuropeanswere im-
pressedby largeflourishing Indiancitiessuch
as Tenochtitlan,Quito, and Cuzco, and they
tooknoteoftheextensiveruinsofolder,aban-
doned cities such as Cahokia, Teotihuacan,
Tikal,ChanChan,and Tiwanaku(Hardoy1968).
Mostofthesecitiescontainedmorethan50,000
people. Less notable,or possiblymoretaken
for granted,was ruralsettlement-smallvil-
lagesofa fewthousandor a fewhundredpeo-
ple, 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 tropicallow-
lands.
We do have some earlylistingsof villages,
especiallyforMexicoand Peru. Elsewhere,ar-
chaeologyis tellingus morethanethnohistory.
Afterinitially
focusingon largetempleand ad-
ministrative are nowex-
centers,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 humanoccupa-
tion for the artisticSantaremCulturephase
(Tapajos chiefdom)on the lowerAmazonex-
tends 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
efficiency. and
communal(pueblos, Huronlong houses,Am-
azon malocas). Constructionwas of stone,
 The PristineMyth
earth,adobe, daub and wattle,grass,hides,
brush,and bark.Muchofthedispersedsettle-
mentnotdestroyedbydepopulationwas con-
centrated 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 Worldprehis-
tory."Largequantitiesof bothearthand stone
were transferred to createvariousraisedand
sunken features,such as agriculturalland-
forms,settlementand ritual mounds, and
causeways.
Mounds of different shapes and sizes were
constructed throughout theAmericasfortem-
ples, 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 periodcom-
plex 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
conical,linear,and effigy mounds"inWiscon-
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 habitationmoundscontained
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 theyconsti-
tuteda conspicuouselementof the landscape
of 1492and some are stillprominent. Doubt-
less,manyremainto be discovered,and others
remainunrecognizedas humanor prehistoric
features.
377
Roads,Causeways,and Trails
Largenumbersofpeople and settlements ne-
cessitatedextensivesystemsof overlandtravel
routesto facilitate
administration, trade,war-
fare, 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 prehis-
toricfootpaths were so intensivelyused forso
longthattheywereincisedintothegroundand
are stilldetectable,as has recentlybeen de-
scribedin Costa Rica(Sheetsand Sever1991).
Improvedroads, at times stone-linedand
drained,wereconstructed overgreatdistances
inthe realmsofthe highcivilizations.The Inca
road networkis estimatedto have measured
about40,000km,extendingfromsouthernCo-
lombiato centralChile(Hyslop1984,224). Pre-
historiccauseways(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"high-
ways" penetrating the forestfromriverbank
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 re-
mainedroadsto thisday.
Recovery
A strongcase can be made for significant
environmental recoveryand reductionof cul-
turalfeaturesbythe lateeighteenthcenturyas
a resultof Indian populationdecline. Henry
Thoreau(1949,132-37)believed,based on his
readingof WilliamWood, thatthe New En-
glandforestsof 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 main-
tain 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 sa-
vannasof Colombiaand CentralAmericaalso
had revertedto forestwithin150 yearsafter
abandonment(Parsons1975, 30-31; Bennett
1968, 54). On his fourthvoyage in 1502-03,
Columbussailedalongthe northcoastof Pan-
ama (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 environ-
ment 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;vegeta-
tion had only partiallyrecoveredover 240
years.The Kentucky barrensin contrastwere
largelyreforested bytheearlynineteenth cen-
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
thefirstone hundredyears,is an exaggeration.
Wildlifealso partiallyrecoveredin eastern
NorthAmericawithreducedhuntingpressure
fromIndians;however,thisis also a storyyet
to be workedout. The white-tailed deer appar-
entlydeclinedin numbers,probablyreflecting
reforestationplus competitionfromlivestock.
Commercialhunting was a factoron thecoast,
with80,000deer skinsbeingshippedoutyearly
fromCharlestonby1730(Silver1990,92). Mas-
sachusettsenacteda 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 carni-
voreswerealso targetedbywhitehunters,but
much game probablywas in the process of
recoveryin manyeasternareas untila general
reversalafter1700-50.
As agriculturalfieldschangedto scruband
forest,earthworks were grownover. All the
raised fields in Yucatan and South America
were abandoned. A largeportionof the agri-
culturalterracesin the Americaswere aban-
doned in the early colonial period (Donkin
1979,35-38). In the Colca Valleyof Peru,mea-
surementon air photos indicates61 percent
terraceabandonment(Denevan1988,28). Soci-
eties vanished or declined everywhereand
wholevillageswiththem.The degreeto which
settlement featureswereswallowedup byveg-
etation,sediment,and erosionis indicatedby
thedifficultyoffinding themtoday.MachuPic-
chu, a late prehistoricsite,was not rediscov-
ered 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 Eu-
ropeansuntilwell intothe nineteenth century
or later(Siemens1990; Mathewson1987). On
the other hand, HighlandMexico-Guatemala
and theAndes,withgreaterIndiansurvival and
withtheestablishment of haciendasand inten-
sive mining,show less evidence of environ-
mentalrecovery.Similarly, Indianfieldsin the
Caribbeanwere rapidlyreplacedby European
livestockand sugarplantationsystems,inhibit-
 The PristineMyth
inganysufficientrecovery.The same is trueof
the sugarzone of coastalBrazil.
Conclusions
By1492,Indianactivity had modified vegeta-
tionand wildlife, caused erosion,and created
earthworks, roads, and settlements through-
outtheAmericas.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 evidencesuggeststhatIndianpopu-
lationswere large,notonlyin Mexicoand the
Andes,butalso in seeminglyunattractive hab-
itatssuch 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 thicklywooded as to be impassable,"suggest-
dispersedbut relatively dense ruralsettlement
patternof hamletsand farmsteads, and wide-
spread vegetationand soil modification and
wildlifedepletion.Therewere other,smaller
regionsthatsharedsome ofthesecharacteris-
tics,suchas thePueblolandsinthesouthwest-
ern 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, particularlyforvege-
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 Indianland-
scape transformation as of 1492. Examplesof
some of the survivingculturalfeaturesare
shown in Figure1. Ideally,a series of hemi-
sphericmaps should be providedto portray
379
the spatialpatternsof the different typesof
impactsand culturalfeatures,but such maps
are not feasiblenor would theybe accurate
givenpresentknowledge.Thereare a fewrel-
evantregionalmaps,however,thatcan be re-
ferredto. Forexample,see Butzer(1990,33,45)
for Indiansettlementstructures/mounds and
subsistencepatterns inthe U.S.; Donkin(1979,
23) foragricultural terracing;Doolittle(1990,
109)forcanalirrigation inMexico; Parsonsand
Denevan(1967)forraisedfieldsinSouthAmer-
ica; Trombold(1991) for various road net-
works; Hyslop (1984,4) for the Inca roads;
Hardoy(1968,49) forthe mostintenseurban-
izationin LatinAmerica;and Gordon(1957,69)
for anthropogenicsavannas in northernCo-
lombia.
The pristinemythcannotbe laid at the feet
of Columbus.While he spoke of "Paradise,"
his was clearlya humanizedparadise.He de-
scribedHispaniolaandTortugaas denselypop-
ulated and "completelycultivatedlike the
countrysidearound Cordoba" (Colon 1976,
165). He also notedthat"theislandsare notso
ing openingsfromclearingand burning(Co-
lumbus1961,5).
The rootsofthepristinemythlie in partwith
earlyobserversunawareofhumanimpactsthat
maybe obviousto scholarstoday,particularly
for vegetationand wildlife.8But even many
earthworks such as raisedfieldshave onlyre-
centlybeen discovered(Denevan1966; 1980).
Equallyimportant, mostof our eyewitnessde-
scriptionsofwildernessand emptylandscome
froma latertime,particularly 1750-1850when
interiorlandsbeganto be exploredand occu-
pied 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,
forestsrecovered,and savannasretreated. The
landscapedid appear to be a sparselypopu-
latedwilderness.Thisis theimageconveyedby
Parkmaninthenineteenth century,Bakelessin
1950,and Shetleras recently as 1991.Therewas
some Europeanimpact,of course, but itwas
localized.After1750and especiallyafter1850,
populationsgreatlyexpanded,resourceswere
more intensivelyexploited, and European
modification of the environment accelerated,
continuing to the present.
380 Denevan

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It is possibleto concludenotonlythat"the 1850than in 1650" (Rostlund1957,409). Thus

virginforestwas not encounteredin the six- the "invention"of an earlierwildernessis in
teenthand seventeenth centuries;[butthat]it partunderstandable and is notsimplya delib-
was inventedin the lateeighteenthand early erate creationwhichennobled the American
nineteenthcenturies"(Pyne1982,46). How- enterprise,as suggestedby Bowden(1992,20-
ever, "paradoxicalas it mayseem, therewas 23). In any event,while pre-Europeanland-
undoubtedlymuch more 'forestprimeval'in scape 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 deg-
radation in response to linear population
growthand economicexpansion.It is instead
interrupted byperiodsof reversaland ecolog-
ical rehabilitationas culturescollapse,popula-
tions decline, wars occur, and habitatsare
abandoned. Impactsmaybe constructive, be-
nign,or degenerative (all subjectiveconcepts),
butchangeis continualat variableratesand in
different directions.Even mild impactsand
slow changes are cumulative,and the long-
termeffects can be dramatic.Is itpossiblethat
the thousandsof yearsof humanactivity be-
fore Columbus created more change in the
visible landscape than has occurred subse-
quently with European settlement and
resourceexploitation? The answeris probably
yes formostregionsforthe next250 yearsor
so, and forsome regionsrightup to the pres-
enttime.Americanflora,fauna,and landscape
were slowlyEuropeanizedafter1492,but be-
forethattheyhad 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 investi-
gationof the considerableevidenceavailable,
bothwritten and in the ground.
Acknowledgments
The fieldand libraryresearchthatprovidedthe
background forthisessaywas undertakenovermany
yearsin LatinAmerica,Berkeley,and Madison.Men-
torswho 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 En-
gland;and Manthorne (1989,10-21)on artists'im-
ages ofthetropical'Eden" ofSouthAmerica.Day
(1953,329) providesnumerousquotationsfrom
Parkman on 'wilderness"and "vast,""virgin," and
"icontinuous" forest.
3. Forexample,a 1991advertisement fora Time-Life
video refersto "the unspoiledbeaches, forests,
and mountainsof an earlierAmerica"and "the
pristineshoresof ChesapeakeBayin 1607."
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),
and Bowden(1992);and byenvironmental histo-
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 widespreadphe-
nomenon."For a contrary conclusion,thatthe
Aztecsdid notexceed carrying see Ortiz
capacity,
de Montellano(1990,119).
7. HighlandGuatemalaprovidesanotherprehistoric
exampleof "severehumandisturbance" involving
deforestation and "massive"soil erosion(slopes)
anddeposition(valleys)(Murdy1990,186).Forthe
centralAndesthereis some evidencethatmuch
of the puna zone (3200-4500m), now grassand
scrub,was deforestedin prehistoric times(White
1985).
8. The Englishcolonistsin partjustifiedtheiroccu-
pationof Indianlandon the basis thatsuch land
had notbeen "subdued"and therefore was "land
freeto be taken"(Wilson1992,16).
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