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Pulltrouser Swamp: Ancient Maya habitat, agriculture, and settlement in northern Belize
REVIEWS
445
simply refashioning that which they had inherited from an earlier mode. One of the most appealing aspects of the book is Stilgoe’s frequent references to toy trains as a social barometer of public fascination with railroads. Advertising aimed at small boys (and no less at their fathers) reveals how toymakers such as Lionel stimulated interest in railroading as well as in engineering and science through advertisements stressing the wholesomeness of model railroading and its character-building virtues. Stilgoe is able to find in Lionel catalogues toy miniatures of virtually every structure lining the metropolitan corridor, thus suggesting a public perception of railroads much broader than trains and tracks alone. This is a beautifully written book that will beguile and fascinate just as its subject did in generations past. One need not accept Stilgoe’s viewpoint to be impressed with the book. As in other works of this sort-based largely on secondary sources and public photo archives-the evidence adduced for propositions is frequently singular; there are numerous counter-examples for nearly everything Stilgoe discovers to be fact. But as a synthesis of mind that existed in the decades when railroads ruled the land, the book can scarcely be surpassed. Northwestern
University
JOHN C. HUDSON
B. L. 'TURNER II and P. D. HARRISON (Eds). Pulltrouser Swamp: Ancient Maya Habitat, Agriculture, and Settlement in Northern Belize (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983. Pp. xiii + 294. $22.50) Seldom has the genealogy and orderly unfolding of a research problem in prehistoric geography been so clearly traceable and neatly accumulative as the discovery and study of ancient raised-field systems in the Neotropical lowlands. Since W. M. Denevan first reported evidence of large complexes of agro-earth works in the flooded savannas of Eastern Bolivia in the early 1960s the search for additional evidence has led scholars to new areas. Similar systems have now been identified and mapped in disparate environments from the northern USA to northern Argentina. Most recently, geographers have begun to enlist the collaborative aid of specialists in a dozen or more cognate disciplines to study discrete raised-field complexes in their site specific contexts. Turner and Harrison’s team approach is the culmination of a research cycle that began scarcely two decades ago, and the presage of what one suspects will, in Kuhnian terminology, “normal science” for geographers working on similar questions in the near future. This volume presents the analysis and interpretation of data collected in 1979 during the first of two field seasons at Pulltrouser Swamp in northern Belize. The primary goal of the expedition was to investigate the nature of ground patterns identified on aerial photographs that cover some tens of thousands of hectares in the limestone depressions of northern Belize and neighbouring Mexico. If these could be proved to be man-made agricultural features then the increasingly unlikely notion that the lowland Maya based their large populations and elaborate civilization on slash-and-burn agriculture could be put to rest. In this regard, the authors are largely successful. The excavations and evidence from Pulltrouser, along with accumulating evidence that the lowland Maya practised agricultural terracing and perhaps irrigation, prove rather conclusively that the ancient Maya did massively remould their landscapes for agricultural purposes. The authors are also successful in redressing several earlier misconceptions while clarifying our general knowledge of the prehistory of this area. The editors must be applauded for the rapid publication of this material. It is not uncommon for a decade, or even several decades, to pass before the results of some archaeological projects are made widely available. Turner and Harrison have demonstrated that it is possible to produce an important multidisciplinary work in less than five years from the time the first timber for the field station is cut to the appearance of the results in printed form. The evidence, analysis and interpretation are crisply
REVIEWS
446
presented. Introductory and summary chapters by the editors are supported by chapters on the physical setting (W. C. Johnson), vegetation (J. P. Darth), field excavations (B. L. Turner II), soils (Darth and Johnson), macrofloral remains (C. H. Miksicek), pollen analysis (F. M. Wiseman), mollusca (A. P. Covich), settlement survey (P. D. Harrison), site excavations (N. Ettlinger), ceramics (R. E. Fry) and lithics (H. J. Shafer). The data retrieved at Pulltrouser Swamp allow the authors to address several key debates in Mayan studies besides the question of whether or not the Maya practised intensive agriculture. Which habitats or microenvironments were favoured for modification? Are some features identified as raised fields actually gilgai (natural soil moundings) or successional hummocks? Which cultivars were grown on raised fields? Were raised fields used for growing “commercial” crops such as cacao and cotton? What is the evolutionary sequence of intensive farming-did farming the wetlands follow or precede the farming of the uplands? How much labour or energy did it take to build discrete raised field complexes? What were the population numbers supported by the Maya raised field systems? And finally, what do the data recovered from Pulltrouser Swamp tell us about the collapse of Classic Mayan culture? These questions and variants of them are answered tentatively in most cases, though it is clear that the volume represents work in progress; indeed, a companion volume is planned. However, on several issues, this work provides clear answers. The notion that the platforms found in depressions or bajos were caused by soil churning and that only the riverine border fields were anthropic in origin, has been convincingly disproven. This in turn allows the authors to broaden our conception of how much labour the ancient Maya invested in landscape modification, and concommitantly gives us new estimates of the population densities that could have been supported in this region and by analogy in similar habitats. Reconfirmed by this report is the extreme difficulty involved in recovery of paleofloral data in wet tropical environments. Despite the odds, some maize pollen and plant remains were found. From pollen evidence a case for cotton cultivation might be advanced, while no evidence of cacao pollen or macrofossil remains were found in association with the fields. Of other lacunae? The question of absolute dating of agricultural features of any kind remains a thorny one. Through analysis of sherds found in both field and habitation sites it now seems certain that these features date from the Classic period, if not before. The sequel reports will be particularly welcome if they can elaborate and refine these interpretations. In sum, this volume points to the way ahead for geographers and prehistorians working on questions of ancient subsistence systems. At the same time it illustrates the innovative and organizing role that some geographers are playing within an area of prehistoric studies. University
KENT MATHEWSON
of Wisconsin-Madison
Other studies A. J. CHRISTOPHER,South Africa (London: 1982. Pp. xvii + 237. f7.95)
Longman,
The World’s
Landscapes
Series,
The author is a well known historical geographer whose Southern Africa appeared in 1976. The book reviewed here is not a historical geography of the South African landscape, but virtually Dr Christopher’s view of the geography of South Africa as a distinctive region of the world. Starting with land and people, he rapidly moves on to the ever-topical question as to whether this is White man’s country. Once the scene has been set there follow seven chapters which classify and analyse landscapes largely according to the activities taking place in them, generally in an increasing scale of intensity from non-commercial
445
simply refashioning that which they had inherited from an earlier mode. One of the most appealing aspects of the book is Stilgoe’s frequent references to toy trains as a social barometer of public fascination with railroads. Advertising aimed at small boys (and no less at their fathers) reveals how toymakers such as Lionel stimulated interest in railroading as well as in engineering and science through advertisements stressing the wholesomeness of model railroading and its character-building virtues. Stilgoe is able to find in Lionel catalogues toy miniatures of virtually every structure lining the metropolitan corridor, thus suggesting a public perception of railroads much broader than trains and tracks alone. This is a beautifully written book that will beguile and fascinate just as its subject did in generations past. One need not accept Stilgoe’s viewpoint to be impressed with the book. As in other works of this sort-based largely on secondary sources and public photo archives-the evidence adduced for propositions is frequently singular; there are numerous counter-examples for nearly everything Stilgoe discovers to be fact. But as a synthesis of mind that existed in the decades when railroads ruled the land, the book can scarcely be surpassed. Northwestern
University
JOHN C. HUDSON
B. L. 'TURNER II and P. D. HARRISON (Eds). Pulltrouser Swamp: Ancient Maya Habitat, Agriculture, and Settlement in Northern Belize (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983. Pp. xiii + 294. $22.50) Seldom has the genealogy and orderly unfolding of a research problem in prehistoric geography been so clearly traceable and neatly accumulative as the discovery and study of ancient raised-field systems in the Neotropical lowlands. Since W. M. Denevan first reported evidence of large complexes of agro-earth works in the flooded savannas of Eastern Bolivia in the early 1960s the search for additional evidence has led scholars to new areas. Similar systems have now been identified and mapped in disparate environments from the northern USA to northern Argentina. Most recently, geographers have begun to enlist the collaborative aid of specialists in a dozen or more cognate disciplines to study discrete raised-field complexes in their site specific contexts. Turner and Harrison’s team approach is the culmination of a research cycle that began scarcely two decades ago, and the presage of what one suspects will, in Kuhnian terminology, “normal science” for geographers working on similar questions in the near future. This volume presents the analysis and interpretation of data collected in 1979 during the first of two field seasons at Pulltrouser Swamp in northern Belize. The primary goal of the expedition was to investigate the nature of ground patterns identified on aerial photographs that cover some tens of thousands of hectares in the limestone depressions of northern Belize and neighbouring Mexico. If these could be proved to be man-made agricultural features then the increasingly unlikely notion that the lowland Maya based their large populations and elaborate civilization on slash-and-burn agriculture could be put to rest. In this regard, the authors are largely successful. The excavations and evidence from Pulltrouser, along with accumulating evidence that the lowland Maya practised agricultural terracing and perhaps irrigation, prove rather conclusively that the ancient Maya did massively remould their landscapes for agricultural purposes. The authors are also successful in redressing several earlier misconceptions while clarifying our general knowledge of the prehistory of this area. The editors must be applauded for the rapid publication of this material. It is not uncommon for a decade, or even several decades, to pass before the results of some archaeological projects are made widely available. Turner and Harrison have demonstrated that it is possible to produce an important multidisciplinary work in less than five years from the time the first timber for the field station is cut to the appearance of the results in printed form. The evidence, analysis and interpretation are crisply
REVIEWS
446
presented. Introductory and summary chapters by the editors are supported by chapters on the physical setting (W. C. Johnson), vegetation (J. P. Darth), field excavations (B. L. Turner II), soils (Darth and Johnson), macrofloral remains (C. H. Miksicek), pollen analysis (F. M. Wiseman), mollusca (A. P. Covich), settlement survey (P. D. Harrison), site excavations (N. Ettlinger), ceramics (R. E. Fry) and lithics (H. J. Shafer). The data retrieved at Pulltrouser Swamp allow the authors to address several key debates in Mayan studies besides the question of whether or not the Maya practised intensive agriculture. Which habitats or microenvironments were favoured for modification? Are some features identified as raised fields actually gilgai (natural soil moundings) or successional hummocks? Which cultivars were grown on raised fields? Were raised fields used for growing “commercial” crops such as cacao and cotton? What is the evolutionary sequence of intensive farming-did farming the wetlands follow or precede the farming of the uplands? How much labour or energy did it take to build discrete raised field complexes? What were the population numbers supported by the Maya raised field systems? And finally, what do the data recovered from Pulltrouser Swamp tell us about the collapse of Classic Mayan culture? These questions and variants of them are answered tentatively in most cases, though it is clear that the volume represents work in progress; indeed, a companion volume is planned. However, on several issues, this work provides clear answers. The notion that the platforms found in depressions or bajos were caused by soil churning and that only the riverine border fields were anthropic in origin, has been convincingly disproven. This in turn allows the authors to broaden our conception of how much labour the ancient Maya invested in landscape modification, and concommitantly gives us new estimates of the population densities that could have been supported in this region and by analogy in similar habitats. Reconfirmed by this report is the extreme difficulty involved in recovery of paleofloral data in wet tropical environments. Despite the odds, some maize pollen and plant remains were found. From pollen evidence a case for cotton cultivation might be advanced, while no evidence of cacao pollen or macrofossil remains were found in association with the fields. Of other lacunae? The question of absolute dating of agricultural features of any kind remains a thorny one. Through analysis of sherds found in both field and habitation sites it now seems certain that these features date from the Classic period, if not before. The sequel reports will be particularly welcome if they can elaborate and refine these interpretations. In sum, this volume points to the way ahead for geographers and prehistorians working on questions of ancient subsistence systems. At the same time it illustrates the innovative and organizing role that some geographers are playing within an area of prehistoric studies. University
KENT MATHEWSON
of Wisconsin-Madison
Other studies A. J. CHRISTOPHER,South Africa (London: 1982. Pp. xvii + 237. f7.95)
Longman,
The World’s
Landscapes
Series,
The author is a well known historical geographer whose Southern Africa appeared in 1976. The book reviewed here is not a historical geography of the South African landscape, but virtually Dr Christopher’s view of the geography of South Africa as a distinctive region of the world. Starting with land and people, he rapidly moves on to the ever-topical question as to whether this is White man’s country. Once the scene has been set there follow seven chapters which classify and analyse landscapes largely according to the activities taking place in them, generally in an increasing scale of intensity from non-commercial