Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4rdrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-21T14:53:46.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lessons from the Maya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Don Stephen Rice  and
Prudence M. Rice
Don Stephen Rice
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Prudence M. Rice
Affiliation:
University of Florida
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In 1977 concern for the long-range effects of policy-making prompted President Carter to direct the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality and the Department of State to study the “probable changes in the world's population, natural resources, and environment through the end of the century.” The projections of that commission, as detailed in The Global 2000 Report to the President (Barney et al. 1981), foresee a growth in the world's population of as much as 70 percent, combined with staggering increases in demand for the world's resources of water, minerals, soils, and forest products.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , 1984 , pp. 7 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 by Latin American Research Review

Footnotes

*

The archaeological and ecological research reported in this study has been generously supported by the National Science Foundation, including grants to Edward S. Deevey, Jr., and to the authors. The assistance of the Florida State Museum and the directorship of the Instituto de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala are gratefully acknowledged.

References

Adams, R. E. W. 1980 “Swamps, Canals, and the Locations of Ancient Maya Cities.” Antiquity 54: 206–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, R. E. W., Brown, W. E. JR., and Culbert, T. P. 1981 “Radar Mapping, Archaeology, and Ancient Maya Land Use.” Science 213: 1457–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barney, G. O., ET AL. 1981 The Global 2000 Report to the President: Entering the Twenty-First Century, Vols. 1 and 2. Council on Environmental Quality and the Department of State. Charlottesville: Blue Angel.Google Scholar
Barrera Marin, A., Barrera Vasquez, A., and Lopez Franco, R. M. 1976 Nomenclatura etnobotánica maya: una interpretación taxonómica. Colección Científica 36 (Ethnology). Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Centro Regional del Sureste.Google Scholar
Binford, M. 1983 “Paleolimnology of the Petén Lake District, Guatemala, I: Erosion and Deposition of Inorganic Sediment as Inferred from Granulometry.” Hydrobiologia (The Hague) 103: 199–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brenner, M. 1978 “Paleolimnological Assessment of Human Disturbance in the Drainage Basins of Three Northern Guatemalan Lakes.” Master's Thesis, University of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Brenner, M. 1983a “Paleolimnology of the Maya Region.” Ph.D. diss., University of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Brenner, M. 1983b “Paleolimnology of the Petén Lake District, Guatemala, II: Mayan Population Density and Sediment and Nutrient Loading of Lake Quexil.” Hydrobiologia (The Hague) 103: 205–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bullard, W. R. JR. 1960 “Maya Settlement Patterns in Northeastern Petén, Guatemala.” American Antiquity 25: 355–72.Google Scholar
Bullard, W. R. JR. 1970 “Topoxte, a Postclassic Maya Site in Petén, Guatemala.” In Monographs and Papers in Maya Archaeology, edited by Bullard, W. R., Jr. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. 61. Cambridge: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Castellanos Lopez, J. E. 1980 “Consideraciones sobre el desarrollo de Petén.” Petén-Itza 21:15.Google Scholar
Chorley, R. J. 1969 “The Drainage Basin as the Fundamental Geomorphic Unit.” In Introduction to Physical Hydrology, edited by Chorley, R. J. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Cowgill, U. M., and Hutchinson, G. E. 1964 “Cultural Eutrophication in Lago di Monterosi during Roman Antiquity.” International Association of Theoretical and Applied Limnology Proceedings 15: 644–45.Google Scholar
Cowgill, U. M., and Hutchinson, G. E. 1966a “The Chemical History of Laguna de Petenxil.” Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 17: 121–26.Google Scholar
Cowgill, U. M., and Hutchinson, G. E. 1966b “La aguada de Santa Ana Vieja: The History of a Pond in Guatemala.” Polskie Archiwum Hydrobiologii 623: 335–72.Google Scholar
