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The major issue today in Native American studies is the pre-Conquest population and culural level of the Amazonian peoples. The earliest reports from European explorers suggest a very dence population practing settled agriculture. This was how Gaspar de Carvajal described the Amazon (1540s). His account has been dismissed becaused he included fanciful accounts such as women warriors and other accounts as the Portuguese began settling Brazil found only small populationsc of hunter gathers. Spanish Cinquistador Francisco de Orellana completed the first known navigation of the entire length of the Amazon River (1542). He also found large settled communities, but his reports have also been dismissed. Subsequent accounts of small, dispersed populations of hunter gathrs and the lack of monumental archictecture dominated the European assessment of Amazonian people. Researchers today are not as dimissive and some archeologists have found evidence suggesting highly produtive settled agriculture. Some now believe that the primitive tribes in the Amazon today are the descendents of people forced to abandon setteled agriculture by European diseases and Portuguese slave raiders. [Mann, p. 325.] Some believe there indeed once was a very large population in the Amazon basin practing sophisticated agriculture. There may have been an impressive adaptation to Amazonian conditions. The question becomes, why do we now see only primitive hunter-gathers in the Amazon. Some historins believe that the drepedations of Spannish and Portuguese slave hunters drove Amazonian farmers deep into the forest and forced them to adopt hunter-gatherer economies. Other historians note advances such as pottery first made in the Amazonian Basin as well as cultural exchanges with Pacific coast people that seem to suggest the existetance of advanced civilizations in the Amazon when civilization along the Pacific coast and Andes wa still in a formative state.
The major issue today in Native American studies is the pre-Conquest population and culural level of the Amazonian peoples. The earliest reports from European explorers suggest a very dence population practing settled agriculture.
The most famous account was written by Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Orellana. He completed the first known navigation of the entire length of the Amazon River, althiught not on purpose. Orellana joined Gonzalo Pizarro's 1541 expedition which was oirgnized in Quito headed east. They were after the El Dorado, themythical golden city. The expedition did not go well. Orellana and Pizarro were separated. Pizarro managed to return to Quito. Orellana and a handful of men continued downriver, eventually discovering the Amazon River and making their way to the Atlantic Ocean (1542). He reported large settled communities all along the banks of the Amazon.
Friar Gaspar de Carvajal set out with the Pizarro and Orellana expedition from Quito. But on reaching the confluence of the Napo and Anmazon turned back. But vhe has left us a detailed discription of the Napo, the Ecuadiorian Amazonian headwaters (1541). He wrote of 'cities that gleamed white', large canoes that carried Indian warriors, 'fine highways', and a 'very fruitful land'. His account has been dismissed becaused he included fanciful accounts such as women warriors and other accounts.
The early Conquistador reports were dismissed even in contemprary times. They may have had vested interests in depicting the Amazon as a land flowing wuth milk and honey. As the Portuguese began settling Brazil, however, they found only small populations of primitive hunter gatherers. Subsequent accounts of small, dispersed populations of hunter gatherers and the lack of monumental archictecture dominated the European assessment of Amazonian people not only in contemprary account, but by anthropolists through the 20th century. Archeologists tend to judge ancient civilizations by monumental archictcure. Thus civilizations who left massive pyramids and other strctures are the most respected and highly regarded. And there was none of this in the Amazon. The accepted view was that the troipical Amazon with uts poor soils simply could not sustain intensive agriculture that could support large settled populations.
Researchers today are not as dimissive and some have found evidence suggesting highly produtive settled agriculture. A factor here is the shift from archaeology to anthropology. Much of the work in the Amazon until the lste-20th century was dine by archaeologgusts. The new wirk has been domibnsted by vnbthripologiudts less interest in monumental architecture. The first researcher launching this investigation was anthropologudt Anna C. Roosevelt working on Marajo Island at the nouth of the Amazon (1980s). Many researchers hgave since pursued search foir evidence if advanced civilizations in the Amazon. Some now believe that the primitive tribes in the Amazon today are the descendents of people forced to abandon setteled agriculture by European diseases and Portuguese slave raiders. [Mann, p. 325.] Some believe there indeed once was a very large population in the Amazon basin practing sophisticated agriculture. There may have been an impressive adaptation to Amazonian conditions. Several impoirtant cultural advances have been found. First, creating fertile soil in a tropical enviroment that fertile soil does not develop. This was dine by creating mounds in which soil was enriched by charcoal, human wastes, other organic material, and calcium. The fertile soil is now kniw as 'terra petra'. Second, development of semi-domestication methods such as seaing friit tree seeds. Third, construction of a civilized infrastructure such as moats, causeways, and canals. Fourt, examples of the diversion of waterways. There is evidence of these various activiuties in the first millenium BC. There have been discoveries throughout the Amazon. This has been primarily in Brazil which includes most of the Amazionian Basin. Near Manaus in the middle of the Amazon, anthropolists have found evidence of semi-domesticated fruit tree orchards and soil fertilized by charcoal, human waste, and other organic matter. There was also evidence of a large central plaza, and other architectural works (970-1440 AD). On Marajo Island at the mouth of the Amazon, researchrs have fiund the foundation of hiomes revealing settlements, elaborate pottery, and dvanced agriculture. The local popularion may have totaled 100,000 people (1400-1600 AD). There are also finds on thev oerifery of the amazon. At Dan Martin de Samiria in Peru, there is evidence of semi-domesticated fruit trees, agricuktyural earthwirks, and mounds with soil enriched with charcoal, phosphorus, and calcium. It could have suported population of 5,000 people (900 AD). In Northern Bolivia researchers have found mounds of fertie soil, rasised fields, lonf causeways, and canalized rivers. They were built around 1200 to 1300 AD. There may have been villages with populations up to 2,500 people (1200-1600 AD). [Forero] Al of this is nothing surprising. This is similar to wht Ntive Americsn people were doing in North America and Meso-America. The onlu new aspect, is finding evidence of it in the Amazonian Basin.
The question becomes, why do we now see only primitive hunter-gathers in the Amazon. Some historins believe that the drepedations of Spannish and Portuguese slave hunters drove Amazonian farmers deep into the forest and forced them to adopt hunter-gatherer economies. It is notable that many of the researchers have found a major cultural decline and disappearnce of settlements and sohisticated agriculture in the late-16th century, the exact same time that Portuguese-Brazilian slave hunters were moving into the interior. Another factor could have been a collapse of population de to European diseases.
Other historians note advances such as pottery first made in the Amazonian Basin as well as cultural exchanges with Pacific coast people that seem to suggest the existetance of advanced civilizations in the Amazon when civilization along the Pacific coast and Andes was still in a formative state.
Forero, Juan. "In Amazon, traces of an advanced civilization," Washington Post (Septemnber 6, 2010).
Mann, Charles C. 1491: New Revelations of the Ameruicas before Columbus (Vintage Books: New York, 2006), 541p.
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