TY - CHAP T1 - Machiguenga Gardens T2 - Adaptive responses of native Amazonians Y1 - 1983 A1 - Allen Johnson ED - Raymond B. Hames ED - William T. Vickers KW - cacao KW - coffee KW - forest dwellers KW - horticulture KW - hunter-gatherer KW - labor KW - maize KW - manioc KW - Native Americans KW - rainforests KW - shifting cultivation KW - slash and burn KW - soils KW - South America KW - weeds KW - women KW - yams AB - The present description concerns shifting cultivation among the Machiguenga, Native American inhabitants of the tropical rainforest of the Upper Amazon, specifically, a community on the Kompiroshiato River, a tributary of the Urubamba River in the department of Cuzco, Peru. The language is of the Arawakan family, and is closely allied to that of the Amuesha, Campa, and Piro Indians, who also inhabit the montana of Southeastern Peru. As is typical of the montana region, Machiguenga settlements vary from single families to small hamlets of related families located on a stream that provides clean water for household needs, near a river suitable for fishing, and with abundant forest for hunting and from which gardens are cleared. Population density is 0.3 persons/km2. The Machiguenga spend nearly as much time procuring wild foods as they do cultivating their gardens, but it is from their gardens that the vast bulk of their food derives, including a great overproduction of starchy tubers for food security under isolated and vulnerable living conditions. (author) JF - Adaptive responses of native Amazonians PB - Academic Press CY - New York UR - http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/8827760 N1 - Chapter 2 ER -