Culbert, T. P. 1974 The Lost Civilization: The Story of the Classic Maya. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Culbert, T. P., ED. 1973 The Classic Maya Collapse. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Dahlin, B. 1979 “Cropping Cash in the Protoclassic: A Cultural Impact Statement.” In Maya Archaeology and Ethnohistory, edited by Hammond, N. and Willey, G. R. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Deevey, E. S. 1969 “Coaxing History to Conduct Experiments.” Bioscience 19: 40–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deevey, E. S., Brenner, M., and Binford, M. 1983 “Paleolimnology of the Petén Lake District, Guatemala, III: Late Pleistocene and Gamblian Environments of the Maya Area.” Hydrobiologia (The Hague) 103: 211–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deevey, E. S., Garrett–Jones, S. E., and Vaughan, H. H. 1980 “Impact of Mayan Civilization on Tropical Lowland Forest.” Abstract of paper presented at the Fifth International Palynological Congress, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Deevey, E. S., and Rice, D. S. 1980 “Coluviación y retención de nutrientes en el distrito lacustre del Petén central, Guatemala.” Biótica 5: 129–44.Google Scholar
Deevey, E. S., Rice, D. S., Rice, P. M., Vaughan, H. H., Brenner, M., and Flannery, M. S. 1979 “Maya Urbanism: Impact on a Tropical Karst Environment.” Science 206: 298–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deevey, E. S., Vaughan, H. H., and Deevey, G. B. 1977 “Lakes Yaxha and Sacnab, Petén, Guatemala: Planktonic Fossils and Sediment Focusing.” In Interactions between Sediments and Fresh Water, edited by Golterman, H. L. Wageningen, the Netherlands: Dr. W. Junk B.V. Publishers.Google Scholar
Farnworth, E., and Golley, F. 1974 Fragile Eco-Systems: Evaluation of Research and Applications in the Neotropics. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FAO (FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION) 1970 Estudio de preinversión sobre desarrollo forestal de Guatemala, Vols. 1–6. Rome: Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo.Google Scholar
Fish, S. 1978 “Palynology of Edzna and Aguacatal: Environment and Economy.” Paper presented at the Forty-Third Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Tucson.Google Scholar
Fish, S. n.d. “Palynology of Edzna: Environment and Economy.” In The Economic Basis for Maya Civilization, edited by M. Pohl. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. V., ED. 1982 Maya Subsistence: Studies in Memory of Dennis E. Puleston. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gliessman, S. R., Turner, B. L., Rosado, F. J., and Amador, M. F. 1981 “Ancient Raised-Field Agriculture in the Maya Lowlands of Southeastern Mexico.” Paper presented at the Conference on Prehistoric Intensive Agriculture in the Tropics, Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Golley, F. B. 1975 “Productivity and Mineral Cycling in Tropical Forests.” In Productivity of World Ecosystems, Proceedings of a symposium at the Fifth General Assembly of the Special Committee for the International Biological Program, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Greenland, D. J., and Kowal, J. 1960 “Nutrient Content of the Moist Tropical Forest of Ghana.” Plant Soil 12, no. 2: 154–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamblin, N. n.d. “Isla Cozumel Archaeological Avifauna.” In The Economic Basis for Maya Civilization, edited by M. Pohl. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Harris, D. 1972 “Swidden Systems and Settlement.” In Man, Settlement, and Urbanism, edited by Ucko, P. J., Tringham, R., and Dimbleby, G. W. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Harris, D. 1978 “The Agricultural Foundations of Lowland Maya Civilization: A Critique.” In Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture. See Harrison and Turner 1978.Google Scholar
Harrison, P. D., and Turner, B. L., EDS. 1978 Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Haviland, W. A. 1970 “Tikal, Guatemala, and Mesoamerican Urbanism.” World Archaeology 2: 186–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Healy, P. F., Van Waarden, C., and Anderson, T. J. 1980 “Nueva evidencia de las terrazas mayas en Belice.” América Indígena 40: 773–96.Google Scholar
Jones, G. D., Rice, D. S., and Rice, P. M. 1981 “The Location of Tayasal: A Reconsideration in Light of Petén Maya Ethnohistory and Archaeology.” American Antiquity 46: 530–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirkby, M. J. 1969 “Infiltration, Throughflow, and Overland Flow.” In Introduction to Physical Hydrology, edited by Chorley, R. J. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Lal, R., Kang, B. T., Moorman, F. R., Juo, A. S. R., and Moomaw, J. C. 1975 “Soil Management Problems and Possible Solutions in Western Nigeria.” In Soil Management in Tropical America, edited by Bornemisze, E., and Alvarado, A. Raleigh: North Carolina State University.Google Scholar
Lawless, R. 1978 “Deforestation and Indigenous Attitudes in Northern Luzon.” Anthropology 2, no. 1: 1–17.Google Scholar
Likens, G. E., ED. 1972 Nutrients and Eutrophication: The Limiting Nutrient Controversy. Lawrence: Allen Press.Google Scholar
Likens, G. E., and Bormann, F. H. 1974 “Linkages between Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems.” BioScience 24: 447–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundell, C. 1933 “The Agriculture of the Maya.” Southwest Review 19: 65–77.Google Scholar
