CONCLUSION

The empirical data of sites such as Pedra Pintada, Pena Roja, Abejas, Taperinha and Mina, as a group, begin to shed light on the kind of subsistence patterns and evolving agricultural systems that formed the underpinnings of complex societies in Amazonia. Between 11,000 and 9000 BP at Pedra Pintada there is no evidence of agriculture, but it is likely that the systematic exploitation of nutritious palm seeds and fruit trees led to incipient silviculture focused on a broad spectrum of palm species adapted to both flood plain and upland conditions. Such activities eventually lead to managed (anthropogenic) forest food resources; particularly palm forests, a tradition that is still manifest among the modern Nukak and Maku foragers of the Guaviare-Vaupes regions. Although forest management and cultivation seems likely, there is no direct evidence for plant domestication at this time. But between 9000-8000 BP, the evidence in the Araracuara-Caqueta region strongly suggests a subsistence economy involving itinerant gardening that included leren (arrowroot) cultivation, with calabashes and bottle gourds grown in and around camp-sites near the river. Between 7800-4500 BP (Taperinha-Paituna phases) bluff settlers and cave users along the lower Amazon appear to continue the previous multiple biotope exploitation and broad spectrum diet strategy focused on fishing, shellfish gathering and tree-fruit and palm seed harvesting, but now pottery made its first appearance (7580-7100 BP). This pottery shows signs of use for cooking food and was not used exclusively for storage or food presentation, as was the

Case among the San Jacinto 1 (6000-5000 BP) foragers of Colombia (Oyuela-Caycedo and Bonzani 2005). Changes in food preparation techniques (cooking in ceramic vessels) imply improved health from higher nutritional benefits and increase in population growth. This broad spectrum foraging diet, with incipient farming and forest/plant management on the rise, is the platform from which differing Amazonian agricultural systems emerged, creating human-altered, food-yielding landscapes.

For now, the evidence supporting systematic forest disturbances associated with some form of slash-and-burn farming technique within Amazonia is bracketed between 6000 BP and 5000 BP (Piperno and Pearsall 1998: fig. 5.3), and in Araracuara associated with manioc and maize cultivation. This millennium can be proposed as the key period when the shift to agricultural dependence emerged and consolidated, and is a useful benchmark for the beginning of the Amazonian Formative. What followed during and after the Formative is where the history of agricultural development and intensification becomes complex and regionally diverse, the details of which I will leave for discussion at a later opportunity.

It is appropriate to conclude this paper by reiterating one my favorite quotes on the matter of agricultural potential in Amazonia: “Environments are neutral. Their potential for human use is determined by both their characteristics (which people can change) and by the technology available for exploiting them combined with the will to do so. ‘Agricultural potential’ is not inherent in nature. The concept contains the word ‘culture’ ” (Denevan 2001: 302).

Acknowledgments I wish to dedicate this chapter as a tribute to the memory of my friend and colleague James Petersen (1954-2005), with whom I shared the same passion for all things Amazonian and, as well, Caribbean. His loss is deeply felt. This chapter relies heavily on a synthesis I prepared for the publication accompanying the British Museum’s “Unknown Amazon” exhibit (Oliver 2001). It goes without saying that only I am accountable for its contents, including any errors it might contain.