The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492 Author(s): William M.

Denevan Source: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 82, No. 3, The Americas before and after 1492: Current Geographical Research (Sep., 1992), pp. 369-385 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2563351 . Accessed: 23/09/2013 15:44
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The Pristine Myth:The Landscape of the Americasin 1492

William M. Denevan of Geography, ofWisconsin, Department University Madison,WI 53706 Abstract. The mythpersiststhatin 1492 the Americaswere a sparselypopulatedwilderness, "a world of barelyperceptible human disturbance." There is substantial evidence, however, thatthe NativeAmerican landscape oftheearly sixteenth century was a humanized landscape almost everywhere.Populations were large. Forest compositionhad been modified, grasslands had been created,wildlife disrupted,and erosion was severe in places. Earthworks, roads, fields,and settlementswere ubiquitous.WithIndiandepopulationin the wake of Old Worlddisease, the in many environment recovered areas.A good argument can be made thatthe humanpresence was lessvisible in1750thanitwas in1492.
Native KeyWords: Pristine myth, 1492,Columbus, American settlement and demography, prehistoric New World, vegetation change,earthworks. "Thisis theforest ..." primeval A TaleofAcadie Evangeline: (Longfellow, 1847).

primitivist writers such as W.H. Hudson, Cooper, Thoreau, Longfellow, and Parkman, and painters such as Catlinand Church.2 The wilderness imagehas since become part ofthe American heritage, associated 'with a heroic pioneer past in need of preservation" (Pyne 1982,17; also see Bowden1992,22). The pristineviewwas restated in 1950 by John clearly
Bakeless in his book The Eyes of Discovery: Therewere notreally of these redmen verymany ... the landseemed empty to invaders who came fromsettledEurope . . . thatancient,primeval, wilderness. . . the streamssimply undisturbed boiledwithfish. . . so muchgame . . . thatone hunter counteda thousandanimalsneara single saltlick. . . thevirgin wilderness of Kentucky ... the forested of primitive America(13, 201, glory 223,314,407).

Butthenhe mentions thatIndian"prairie fires

tions . . . the Barrens .

fields ofcornspreadinall direcings... Great

.

. cause the often-mentioned oak open. withoutforest,"and

HATwas the New Worldlikeat the timeofColumbus?-"Geography as _ itwas," in the wordsof Carl Sauer (1971, x).1TheAdmiral himself spokeofa "Terrestrial Paradise," beautiful and greenand fertile, teemingwith birds,withnaked people living there whomhe called"Indians." Butwas the landscape encounteredin the sixteenth a wilderness, century primarily pristine, virgin, of people, or was ita humanized nearly empty of nativeAmerilandscape,withthe imprint The forcans being dramatic and persistent? merstillseems to be the morecommonview, butthe latter maybe moreaccurate. an inThe pristine view is to a largeextent of nineteenth-century and vention romanticist

that"Early Ohio settlers foundthattheycould driveaboutthrough the forests withsleds and horses"(31,304,308,314).A contradiction? In the ensuingforty years,scholarship has shownthatIndianpopulations intheAmericas were substantial, thatthe forestshad indeed been altered, thatlandscapechangewas commonplace.Thismessage,however, seems not to have reachedthe publicthrough texts,essays,or talksby bothacademicsand popularizerswho havea responsibility to knowbetter.3 Sale in 1990, in his widely reKirkpatrick was the Europeanswho transformed nature, a pattern set byColumbus.Although following Sale's book has some merit and he is awareof large Indian numbersand theirimpacts,he nonethelesschampions the widely-held diof the benignIndianlandscapeand chotomy
Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 82(3), 1992, pp. 369-385

ported Conquest of Paradise, maintains that it

? Copyright 1992 byAssociation ofAmerican Geographers

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the devastatedColonial landscape. He overstatesboth. Seeds of Change:Christopher CoSimilarly, Legacy, the populumbusand the Columbian InstitubytheSmithsonian larbook published of NativeAmerican tion,continuesthe litany passivity:
the First America was still Eden,a pre-Columbian natural The native kingdom. people were pristine inthe landscape,living as natural eletransparent mentsof the ecosphere. Theirworld,the New ofColumbus, was a world ofbarely percepWorld (Shetler 1991,226). tiblehumandisturbance

de las Casas, century Spanishpriest, Bartolome who knewthe Indieswell:

Allthathas been discovered up to the yearfortynine[1549] is full of people, likea hiveof bees, so thatitseems as though God had placedall,or the greaterpartof the entirehuman race in these countries (Las Casas, in MacNutt 1909,314).

was neither the Indianimpact To the contrary, norwere benignnorlocalizedand ephemeral, resourcesalwaysused in a sound ecological way. The concernhere is withthe formand magnitude of environmentalmodification or not Indianslived rather thanwithwhether withnaturewithsustainable sysin harmony tems of resource management.Sometimes didn't. What did they they they did; sometimes everywas to change theirlandscape nearly ofpost-Colonial Eurowhere,notto theextent attenwaysthatmerit peans but in important tion. By1492 Indian The evidence is convincing. had modified theAmericas activity throughout and exand composition, created forest extent and rearranged microrelief pandedgrasslands, artificial earthworks. Agricultural via countless fields were common, as were houses and townsand roads and trails.All of these had on soil,microclimate, hydrology, local impacts for which this Thisis a largetopic, and wildlife. to the issues, butan introduction essay offers and residualproblems.The misconceptions, from vague ethnoevidence,pieced together and archaehistorical accounts,fieldsurveys, thatthe Indian the hypothesis ology,supports vanishedbythe landscapeof 1492had largely a Euronot through century, mid-eighteenth but because of the depean superimposition, The landscape mise of the nativepopulation. of 1750was more 'pristine"(less humanized) thanthatof 1492.

Las Casas believedthatmorethan40 million Indianshad died by the year1560. Did he exIn the 1930sand 1940s,Alfred Kroeaggerate? and Julian Stewardbeber,Angel Rosenblat, lieved that he had. The best counts then availableindicated a population of between815 millionIndians in the Americas.Subsequently,Carl Sauer, Woodrow Borah, SherburneF. Cook, Henry Dobyns,George Lovell, N. DavidCook, myself, and others haveargued nowbelieve for estimates. larger Manyscholars that there werebetween 40-100million Indians inthehemisphere (Denevan1992).Thisconclusion is primarily based on evidence of rapid earlydeclinesfromepidemicdisease priorto the first populationcounts (Lovell,this volume). I have recently a New Worldtotal suggested vides into3.8 million forNorth 17.2 America, millionfor Mexico, 5.6 millionfor Central 3.0 millionfor the Caribbean,15.7 America, million fortheAndes,and 8.6 million forlowlandSouth America. Thesefigures are based on as to the mostreasonablerecent myjudgment and regional a martribal estimates. Accepting ofabout20 percent, theNewWorld ginoferror populationwould lie between43-65 million. Future regional revisions are likely to maintain thisrange.Other the hemispheric totalwithin recentestimates, none based on totalingregionalfigures, include43 million byWhitmore 40-50 million by Cowley(1991),and 80 million for America justLatin bySchwerin (1991, 40). In anyevent,a population between40-80 million is sufficient to dispel any notion of "empty lands." Moreover,the native impacton the notonlythe populandscapeof 1492reflected lation then but the cumulativeeffects of a growing populationover the previous15,000 yearsor more. intothe NewWorldabruptly European entry this reversed trend. Thedeclineofnative American populations was rapidand severe,probably the greatestdemographicdisaster ever thisvolume).Old Worlddiseases were (Lovell,
(1991,483), 40 millionby Lord and Burke (1991), of 53.9 million (Denevan 1992, xxvii). This di-

IndianNumbers
at contact The size of the native population to our argument. is critical The prevailing powere a recent one, is thattheAmericas sition, empty well-populatedratherthan relatively lands in 1492. In the words of the sixteenth-

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In many theprimary killer. activity prior to European regions, particularly ingdegreesbyIndian the tropicallowlands,populationsfell by 90 occupation.Agricultural clearing and burning had converted muchof theforest or morein the first intosuccespercent after century contact. Indianpopulations(estimated) sional(fallow) growth declined and intosemi-permanent 1 million in Hispaniolafrom in 1492to a few grassyopenings (meadows, barrens,plains, hundred50 years later,or by more than 99 glades, savannas,prairies), oftenof considerable size.4Muchofthemature forest was charpercent; in Peru from9 millionin 1520 to 670,000in 1620 (92 percent);in the Basin of acterizedbyan open, herbaceousunderstory, Mexico from 1.6 million reflecting frequent in 1519to 180,000 in groundfires.'The de Soto 1607(89 percent);and in North America from of many expedition, consisting people, a large in 1492to 1 million in 1800(74 per3.8 million horse herd,and manyswine,passed through in1492 cent).Anoverall dropfrom 53.9million ten states withoutdifficulty of movement" to 5.6 million in1650amounts (Sauer 1971,283). The situation to an 89 percent has been dereduction (Denevan 1992, xvii-xxix).The scribed in detail by Michael Williamsin his alrecenthistory of American forests:'Much of humanlandscapewas affected accordingly, a direct though thereis notalways forest buttheforest was relationship the'natural' remained, between and human not the vast, silent,unbroken,impenetrable population density impact (Whitmore, et al. 1990,37). and dense tangle of trees beloved by many of Indiansby Europeans writers in their The replacement romantic accountsof theforest was initially and Africans a slow process. By wilderness" (1989, was a forest 33).5 'The result 1638 therewere onlyabout 30,000English in of large,widely and spaced trees,fewshrubs, NorthAmerica(Sale 1990, 388), and by 1750 much grass and herbage . . . Selective Indian there were only 1.3 millionEuropeansand thus promoted of burning the mosaic quality slaves (Meinig1986,247). ForLatin in New Englandecosystems, America creating forestsin 1750,Sainchez-Albornoz many different statesofecologicalsuccession" (1974,7) givesa total of12 million. Forthehemi(including Indians) (Cronon1983,49-51). The extent, of Indian sphere in 1750, the Atlas of WorldPopulation and impact frequency, 16 million is notwithout History reports (McEvedy and Jones burning controversy. Raup(1937) 1978,270).Thustheoverallhemispheric poputhanIndian arguedthatclimatic change rather lationin 1750was about 30 percent of whatit could account forcertainvegetation burning mayhave been in 1492.The 1750population, Russell changes.Emily (1983, 86),assessing prehowever, was very unevenly distributed, 1700information forthe Northeast, concluded mainly locatedin certain coastaland highland that:'There is no strong evidencethatIndians areas withlittle elsewhere.In Europeanization burnedlargeareas,"butIndians did purposely North in 1750,therewere onlysmall of fires America 'increasethefrequency above the low numberscaused by lightning," pocketsof settlement beyondthecoastalbelt, creatingan from stretching New England to northern Floropen forest. Butthen Russelladds: "In most ida (see maps in Meinig1986,209,245). Elseareas climate and soil probablyplayed the where,combinedIndianand European the precolonial popumajorrole in determining forlations were sparse,and environmental impact ests." She regardsIndianfiresas mainly acciwas relatively minor. dentaland "merely" to natural augmental fires, on landscapes at the and she discounts of manyearly Indigenousimprints the reliability variedregiontimeof initial contact accountsof burning. European and intensity. and Russell(1983,5) expandthe arallyin form are examForman Following to North America in general: 'regular and wildlife, ples for vegetation agriculture, gument and the builtlandscape. and widespreadIndianburning (Day 1953)[is] an unlikely has been thatregretfully hypothesis and conaccepted in the popular literature sciousness."Thisconclusion,I believe,is unVegetation oftheextent ofprehiswarranted givenreports toric human burningin NorthAmericaand The Eastern Forests Australia (Lewis1982), and Europe (Patterson and Sassaman1988,130), and by myown and The forests of New England, the Midwest, other on current Indianand peasobservations and theSoutheast had been disturbed to vary-

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ant burningin CentralAmericaand South America; when unrestrained, people burnfrequently and formanyreasons.Forthe Northeast,Patterson and Sassaman(1988,129) found were thatsedimentary charcoalaccumulations greatest whereIndianpopulations weregreatest. in North Elsewhere America, the Southeast is muchmorefire pronethanis theNortheast, withhumanignitions beingespecially important inwinter (Taylor 1981).The Berkeley geographerand Indianist ErhardRostlund(1957, 1960)arguedthatIndianclearing and burning created manygrasslands withinmostly open forestin the so-called "prairiebelt" of Alabama. As improbable as it mayseem, Lewis (1982)found Indianburning in the subarctic, and Dobyns(1981)in the Sonorandesert.The set by Indicharacteristics and impacts of fires withdemogans variedregionally and locally raphy, resourcemanagement techniques, and butsuch fires had differenvironment, clearly ent vegetation fires impactsthandid natural in frequency, owingto differences regularity, and seasonality. Forest Composition In NorthAmerica, not only mainburning tainedopen forest and smallmeadowsbutalso and sun-loving encouragedfire-tolerant species. "Fire created conditionsfavorableto strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and other gatherablefoods" (Cronon 1983, 51). Other useful plantswere saved, protected, planted,and transplanted, such as American coffeetree, Canada plum,Kentucky chestnut, and leek (Day 1953,339-40). Gilgroundnut, more(1931)describedthe dispersal of several nativeplantsby Indians.Mixed standswere converted to singlespeciesdominants, includingvariouspines and oaks, sequoia, Douglas fir, spruce,and aspen (M. Williams 1989,47slash pine, and scrub oak 48). The longleaf, forests oftheSoutheast are almost an certainly subclimax createdoriginally anthropogenic by Indian burning,replaced in early Colonial timesbymixedhardwoods, in and maintained and part by firesset by subsequentfarmers woodlotowners(Garren fires 1943).Lightning can account forsome fire-climax vegetation, but Indianburning would have extendedand

maintained suchvegetation (Silver 1990,17-19, 59-64). Even in the humid tropics,where natural firesare rare, human firescan dramatically influence forest composition. A good example isthepineforests ofNicaragua (Denevan1961). Open pine standsoccur both in the northern highlands (below5,000feet)and intheeastern (Miskito) lowlands, wherewarmtemperatures and heavyrainfall mixedtropigenerally favor or rainforest. The extensive cal montane forest pineforests ofGuatemala and Mexicoprimarily grow in cooler and drier,higherelevations, wherethey are in largepartnatural and prehuman(Watts and Bradbury 1982,59). Pineforests were definitely present in Nicaragua when Europeans arrived.They were found in areas where Indiansettlement was substantial, but notintheeastern mountains whereIndian densities ofthe weresparse.The eastern boundary highland pines seems to have movedwithan easternsettlement frontier thathas fluctuated The pines back and forthsince prehistory. occurtodaywheretherehas been clearing followedbyregular burning and thesame is likely in the past. The Nicaraguan tolpines are fire erant once mature, and largenumbers ofseediftheycan escape fire lingssurvive to maturity their first threeto sevenyears(Denevan during 1961,280). Where settlement has been abandoned and fire ceases, mixedhardwoods graduallyreplace pines. This succession is likely similar wherepinesoccurelsewhereat low elintropical evations Central theCaribAmerica, bean, and Mexico. and Tropical Midwest Prairies Savannas Sauer (1950, 1958, 1975) argued early and often that thegreatgrasslands and savannasof rather the New Worldwere of anthropogenic thanclimatic was generally thatrainfall origin, sufficient to supporttrees. Even nonagriculturalIndiansexpanded what may have been at the pocketsof natural, edaphic grasslands A fire to theedge of expenseofforest. burning a grass/forest willpenetrate the drier boundary forest and push back the edge, even if margin the forestitselfis not consumed (MuellerDombois 1981,164). Grasslandcan therefore in the wake of hundreds advancesignificantly ofyearsof annualfires.Lightning-set fires can have a similar but moreslowlyif less impact,

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as in thewettropfrequent thanhumanfires, induced, primarThethesis ofprairies as fire 1950; ily by Indians,has its critics(Borchert ofthetopic Wedel1957),buttherecent review concludes byAnderson (1990,14), a biologist, that most ecologists now believe that the eastern prairies"would have mostlydisapannual peared ifithad notbeen forthe nearly burningof these grasslandsby the North American Indians," during the last5,000years. invaA case in pointis the nineteenth-century fire had sionofmany after grasslands byforests been suppressedin Wisconsin,Illinois,Kansas, Nebraska,and elsewhere (M. Williams 1989,46). ofSouthAmerica arealso The largesavannas controversial as to origin. Much,ifnotmostof theopen vegetation the oftheOrinocoLlanos, Llanos de Mojos of Bolivia,the Pantanalof Mato Grosso,the Bolivar savannasof Colombia, the Guayassavannasof coastal Ecuador, the campo cerradoof centralBrazil,and the coastal savannasnorthof the Amazon,is of ocnatural origin.The vast campos cerrados toxicoxisols.The cupyextremely senile,often Braseasonallyinundated savannasof Bolivia, zil, Guayas,and the Orinoco owe theirexisof woody species to tence to the intolerance of lengthy or the extreme alternation flooding a and severedesiccation during waterlogging long dry season. These savannas, however, and ranchers, were and are burnedby Indians and such fireshave expanded the savannas Itis now into theforests to an unknown extent. wherea natural forvery difficult to determine once was located(Hills est/savanna boundary and Randall 1968; Medina1980). Othersmallsavannashave been cut out of andthenmaintherainforest farmers byIndian An example is the Gran tained by burning. in east-central Pajonalin the Andeanfoothills Peru, where dozens of small grasslands (pajonales)have been createdbyCampa Indians-a processclearly documented byairphotos (Scott1978). Pajonales were in existence whenthe regionwas first by Franpenetrated in 1733. ciscan missionary explorers is nicely The impact of human activity changes in the baillustrated by vegetational sinsoftheSan Jorge, of Cauca, and Sinurivers northernColombia. The southern sector, whichwas mainly savannawhenfirst observed
ics.

in the sixteenthcentury,had revertedto rainforest by about 1750 following Indiandecline,and had been reconverted to savannafor pastureby 1950 (Gordon 1957, map p. 69). Sauer(1966, 285-88;1976,8) and Bennett (1968, of numerous sa53-55)cite earlydescriptions vannas in Panama in the sixteenth century. Balboa's first view of the Pacific was froma 'treelessridge," nowprobably forested. Indian settlement and agricultural fieldswere common at the time,and withtheirdecline the rainforest returned. Anthropogenic Tropical RainForest The tropical rainforest has long had a reputationforbeing pristine, whetherin 1492 or 1992. There is, however,increasing evidence ofAmazonia that theforests and elsewhere are largely anthropogenic in formand composition.Sauer(1958, 105)said as muchattheNinth Pacific ScienceCongressin1957whenhe challengedthe statement of tropical botanist Paul Richards that, until recently, thetropical forests havebeen largely uninhabited, and that prehistoricpeople had 'no more influence on the vegetation thananyof the otheranimalinhabitants." Sauer counteredthatIndianburning, swiddens,and manipulation of composition had extensively modified thetropical forest. itis difficult "Indeed,in muchofAmazonia, to find soilsthat are notstuddedwith charcoal" (Uhl,et al. 1990,30). The questionis, to what extent does thisevidencereflect Indianburnto natural ing in contrast (lightning) fires, and whendid these fires occur?The roleof firein forest has received considtropical ecosystems in recent as result erableattention years,partly inEastKalimantan in1982-83 ofmajor wildfires firesin the VenezuelanAmaand smallforest zon in 1980-84 (Goldammer 1990). Lightning do fires, thoughrarein moisttropical forest, occur in driertropicalwoodlands (MuellerwithlightDombois1981,149).Thunderstorms ningare muchmorecommonin the Amazon, butinthetropics to North compared America, is usually lightning associatedwithheavyrain and noncombustible,verdant vegetation. Hence Indian firesundoubtedly account for in prehistory, with their mostfires impact varyingwiththe degreeof aridity. In the Rio Negro regionof the ColombiancornVenezuelan Amazon,soilcharcoalis very

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mon in uplandforests. C-14dates rangefrom 6260-250 B.P., well within human times (Saldarriaga and West1986).Mostof thecharlocal swidden burns; coal probablyreflects however, thereare some indications of forest fires at intervals ofseveral hundred years, most likelyignitedby swidden fires.Recentwild firesin the upperRio Negroregion were in a normally moist tropical forest (3530mmannual rainfall) thathad experienced severalyearsof severe drought. Such infrequent wildfiresin prehistory, along with the more frequent imgroundfires,could have had significant and compactson forest succession, structure, of Nicare the pine forests position.Examples of aragua, mentioned above, the oak forests Central America, and the babassupalmforests of eastern Brazil.Widespreadand frequent about the extincburning may have brought tionof some endemicspecies. is a mosaicof different The Amazonforest and compositionresulting ages, structure, fromlocal habitat conditions and disturbance disturbances dynamics (Haffer 1991). Natural river (treefalls,landslides, activity) have been considerably augmentedby human activity, Evena small cultivation. particularly byshifting number of swiddenfarmers can have a wideshortperiod of spread impactin a relatively time.IntheRro Negroregion, species-diversity recovery takes60-80yearsand biomassrecovand Uhl 1991, ery 140-200years (Saldarriaga that 312). Brownand Lugo (1990,4) estimate todayaboutforty percent ofthetropical forest in LatinAmericais secondaryas a resultof human and that mostoftheremainder clearing has had some modification low despitecurrent The speciescomposition densities. population of earlystagesof swiddenfallows differs from thatof natural thespecies gaps and may"alter of the matureforest on a longcomposition term scale" (Walschburger and Von Hildebrand1991,262). Whilehumanenvironmental in Amazoniacurrently is concendestruction trated timesIndian along roads,in prehistoric in the upland(interflueve) forests was activity much less intense but more widespread (Denevanforthcoming). is not Indianmodification of tropical forests limitedto clearingand burning.Large exforests are humanpanses of LatinAmerican in whichthe kinds, ized forests numbers, and distributions of useful speciesare managedby

humanpopulations. Doubtless,thisappliesto the pastas well. One important mechanism in forest is manipulation management of swidden fallows(sequential agroforestry) to increase useful species. The planting,transplanting, sparing, and protection of usefulwild,fallow plants eliminatesclear distinctions between fieldand fallow(Denevan and Padoch 1988). Abandonment is a slow process,notan event. Gordon (1982,79-98) describes managed reineastern growth vegetation whichhe Panama, believes extendedfromYucatanto northern Colombiain pre-European times.The Huastec of easternMexicoand the YucatecMaya have similar forms of forest mangardensor forest agement(Alcorn1981; Gomez-Pompa1987). The Kayapoof the Brazilian Amazonintroduce and/or protectusefulplants in activity areas ("nomadicagriculture") adjacentto villagesor campsites,inforaging near areas,alongtrails, fields,and in artificial in saforest-mounds vanna (Posey1985). In managedforests, both annuals and perennialsare plantedor transwhilewild fruit trees are particularly planted, commonin earlysuccessionalgrowth. Weedingbyhandwas potentially moreselective than indiscriminate weeding by machete (Gordon 1982, 57-61). Much dispersalof edible plant seeds is unintentional via defecation and spittingout. The economicbotanist William Balee (1987, or "anthropogenic" 1989)speaks of "cultural" inAmazonia inwhichspecieshavebeen forests in natoften without a reduction manipulated, uraldiversity. These includespecializedforests (babassu, Brazilnuts,lianas,palms,bamboo), whichcurrently make up at least11.8 percent (measured)of the total upland forestin the Brazilian Amazon(Balee1989,14). Clearindications of past disturbanceare the extensive zones of terra whichoccur preta(blackearth), as well alongtheedges ofthelargefloodplains as in the uplands (Balee 1989, 10-12; Smith 1980). These soils, with depths to 50 cm or charcoal contain and cultural wastefrom more, and settlement. Givenhigh prehistoric burning carbon, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus terra content, pretasoils havea distinctive vegetationand are attractive to farmers. Balee (1989, 14) concludes that "large portionsof Amazonian forests the conappear to exhibit of past human interference." tinuingeffects The same argument has been made for the

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Mayalowlands et al. 1987)and (Gomez-Pompa, Panama (Gordon 1982). There are no virgin forests tropical today,norweretherein 1492.

Wildlife
The indigenous impact on wildlife is equivocal. The thesisthat"overkill" hunting caused theextinction ofsome largemammals inNorth America the latePleistocene, during as wellas subsequent localand regional depletions (Martin1978,167-72),remains controversial. Bythe timeofthearrival ofCortezin1519,thedense of Central Mexicoapparently populations had greatly reduced the numberof large game, givenreports that"theyeat any living thing" (Cook and Borah 1971-79,(3) 135, 140). In localgamedepletion Amazonia, apparently increases withvillagesize and duration (Good 1987). Huntingproceduresin manyregions seem, however, to have allowedforrecovery because of the "resting" of hunting zones inor as a result tentionally of shifting of village sites. On the other hand, forest indisturbance creased herbaceous forageand edge effect, and hence the numbers of some animals (Thompson and Smith 1970,261-64)."Indians createdideal habitats fora hostofwildlife spedance so impressedEnglishcolonists: elk, deer, beaver,hare, porcupine, turkey, quail, ruffed grouse,and so on" (Cronon1983,51). White-tailed deer, peccary,birds,and other game increases in swiddens and fallowsin Yucatan and Panama(Greenberg 1991;Gordon 1982, 96-112; Bennett 1968). Rostlund (1960, 407) believedthatthe creation of grassy openingseastoftheMississippi extended therange of the bison,whose numbersincreasedwith Indian depopulation and reduced hunting pressure between 1540-1700, and subsedeclinedunderWhitepressure. quently
cies . . . exactly those species whose abun-

Agriculture
Fieldsand Associated Features To observersin the sixteenth the century, mostvisiblemanifestation of the Native American landscapemusthave been the cultivated fields,which were concentrated around vil-

lages and houses. Most fieldsare ephemeral, their presence quickly erasedwhenfarmers migrateor die, but thereare manyeye-witness accountsof the greatextentof Indianfields. On Hispaniola, Las Casas and Oviedo reported individual fieldswiththousandsof montones (Sturtevant 1961,73). These were maniocand sweetpotatomounds3-4 m in circumference, ofwhichapparently Inthe none havesurvived. Llanosde Mojos in Bolivia, the first explorers or corncribson pilings, mentioned percheles, numbering up to 700 in a single field,each holding 30-45 bushelsof food (Denevan1966, 98). In northern Floridain 1539,Hernandode Soto's army numerous of passedthrough fields maize,beans,and squash,their mainsourceof provisions;in one sector,"greatfields . . . were spread out as faras the eye could see acrosstwo leagues of the plain"(Garcilaso de la Vega 1980, (2) 182; also see Dobyns1983, 135-46). It is difficult to obtain a reliableoverview fromsuch descriptions. Aside frompossible exaggeration, Europeanstended not to write or technology. about field size, production, More usefulare variousforms of relict fields and fieldfeatures forcenturies thatpersist and can stillbe recognized,measured,and excavated today.These extantfeatures, including terraces, irrigation raisedfields, sunken works, fields,drainageditches,dams, reservoirs, diversion in the walls,and fieldbordersnumber millionsand are distributed the throughout Americas (Denevan1980;see also Doolittle and Whitmore and Turner, thisvolume).Forexample, about 500,000 ha of abandoned raised intheSan Jorge fields survive Basinofnorthern Colombia(Plazas and Falchetti 1987,485), and at least600,000 ha of terracing, of premostly historic origin,occur in the Peruvian Andes (Denevan1988,20). Thereare 19,000ha ofvisible raisedfieldsin just the sustaining area of Tiwanaku at LakeTiticaca (Kolata 1991, 109)and there were about 12,000 ha of chinampas (raised fields) around the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (Sanders,et al. 1979,390). Comon the north coast of Peru plex canal systems and in theSaltRiver in Arizonairrigated Valley more land in prehistory than is cultivated today.About175 sitesof Indiangardenbeds, up to severalhundredacres each, have been reportedin Wisconsin(Gartner 1992). These variousremnant less fieldsprobably represent

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than 25 percentof what once existed,most beingburiedundersediment or destroyed by erosion, urbanization, plowing, and bulldozing. On the otherhand,an inadequateeffort has been made to searchforancient fields. Erosion The size of nativepopulations, associated and prolonged intensive deforestation, agriculin some ture led to severe land degradation regions.Such a landscapewas thatof Central Mexico,whereby1519food production pressures mayhave brought the Azteccivilization to thevergeof collapse even without Spanish intervention (Cook and Borah 1971-79 (3),12976).6 There is good evidencethatsevere soil erosion was alreadywidespread,rather than of subsequentEuropeanplowjust the result ing,livestock, and deforestation. Cook examined the association betweenerosionalseverity(gullies,barrancas, sand and siltdeposits, and sheeterosion)and pre-Spanish population to prehistoric Indian density or proximity towns.He concludedthat"an important cycle of erosionand deposition therefore accompanied intensive land use byhugeprimitive populationsin central Mexico, and had gone far of the country before towardthe devastation the whitemanarrived" (Cook 1949,86). Williams Barbara (1972,618) describes widean indurated substrate formaspreadtepetate, tion exposed by sheet erosionresulting from prehistoric agriculture, as "one of the domiintheValley nant surface materials ofMexico." On the other hand, anthropologist Melville (1990,27) arguesthatsoil erosionin the Valle de Mezquital,just north of theValley of Mexof overgrazing ico, was the result by Spanish before1600: "thereis an allivestock starting mosttotallack of evidenceof environmental beforethe lastthreedecades of degradation The Butzers, the sixteenth century." however, in an examination ofSpanishlandgrants, grazand soil and vegetation ingpatterns, ecology, found thattherewas only lightintrusion of Spanish livestock (sheep and cattle were movedfrequently) intothe southeastern Bajro near Mezquital untilafter 1590 and thatany in 1590was "as mucha matter of degradation Indianland use as itwas of Spanish long-term intrusion" (Butzerand Butzerforthcoming). The relative rolesof Indianand earlySpanish

impactsin Mexico stillneed resolution; both were clearly significant but variedin timeand place. Under the Spaniards,however,even witha greatly reduced population,the landscape in Mexicogenerally did not recover due to accelerating impacts from introduced sheep and cattle.7

The Built Landscape

Settlement The Spaniards and otherEuropeans were impressedby largeflourishing Indiancitiessuch as Tenochtitlan, Quito, and Cuzco, and they tooknoteoftheextensive ofolder,abanruins doned cities such as Cahokia, Teotihuacan, ChanChan,and Tiwanaku Tikal, (Hardoy 1968). Mostofthesecities contained morethan50,000 people. Less notable,or possiblymoretaken vilfor granted,was ruralsettlement-small lagesofa fewthousand or a fewhundred people, hamlets of a fewfamilies, and dispersed The numbers and locations of farmsteads. muchof thissettlement willneverbe known. Withthe rapiddecline of nativepopulations, theabandonment of houses and entire villages and the decay of perishablematerials quickly obscuredsites,especiallyin the tropicallowlands. We do have some earlylistings of villages, forMexicoand Peru. Elsewhere, arespecially is telling us morethanethnohistory. chaeology After on largetempleand adinitially focusing ministrative are nowexcenters, archaeologists rural remarkable amining sustaining areas,with results. See, forexample,Sanderset al. (1979) on theBasinofMexico,Culbert and Rice(1991) on the Maya lowlands,and Fowler(1989)on of humanoccupaCahokiain Illinois. Evidence tion for the artistic SantaremCulturephase on the lowerAmazonex(Tapajos chiefdom) tends over thousands of square kilometers, with large nucleated settlements (Roosevelt 1991,101-02). Muchofthe rural settlement was precontact in semi-dispersed(rancherias),particularly denselypopulatedregionsof Mexico and the Andes,probably reflecting poorfoodtransport Houses were bothsingle-family and efficiency. communal (pueblos, Huronlong houses,Amazon malocas). Construction was of stone,

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earth,adobe, daub and wattle,grass,hides, brush, and bark.Muchofthedispersed settlementnotdestroyed bydepopulation was concentrated by the Spaniards into compact grid/plaza style new towns (congregaciones, reducciones) foradministrative purposes. Mounds James Parsons (1985, 161) has suggested that: "An apparent'mania forearthmoving, landscapeengineering as on a grand scale runs a threadthrough muchof New Worldprehistory." Largequantities of bothearth and stone were transferred to createvariousraisedand sunken features,such as agricultural landforms,settlement and ritual mounds, and causeways. Mounds of different shapes and sizes were constructed throughout theAmericas fortemples, burials,settlement, and as effigies. The stone pyramids of Mexico and the Andes are well known,but equal monuments of earth were builtin the Amazon,the MidwestU.S., The Mississippian and elsewhere. periodcomplex of 104 moundsat Cahokia near EastSt. Louis supported30,000 people; the largest, Monk's Mound, is currently 30.5 m highand covers6.9 ha. (Fowler 1989,90, 192). Cahokia was the largestsettlement northof the Rfo Grande untilsurpassedby New YorkCityin 1775.Anearly survey estimated "at least20,000 and effigy mounds"inWisconconical,linear, sin (Stout1911,24). Overall,theremusthave been several hundred thousand artificial mounds in the Midwestand South. De Soto described such featuresstill in use in 1539 (Silverberg 1968,7). Thousandsof settlement and othermoundsdot the savannalandscape of Mojos in Bolivia (Denevan 1966). At the mouthof the Amazonon Marajo Island,one complexofforty habitation moundscontained morethan10,000 people; one ofthesemounds is 20 m highwhile anotheris 90 ha in area (Roosevelt 1991,31, 38). Not all of the variousearthworks scattered over the Americas were in use in 1492.Many had been long abandoned, but theyconstituteda conspicuouselement of the landscape of 1492and some are stillprominent. Doubtremain to be discovered, and others less,many remain as humanor prehistoric unrecognized features.

Roads,Causeways, and Trails Large numbers ofpeople and settlements necessitated extensive systems of overland travel routesto facilitate administration, trade,warfare, and social interaction (Hyslop 1984; Trombold1991). Only hintsof theirformer prominence survive. Manywere simpletraces acrossdeserts or narrow pathscutintoforests. A suggestion as to the importance of Amazon foresttrails is the existence of more than 500 kmof trailmaintained by a singleKayapo villagetoday (Posey 1985,149). Some prehistoricfootpaths were so intensively used forso longthat theywere incisedintotheground and are stilldetectable,as has recently been describedin Costa Rica(Sheetsand Sever1991). Improvedroads, at times stone-lined and wereconstructed overgreat distances drained, inthe realms ofthe highcivilizations. The Inca road network is estimated to have measured from about40,000km,extending southern Colombiato central Chile(Hyslop 1984,224). Prehistoric causeways(raisedroads)were builtin the tropicallowlands (Denevan 1991); one Maya causewayis 100 kmlong,and thereare morethan1,600kmofcausewaysinthe Llanos de Mojos. Humboldt reported largeprehistoric causewaysin the Orinoco Llanos. Ferdinand Columbusdescribedroads on PuertoRico in 1493. Gaspar de Carvajal,traveling down the AmazonwithOrellanain1541,reported "highthe forest fromriverbank ways" penetrating villages. Joseph de Acosta(1880,(1) 171)in1590 said thatbetweenPeruand Brazil, therewere "waies as much beaten as those betwixt Salamanca and Valladolid." Prehistoric roadsin Chaco Canyon,New Mexico are describedin Trombold(1991). Some routeswere so well establishedand located that they have remainedroadsto thisday.

Recovery
A strongcase can be made for significant environmental of culand reduction recovery tural features as bythe lateeighteenth century a resultof Indian populationdecline. Henry Thoreau(1949,132-37)believed,based on his readingof WilliamWood, thatthe New Enof 1633 were more open, more glandforests withmoreberries and morewildlife, park-like,

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thanThoreauobservedin 1855.Cronon(1983, 108), Pyne(1982,51), Silver (1990,104),Martin (1978, 181-82), and Williams (1989, 49) all maintain that the eastern forestsrecoveredand filled inas a result ofIndian depopulation, field abandonment, and reduction in burning. Whileprobably correct, thesewriters givefew specific examples, so furtherresearch is needed. The sixteenth-century fieldsand savannasof Colombiaand Central America also 150 yearsafter had reverted to forest within abandonment(Parsons1975, 30-31; Bennett 1968, 54). On his fourth voyage in 1502-03, coastof PanColumbussailedalongthe north described ama (Veragua).His son Ferdinand full of houses, landswhich werewell-peopled, withmany fields, and open withfewtrees.In in 1681 LionelWafer foundmostof contrast, covered the Caribbeancoast of Panamaforest side in the and unpopulated.On the Pacific eighteenthcentury, savannas were seldom mentioned;the main economic activity was the logging of tropical cedar,a treethatgrows on the sites of abandoned fieldsand other disturbances (Sauer 1966,132-33,287-88).An to earlieroscillationfromforestdestruction recovery in the Yucatan is instructive. thatthe Whitmore, et al. (1990,35) estimate Maya had modified 75 percent ofthe environment by A.D. 800, and that following the in the central Mayancollapse,forest recovery lowlands was nearly complete when the arrived. Spaniards The pace of forestregeneration, however, varied across the New World. Much of the southeastern U.S. remainedtreeless in the 1750s accordingto Rostlund (1957,408, 409). He notesthat ensnarled thetangled brush that the "Wilderness Campaignof 1864 in Virginia occupied the same land as did CaptainJohn Smith's 'open groveswithmuchgood ground betweenwithout anyshrubs"'in1624;vegetation had only partially recoveredover 240 were barrensin contrast years.The Kentucky nineteenth cenreforested largely bytheearly tury (Sauer 1963,30). The AlabamaBlackBelt Bartram vegetation was describedby William in the 1770sas a mixture of forest and grassy there plains, but by the nineteenth century, was only10 percentprairie and even less in some counties (Rostlund 1957, 393, 401-03). Sections of coastal forestsnever recovered, givencolonist pressures, butSale's (1990,291) claimthat"the English were well along in the

process of eliminating the ancient Eastern woodlandsfrom Maine to the Mississippi" in thefirst one hundred years, is an exaggeration. also partially Wildlife recoveredin eastern North America withreducedhunting pressure from Indians;however, thisis also a story yet to be worked out. The white-tailed deer apparently declinedin numbers, probably reflecting reforestation plus competition from livestock. Commercial hunting was a factor on thecoast, with 80,000 deer skinsbeingshippedoutyearly from Charleston by1730(Silver 1990,92). Massachusetts enacteda closed season on deer as early as 1694,and in1718there was a three-year moratorium on deer hunting(Cronon 1983, 100).Sale (1990, 290) believesthatbeaverwere depleted in the Northeast by 1640. Otherfur bearers,game birds,elk, buffalo, and carnivoreswerealso targeted bywhitehunters, but much game probably was in the process of in many recovery easternareas until a general reversal after 1700-50. As agricultural fieldschangedto scruband were grownover. All the earthworks forest, raised fields in Yucatan and South America were abandoned. A largeportionof the agricultural terracesin the Americaswere abandoned in the early colonial period (Donkin 1979,35-38). In the Colca Valley of Peru,measurement on air photos indicates61 percent terrace abandonment (Denevan1988,28). Societies vanished or declined everywhere and wholevillages with them.The degreeto which settlement wereswallowedup byvegfeatures and erosionis indicated etation, sediment, by thedifficulty themtoday.MachuPicoffinding chu, a late prehistoric site,was not rediscov1911. ered until The renewalof human impactalso varied withthe Revolutionary regionally, coming War in NorthAmerica, withthe rubberboom in in and with theexpansionof coffee Amazonia, southern Brazil(1840-1930). The swamplands of GulfCoast Mexicoand the GuayasBasinof Ecuadorremained hostileenvironments to Euwell intothe nineteenth ropeansuntil century or later(Siemens1990; Mathewson 1987). On the other hand, HighlandMexico-Guatemala and theAndes,with Indian survival and greater with theestablishment of haciendasand intensive mining, show less evidence of environmental Indianfieldsin the recovery. Similarly, Caribbeanwere rapidly replacedby European livestock and sugarplantation inhibitsystems,

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inganysufficient recovery. The same is trueof the sugarzone of coastalBrazil.

Conclusions
By1492,Indianactivity had modified vegetationand wildlife, caused erosion,and created earthworks, roads, and settlements throughThismaybe obvious,butthe outtheAmericas. human was muchmoreubiquitous and imprint thanis usually realized. The historical enduring evidence is ample,as are data from surviving earthworks and archaeology. Andmuchcan be frompresent human impacts.The inferred weight of evidencesuggests thatIndianpopulations were large,notonlyin Mexicoand the Andes,butalso in seemingly unattractive habitatssuch as the rainforests of Amazonia, the swampsof Mojos, and thedesertsofArizona. the mosthumanized Clearly, landscapesof theAmericas existedinthosehighland regions wherepeople were the mostnumerous. Here were the largestates,characterized by urban road systems, intensive centers, a agriculture, dense rural settlement dispersedbut relatively of hamlets and farmsteads, pattern and widespread vegetation and soil modification and wildlife depletion.Therewere other,smaller regions thatsharedsome ofthesecharacteristics,suchas thePueblolandsinthesouthwestern U.S., the Sabana de Bogota in highland Colombia,and thecentral Amazonfloodplain, where builtlandscapeswere locallydramatic and are still observable. there werethe Finally, immensegrasslands, deserts,mountains, and forests withpopulations elsewhere, thatwere sparse or moderate,withlandscape impacts thatmostly wereephemeral or notobviousbut nevertheless significant, forvegeparticularly tationand wildlife, as in Amazoniaand the northeastern U.S. Inaddition, from landscapes themoredistant to 1492and even pastsurvived to 1992,suchas thoseoftheirrigation states of north coast Peru, the Classic Maya, the Mississippian mound builders, and the Tiwanaku of LakeTiticaca. Empire Thisessay has rangedoverthe hemisphere, an enormous area, making generalizations about and providing examplesof Indianlandas of 1492. Examples scape transformation of some of the surviving culturalfeaturesare shown in Figure1. Ideally, a series of hemisphericmaps should be providedto portray

typesof of the different the spatialpatterns but such maps features, impacts and cultural are not feasiblenor would theybe accurate Thereare a fewrelknowledge. givenpresent thatcan be remaps,however, evantregional see Butzer (1990, 33,45) ferred to. Forexample, and structures/mounds for Indiansettlement inthe U.S.; Donkin(1979, subsistence patterns Doolittle(1990, terracing; 23) foragricultural and inMexico; Parsons 109)forcanalirrigation inSouthAmerDenevan(1967)forraisedfields ica; Trombold(1991) for various road networks; Hyslop (1984,4) for the Inca roads; Hardoy(1968,49) forthe mostintenseurban69) and Gordon(1957, in Latin America; ization Cofor anthropogenic savannas in northern lombia. The pristine myth cannotbe laid at the feet of Columbus.While he spoke of "Paradise," his was clearly a humanizedparadise.He depopas densely Hispaniola andTortuga scribed ulated and "completelycultivatedlike the around Cordoba" (Colon 1976, countryside are notso 165). He also notedthat"theislands suggestwooded as to be impassable," thickly (Coclearingand burning ing openingsfrom lumbus1961,5). with lie in part myth The roots ofthepristine that ofhumanimpacts observers unaware early maybe obviousto scholarstoday,particularly for vegetation and wildlife.8 But even many such as raisedfieldshave onlyreearthworks been discovered(Denevan1966; 1980). cently deimportant, mostof our eyewitness Equally landscome ofwilderness and empty scriptions when 1750-1850 from a latertime,particularly interior landsbeganto be exploredand occupopulations By1650,Indian pied byEuropeans. inthe hemisphere had been reducedbyabout 90 percent, while by 1750 Europeannumbers had were not yet substantial and settlement fieldshad onlybegunto expand. As a result, been abandoned,whilesettlements vanished, The forests and savannasretreated. recovered, landscapedid appear to be a sparselypopuThisis theimageconveyed by latedwilderness. Bakelessin inthenineteenth Parkman century, as recently as 1991.Therewas and Shetler 1950, of course, but itwas some Europeanimpact, after 1750and especially 1850, localized.After were expanded,resources greatly populations more intensively exploited, and European of the environment accelerated, modification to the present. continuing

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limit of agriculture . ,.,--. .::':: -/ -401....-/.] Approximate .I.... i::: .-. ':-\X.. 1.!!z...-'-'----' I-'-. -:"', "",.E., -.' ,'.i, ,:. ':' -,A::_ -: ..II---X'. ':: , _::. :--: urban center I., . ..': i:'' 0A%':0Major : :, ..: .; . -: .. ... .. :. .. .. ..,!::'::''.:' ... 'I '.,, .. : . .:. !: : A 4:... .::,. . .:!...: ... '- - -:' .... Mounds, pyram .. ''.:.. ids :: .... :. : ... i!.:!. .: 4, A , ---: !: !''i .. -:': b.::: , . : -, ... 11 ' ,. ' . . ': ...:....!:.,..;!!..''....::!: ,/. ...: :::..4% Terrace zones (mostly irrigated) . .'. I . . ./::!::: 1-1-;::,:: ......:.:::z!:.' ..'-;. ;. ',!:!]:::,.' . , '' :- - .' .1.,A, '' --: , "-'...,:.:: :': -i -,-: ..-, -: ,---" ,---,-. -:I, . --:,,-----':!.. ,I ... .... .: 11-. --"' "-,, I.. -"'-.' '.."-' Irrigation - .- "....''.-----,. ""!'. -, ........''.. ....... ,-',.'::.'..":-__ .... ...:: "'.' ': :.:....... .: !:'.''-: fields :I:",'::::,.:!:..:!::i:!:::.:::":::.::f::.::,.:.;::XRaised , ,:. .:- '.:: : !.;.;!x .... :: .. .:..II..... ... ..:::.....I..: :::]Y. !:..! :..:... :::!!::: :A.:':.:.:: .. . ...' .A.1 :!. . -,:::.j:. :: -v - ,: %..-'..: n :.:' :i!j!!!!' ....-. -;:-'..P i'!!!::RRoads, causeways I .'":.'..-_' '. . . , .::.'. . .. : " , :!:.i:::.'-' ' , ,I ,..-.: 77 " I ' -::';: .:... ':.I I'1111,111,'." - - ,.I":; :, : ;g , -, .' , .. ':-:,,:, j -,,.'. -', ,' 'I'll, ""1- ;"---, .'- ,, E.. -,j"-. 1%.. ,:-1--.II.1 I------'-.-,-I II 1-...'' ,-'I. , -. ,I: -, ',I:' -I'.. .I%-"' :."' .-': I,: . ','. ,. '.: .. ... -111 -..' .. .". ...I.-.. , ,! .::::.-! ..I: -,: .. .-i . -, . ...-Z.-. .-.. ,I :, .........'.' vi!: i,.%, ::!:i. ..II'-.::'qi i.;:i ... .i:. ..'' ,...I.::' ::;iY"':. I0800 1600 km -...
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It is possibleto concludenotonlythat"the virgin forest was not encountered in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; [butthat] it was invented in the lateeighteenth and early nineteenth centuries"(Pyne1982,46). However, "paradoxical as it mayseem, therewas undoubtedly much more 'forestprimeval' in

1850than in 1650" (Rostlund 1957,409). Thus the "invention" of an earlierwildernessis in and is notsimply partunderstandable a deliberate creationwhichennobled the American enterprise, as suggested by Bowden(1992,2023). In any event,while pre-European landscape alteration has been demonstrated pre-

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The PristineMyth

381

viously, the including byseveralgeographers, case has mainly been made forvegetation and mainly foreasternNorth As shown America. is also applicableto most here,the argument of the restof the New World,including the humidtropics, and involves muchmorethan vegetation. The humanimpacton environment is not simply a processof increasing changeor degradation in response to linear population growth and economicexpansion.It is instead interrupted and ecologbyperiodsof reversal ical rehabilitation as cultures collapse,populations decline, wars occur, and habitatsare abandoned. Impacts bemaybe constructive, nign, or degenerative (all subjective concepts), butchangeis continual rates at variable and in different directions.Even mild impactsand slow changes are cumulative, and the longterm can be dramatic. Is itpossiblethat effects the thousandsof yearsof humanactivity before Columbus created more change in the visible landscape than has occurred subsequently with European settlement and resourceexploitation? The answeris probably forthe next250 yearsor yes formostregions so, and forsome regionsright up to the presenttime.American and landscape flora, fauna, were slowlyEuropeanized after 1492,but beforethattheyhad already been Indianized. "It is upon this imprint that the more familiar Euro-American landscapewas grafted, rather than created anew" (Butzer1990, 28). What does all thismeanforprotectionist tendencies Muchofwhatis protected or proposed today? to be protected humandisturbance from had native people present, and environmental modification occurredaccordingly and in part is still detectable. The pristine image of 1492 seems to be a myth, then,an imagemoreapplicable to 1750, Indian decline, althoughrecovery following had only been partialby thatdate. There is somesubstance to this argument, and itshould hold up underthe scrutiny of further investievidenceavailable, gationof the considerable bothwritten and in the ground. Acknowledgments
The fieldand library research thatprovided the for this background essaywas undertaken overmany yearsin Latin and Madison.MenAmerica, Berkeley, torswho have been particularly influential are Carl 0. Sauer, Erhard Rostlund, JamesJ. Parsons,and

Woodrow all investigators oftopicsdiscussed Borah, here.

Notes
1. Sauer had a life-long interest in thistopic (1963, 1966,1971,1980). of 2. See Nash (1967)on the "romantic wilderness" America;Bowden (1992,9-12) on the 'invented of the "primeval forest"of New Entradition" imgland;and Manthorne (1989,10-21) on artists' 'Eden" ofSouthAmerica. Day ages ofthetropical (1953,329) providesnumerousquotationsfrom Parkman "virgin," and on 'wilderness" and "vast," "icontinuous" forest. 3. Forexample, a 1991advertisement fora Time-Life video refers to "the unspoiledbeaches, forests, and mountains of an earlierAmerica" and "the shoresof ChesapeakeBayin 1607." pristine 4. On theotherhand,theability of Indians to clear largetreeswith inefficient stoneaxes,assistedby girdling and deadeningby fire,mayhave been Silver overestimated(Denevan forthcoming). ofCarolina theuplandforests (1990, 51) notesthat werelargely uninhabited forthisreason. 5. Similarconclusionswere reached by foresters Maxwell(1910)and Day (1953); by geographers Sauer(1963), Brown Rostlund (1957), (1948,11-19), histoand Bowden(1992);and byenvironmental rians and 49-51), Pyne (1982,45-51), Cronon(1983, Silver (1990, 59-66). 6. B. Williams evidenceof (1989,730) findsstrong ruraloverpopulation (66 percentin poor crop 11 percent inaverageyears)inthe Basinof years, Mexicovillage of Asunci6n, ca. A.D. 1540,which was probably phe"notunique buta widespread nomenon."For a contrary conclusion,thatthe Aztecsdid notexceed carrying see Ortiz capacity, de Montellano (1990,119). 7. Highland Guatemala provides another prehistoric of "severehuman disturbance" involving example and "massive" soil erosion(slopes) deforestation anddeposition 186).Forthe (valleys) (Murdy 1990, Andesthereis some evidencethatmuch central of the puna zone (3200-4500 m), now grassand was deforested in prehistoric times(White scrub, 1985). in partjustified occu8. The English colonists their pationof Indianlandon the basis thatsuch land had notbeen "subdued"and therefore was "land freeto be taken"(Wilson 1992,16).

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