Marcus, J. 1982 “The Plant World of the Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Lowland Maya.” In Maya Subsistence. See Flannery 1982.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meggers, B. J. 1954 “Environmental Limitation on the Development of Culture.” American Anthropologist 56: 801–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miksicek, C. 1980 “Archaeobotanical Aspects of the Excavations.” In Maya Raised-Field Agriculture and Settlement at Pulltrouser Swamp, Northern Belize. Report of the 1979–80 University of Oklahoma National Science Foundation Pulltrouser Swamp Project.Google Scholar
Miksicek, C. 1982 “Plant Macrofossils from Northern Belize: A 3000-Year Record of Maya Agriculture and Its Impact on Local Environment.” Paper presented at the conference on Lowland Maya Environment and Agriculture, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Miksicek, C., Bird, R. M., Pickersgill, B., Donaghey, S., Cartwright, J., and Hammond, N. 1981 “Preclassic Lowland Maize from Cuello, Belize.” Nature 289: 50–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mikulski, J. S. 1978 “Man's Impact on Goplo Lake as Reflected in Cladoceran Community Remnants in Sediments.” Polskie Archiwum Hydrobiologii 25: 291–95.Google Scholar
Netting, R. M. 1977 “Maya Subsistence: Mythologies, Analogies, Possibilities.” In The Origins of Maya Civilization, edited by Adams, R. E. W. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Odum, E. 1971 Fundamentals of Ecology. Philadelphia: Saunders.Google Scholar
Ogden, J. G. III, and Hart, W. C. 1977 “Dalhousie University Natural Radiocarbon Measurements, II.” Radiocarbon 19: 392–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, G. W. 1968 “Description and Data on Soils of Tikal, El Petén, Guatemala, Central America.” Mimeo 69–2, Department of Agronomy, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Olson, G. W., and Puleston, D. E. 1972 “Soils and the Maya.” Americas 24: 33–39.Google Scholar
Pennington, W. 1978 “The Impact of Man on Some English Lakes: Rates of Change.” Polskie Archiwum Hydrobiologii 25: 321–31.Google Scholar
Persson, R. 1974 World Forest Resources. Stockholm: Royal College of Forestry.Google Scholar
Pohl, M. 1982 “New Evidence from Albion Island, Belize.” Paper presented at the symposium on Lowland Maya Environment and Agriculture, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Puleston, D. E. 1973 “Ancient Maya Settlement and Environment at Tikal, Guatemala: Implications for Subsistence Models.” Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Rice, D. S. 1976 “The Historical Ecology of Lakes Yaxha and Sacnab, El Petén, Guatemala.” Ph.D. diss., Pennsylvania State University.Google Scholar
Rice, D. S. 1977 “A Comparison of Approaches for Investigating the Heterogeneity and Potential Productivity of the Lowland Maya Environment.” Paper presented at the Forty-Second Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Rice, D. S. 1978 “Population Growth and Subsistence Alternatives in a Tropical Lacustrine Environment.” In Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture. See Harrison and Turner 1978.Google Scholar
Rice, D. S. 1982 “The Central Petén Grasslands: Genesis, Dynamics, and Land Use.” Paper presented at the conference on Lowland Maya Environment and Agriculture, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Rice, D. S. n.d. “The Petén Postclassic: A Settlement Perspective.” Paper prepared for the School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series, Late Lowland Maya Civilization: Classic to Postclassic, edited by J. A. Sabloff and E. W. Andrews V. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Rice, D. S., and Rice, P. M. 1980 “The Northeast Petén Revisited.” American Antiquity 45: 432–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, P. M. 1979 “Ceramic and Non-Ceramic Artifacts of Yaxha-Sacnab, El Petén, Guatemala, Part I: The Ceramics, Section A, Middle Preclassic.” Cerámica de Cultura Maya 10: 1–36.Google Scholar
Rice, P. M. n.d. “Perspectives on the Petén Postclassic.” Paper prepared for the School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series, Late Lowland Maya Civilization: Classic to Postclassic, edited by J. A. Sabloff and E. W. Andrews V. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Rice, P. M., and Rice, D. S. 1979 “Home on the Range: Aboriginal Maya Settlement in the Central Petén Savannas.” Archaeology 32: 16–25.Google Scholar
Rice, P. M., and Rice, D. S. n.d. “Topoxte, Macanche, and the Central Petén Postclassic.” In The Lowland Maya Postclassic, edited by A. Chase and P. Rice. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Richards, P. W. 1952 The Tropical Rain Forest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sabloff, J. A. 1971 “The Collapse of Classic Maya Civilization.” In The Patient Earth, edited by Harte, J. and Socolow, R. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
Sanchez, P. A. 1976 Properties and Management of Soils in the Tropics. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Sanchez, P. A., and Buol, S. W. 1975 “Soils of the Tropics and the World Food Crisis.” Science 188: 598–603.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwartz, N. B. 1977 A Milpero of Petén, Guatemala: Autobiography and Cultural Analysis. University of Delaware Latin American Studies Program Occasional Papers and Monographs no. 2.Google Scholar
Siemens, A. H., and Puleston, D. E. 1972 “Ridged Fields and Associated Features in Southern Campeche: New Perspectives on the Lowland Maya.” American Antiquity 37: 228–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, C. S., Tarano, J. N., and Pinto Z, J. H. 1959 Clasificación de reconocimiento de los suelos de la República de Guatemala. Guatemala City: Ministerio de Agricultura.Google Scholar
Smith, C. T. 1969 “The Drainage Basin as an Historical Basis for Human Activity.” In Introduction to Geographical Hydrology. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Stark, N. M. 1971 “Nutrient Cycling II: Nutrient Distribution in Amazonian Vegetation.” Tropical Ecology 12, no. 2: 177–201.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. E. S. 1974 “‘Canals’ of the Rio Candelaria Basin, Campeche, Mexico.” In Mesoamerican Archaeology: New Approaches, edited by Hammond, N. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Turner, B. L. 1974 “Prehistoric Intensive Agriculture in the Mayan Lowlands.” Science 185: 118–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turner, B. L. 1979 “Prehispanic Terracing in the Central Maya Lowlands: Problems of Agricultural Intensification.” In Maya Archaeology and Ethnohistory, edited by Hammond, N. and Willey, G. R. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Turner, B. L. 1980 “La agricultura intensiva de trabajo en las tierras mayas.” América Indígena 15, no. 4: 653–70.Google Scholar
Turner, B. L. n.d. “Issues Related to Subsistence and Environment among the Ancient Maya.” In The Economic Basis for Maya Civilization, edited by M. Pohl. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Turner, B. L., and Harrison, P. D. 1978 “Implications from Agriculture for Maya Prehistory.” In Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture. See Harrison and Turner 1978.Google Scholar
Turner, B. L., and Harrison, P. D. 1981 “Prehistoric Raised-Field Agriculture in the Maya Lowlands.” Science 213: 399–405.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turner, B. L., and Miksicek, C. 1981 “Economic Species Associated with Prehistoric Agriculture in the Maya Lowlands.” Paper presented at the Thirteenth International Botanical Congress, Sydney.Google Scholar
UNESCO 1978 Tropical Forest Ecosystems: A State-of-Knowledge Report. Natural Resources Research 14. Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
UNITED NATIONS 1967 Wood: World Trends and Prospects. Basic Study no. 16. Rome: United Nations.Google Scholar
Vaughan, H. H. 1979 Prehistoric Disturbance of Vegetation in the Area of Lake Yaxha, Petén, Guatemala. Ph.D. diss… University of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Vaughan, H. H., Deevey, E. S., and Garrett–Jones, S. E. n.d. “Pollen Stratigraphy of Two Cores from the Petén Lake District, with an Appendix on Two Deep-Water Cores.” In The Economic Basis for Maya Civilization, edited by M. Pohl. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Vollenweider, R. A. 1968 “Scientific Fundamentals of the Eutrophication of Lakes and Flowing Waters, with Particular Reference to Nitrogen and Phosphorus as Factors in Eutrophication.” Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Economiques Report no. DAS/CSI/68.27, Paris.Google Scholar
Vuorinen, J. 1978 “The Influence of Prior Land Use on the Sediments of a Small Lake.” Polskie Archiwum Hydrobiologii 25: 443–51.Google Scholar
West, R.C. 1964 “Surface Configuration and Associated Geology of Middle America.” In Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 1: Natural Environments and Early Cultures, edited by West, R. C. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Wetzel, R. G. 1975 Limnology. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R. H., and Likens, G. E. 1975 “The Biosphere and Man.” In Primary Productivity of the Biosphere, edited by Lieth, H. and Whittaker, R. H. New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Wiseman, F. 1982 “Palynology in Northern Belize.” Paper presented at the conference on Lowland Maya Environment and Agriculture, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Wiseman, F. 1983 “Palynological Studies of Raised Fields and Canals at Pulltrouser Swamp.” In Pulltrouser Szvamp: Preliminary Study of Habitat, Land Use, and Settlement of the Prehistoric Maya, edited by Turner, B. L. and Harrison, P. D. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar