Plants, Man and the Land in the Vilcanota Valley of Peru

Plants, Man and the Land in the Vilcanota Valley of Peru PDF

Author: D.W. Gade

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 9401019614

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Man's symbiosis with plants is the most fundamental material fact of human life on the earth. Geographers, as well as botanists, anthropologists and other scientists, have long been interested in this aspect of the man-nature theme. In American geography, CARL O. SAUER emphasized a temporal as well as spatial perspective in the cultural understanding of man's relationship to biological phe nomena. His researches and those of his associates in the 'Berkeley school' showed that the most fruitful possibilities for implementing this approach are in non industrial societies which have direct and pervasive links between plants and man (GADE, 1975). The study that follows is a geography of plant resources in an important Andean valley having great environmental diversity and a cultural con stant, in so far as a non-literate, Quechua-speaking peasantry dominates through out the zone. My basic objective has been to understand the present use of plants, cultivated and wild, as they have varied from place to place and through time. Primary and secondary documents and local informants were important sources of historical information. Most of the contemporary data in this study were derived from over 20 months of empirical observations of the day-to-day existence of farming folk in their fields, homes and markets. The great natural beauty of the Vilcanota depression is matched only by the stark poverty which has been the lot of the majority of people who live there.

Spell of the Urubamba

Spell of the Urubamba PDF

Author: Daniel W. Gade

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-10-05

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 3319208497

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This work examines the valley of the Urubamba River in terms of vertical zonation, Incan impact on the environment, plant use, the history of exploration and the notion of discovery, the idea of land reform, and cultural contact with the European world. Winding its path northward from the Andean Highlands to the Amazon, the valley has served as the stage of pre-Columbian civilizations and focal point of Spanish conquest in Peru. "Gade left behind not only a superb body of scholarly work, but a network of colleagues and students who remain indebted to his example. This book should serve as an inspiration for all scholars who wish to pursue the Sauerian, counter enlightenment or post development agendas of understanding and respecting particular places in all their historical and cultural complexity, including ambiguities and contradictions." -- The Geographical Review, American Geographical Society

Land Use Change and Mountain Biodiversity

Land Use Change and Mountain Biodiversity PDF

Author: Eva M. Spehn

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2006-01-13

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 1420002872

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Part of the worldwide biodiversity program DIVERSITAS, the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA) assesses the biological richness of high-elevation biota. GMBA's focus includes the uppermost forest regions or their substitute rangeland vegetation, the treeline ecotone, and the alpine and nival belts. Providing more than description, the GM

Forest, Field, and Fallow

Forest, Field, and Fallow PDF

Author: Antoinette M.G.A. WinklerPrins

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-01-12

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 3030424804

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This volume aims to present the essential work of geographer and historical ecologist William M. Denevan to explain the impact and influence his thinking had on the conceptual advancement not only in his own discipline, but in a range of related disciplines such as anthropology, archaeology, and environmental history. The book is organized around eight themes, demonstrating Denevan’s early and profound insights on topics that remain of current relevance today, and the scholarly impact his writing had on subsequent scholarship. The book is unique because it offers commentary from active scholars who address the impacts of Prof. Denevan's thinking and work on contemporary environmental and ecological issues, with a focus on several groundbreaking themes (e.g. historical demography, agricultural landforms, cultural plant geography, human environmental impacts, indigenous agro-ecology, tropical agriculture, livestock and landscape, and synthetic contributions). This book will be of interest to a range of scholars in geography, anthropology, archaeology, history, and ecology, as well as to environmental managers and practitioners, especially those working for non-profit organizations and government organizations tasked with finding ways to adapt to global environmental change.

The Geography of South America

The Geography of South America PDF

Author: Thomas A. Rumney

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2013-04-18

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 0810886359

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South America is an area of fascination and study for geographers and other scholars from around the world, and its land and people have played important roles in the discovery and distribution of civilizations, resources, and nations for millennia. The region has long stimulated a large amount of research across the many subdisciplines of geography, and Thomas A. Rumney collects, organizes, and presents as many scholarly publications as possible in The Geography of South America: A Scholarly Guide and Bibliography. Every South American nation is included: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Beginning with an overview of the region as a whole, successive chapters, one per nation, are divided by specific subdisciplines of geography: cultural, social, economic, historical, physical and environmental, political, and urban. Each section is then divided by document type: atlases, books, book chapters, articles from scholarly journals, master’s theses, and doctoral dissertations. Although the majority of entries focus on English-language works, selected entries written in Spanish, French, German, and other languages are also included (with the entry titles translated into English and noted accordingly).

The Social History of Agriculture

The Social History of Agriculture PDF

Author: Christopher Isett

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2016-11-09

Total Pages: 423

ISBN-13: 1442209682

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This innovative text provides a compelling narrative world history through the lens of food and farmers. Tracing the history of agriculture from earliest times to the present, Christopher Isett and Stephen Millerargue that people, rather than markets, have been the primary agents of agricultural change. Exploring the actions taken by individuals and groups over time and analyzing their activities in the wider contexts of markets, states, wars, the environment, population increase, and similar factors, the authors emphasize how larger social and political forces inform decisions and lead to different technological outcomes. Both farmers and elites responded in ways that impeded economic development. Farmers, when able to trade with towns, used the revenue to gain more land and security. Elites used commercial opportunities to accumulate military power and slaves. The book explores these tendencies through rich case studies of ancient China; precolonial South America; early-modern France, England, and Japan; New World slavery; colonial Taiwan; socialist Cuba; and many other periods and places. Readers will understand how the promises and problems of contemporary agriculture are not simply technologically derived but are the outcomes of decisions and choices people have made and continue to make.

Agriculture and Rural Connections in the Pacific

Agriculture and Rural Connections in the Pacific PDF

Author: Lei Guang

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-05-15

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 135196013X

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Agriculture and Rural Connections in the Pacific brings together key studies from across several disciplines to examine the history of trans-Pacific rural and agricultural connections and to show an agriculturally-oriented Pacific World in the making since the 1500s. Historical globalization is commonly understood as a process that is propelled by industry or commerce, yet the seeds of global integration - literally as well as metaphorically - were sown much earlier, when crops and plants dispersed, agricultural systems proliferated, and rural people migrated across oceans. One goal of this volume is to demonstrate that the historical processes of globalization contained an agrarian dimension in which sub-national and national spaces were shaped in part through the influence of forces that originated in distant lands. Social and economic trends emanating from outside local territories had large impacts on demographic change, choices of agrarian systems, and the cropping patterns in many domestic settings. A second goal is to encourage readers to abandon the traditional Euro-centric view of events that shaped the Pacific region. The modern history of the Pacific World was undoubtedly shaped by Western imperialism, colonialism, and European trade and migration, but the present volume seeks to balance the interpretation of those forces with an emphasis on the increasing intensity of trans-Pacific interactions through rural labor migration and agricultural production.

Plant Breeding Reviews

Plant Breeding Reviews PDF

Author: Jules Janick

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-01-11

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 1118061136

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Plant Breeding Reviews is an ongoing series presenting state-of-the art review articles on research in plant genetics, especially the breeding of commercially important crops. Articles perform the valuable function of collecting, comparing, and contrasting the primary journal literature in order to form an overview of the topic. This detailed analysis bridges the gap between the specialized researcher and the broader community of plant scientists.

Sustainable Practices For Plant Disease Management In Traditional Farming Systems

Sustainable Practices For Plant Disease Management In Traditional Farming Systems PDF

Author: H. David Thurston

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2019-06-18

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1000313735

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Most scientists and many of the world's farmers have abandoned traditional farming practices and systems in an effort to increase production and to improve the efficiency of land and labor use. The resulting "modern" systems largely ignore many of the sustainable pest management practices that have evolved among farmers over centuries. In this book