Landscape transformation and language change: A case study in Amazonian historical ecology

Abstract

The author shows the influence of European trade and colonisation on the changes in Amerindian vocabulary. He uses the analysis to reflect on the knowledge of Amazonian landscape and associated biota. Balée is concerned specifically with the case of cacao and the way in which its denominations were transformed in the Tupí-Guaraní language, thanks to the importance of the commodity in the 18th century Amazonia. Balée shows that the socio-environmental picture in which both caboclo and Amerindian societies were placed was very complex, a timely reminder of the importance of a historical approach for the understanding of both. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.