How did we get here? on Nostr: (continued) Milpas Based on the agronomy of the Maya and of other Mesoamerican ...

(continued)

Milpas
Based on the agronomy of the Maya and of other Mesoamerican peoples, the milpa system is used to produce crops of maize, beans, and squash without employing artificial pesticides and artificial fertilizers...
A milpa is a field, usually but not always recently cleared, in which farmers plant a dozen crops at once including maize, avocados, multiple varieties of squash and bean, melon, tomatoes, chilis, sweet potato, jícama, amaranth, and mucuna ... Milpa crops are nutritionally and environmentally complementary...
The milpa, in the estimation of H. Garrison Wilkes, a maize researcher at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, "is one of the most successful human inventions ever created."
The concept of milpa is a sociocultural construct rather than simply a system of agriculture. It involves complex interactions and relationships between farmers, as well as distinct personal relationships with both the crops and land. For example, it has been noted that "the making of milpa is the central, most sacred act, one which binds together the family, the community, the universe ... [it] forms the core institution of Indian society in Mesoamerica and its religious and social importance often appear to exceed its nutritional and economic importance."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milpa

Evidence confirms an anthropic origin of Amazonian Dark Earths
First described over 120 years ago in Brazil, Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) are expanses of dark soil that are exceptionally fertile and contain large quantities of archaeological artifacts... Archaeological research provides clear evidence that their widespread formation in lowland South America was concentrated in the Late Holocene, an outcome of sharp human population growth that peaked towards 1000 BP
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31064-2

The Supposedly Pristine, Untouched Amazon Rainforest Was Actually Shaped By Humans
"Perhaps [...] the very biodiversity we want to preserve is not only due to thousands of years of natural evolution but also the result of the human footprint on them," Iriarte says. "The more we learn, the more the evidence point to the latter."
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/pristine-untouched-amazonian-rainforest-was-actually-shaped-humans-180962378/

Lost Cities of the Amazon Discovered From the Air
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/lost-cities-of-the-amazon-discovered-from-the-air-180980142/

Genetic Evidence Overrules Ecocide Theory of Easter Island Once And For All
https://www.sciencealert.com/genetic-evidence-overrules-ecocide-theory-of-easter-island-once-and-for-all

Easter Island study casts doubt on theory of ‘ecocide’ by early population
https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/jun/21/easter-island-study-casts-doubt-on-theory-of-ecocide-by-early-population

The truth about Easter Island: a sustainable society has been falsely blamed for its own demise
https://theconversation.com/the-truth-about-easter-island-a-sustainable-society-has-been-falsely-blamed-for-its-own-demise-85563

Debunking the “Ecocide” Myth: The Real Story of Easter Island
https://scitechdaily.com/debunking-the-ecocide-myth-the-real-story-of-easter-island/

Climate change, not human population growth, correlates with Late Quaternary megafauna declines in North America
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21201-8

New research upends theory that Indigenous Australians hunted large animals to extinction
https://archive.ph/XuewE
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.250078

Study finds Indigenous people cultivated hazelnuts 7,000 years ago, challenging modern assumptions
Researcher says evidence challenges narratives of wild, untouched landscapes in what is now British Columbia
"What this is saying is ... intentional agricultural-type food production is part of our heritage for longer than ancient Egypt."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-hazelnut-research-1.7392860

All these examples just scratch the surface. Here is an absolutely mammoth thread from Pauline von Hellermann (npub1wl5…vs4x) with many more examples from around the world showing "that the history of our relationship to nature has not been one of unilinear destruction; and that destruction is not 'human nature'":
Posts 1-21: https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/109410840331192595
Thread continues here (posts 22-42): https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/109508169070569262
Thread continues here (posts 43-52): https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/109535265169676919

Note: some of the links in Pauline's thread are no longer working, but I was able to find alternatives. If you are seriously diving into her thread, you can check this post for alternate links:
https://c.im/@whathappened/114032806544180033

Rather than human nature, agriculture, or over-population, the cause of our current nightmare of environmental destruction originated with a specific group of people who had the power to enforce their exploitation and pillaging over the entire globe eventually. We'll look more later at the disastrous results of colonialism and capitalism.

9b/30