Rewriting the late pre-European history of Amazonia

Abstract

The conventional understanding of pre-European Amazonian people has been that of simple peoples living in small autonomous villages, sparse populations that survived though foraging and shifting cultivation with minimal environmental impact. In recent decades a New Model or synthesis has been developing that includes complex regional societies, locally dense populations, intensive cultivation, fertile anthropogenic soils, and considerable environmental modification. © 2012 Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers.