Accession Number:

AD0679468

Title:

A RECONNAISSANCE OF SOUTHERN ANDEAN AGRICULTURAL TERRACING.

Descriptive Note:

Final rept.,

Corporate Author:

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES-NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL WASHINGTON D C FOREIGN FIELD RESEARCH PROGRAM

Personal Author(s):

• Field,Chris

Report Date:

1966-01-01

Pagination or Media Count:

519.0

Abstract:

The study in cultural geography concerns agricultural terracing in the Andes of Northern Chile and the Argentine Northwest. From knowledge of the environmental contexts of agricultural terracing, and the distribution of its practice, inferences concerning the operation of cultural processes are attempted. Qualitative data about agricultural terracing in localized contexts is presented. Terracing was found to be practiced in continuation of pre-Columbian technology as well as in contexts of more modern origin. The terracing traditions remain the strongest in isolation from national economies but are associated with cropping systems modified from the aboriginal. Today, as in the past, terracing technology is intimately related to irrigation and the availability of water. Not all agriculturalists were dependent on terracings. The terrace is a highly variable and only sometimes distinctive cultural artifact. Author

Descriptors:

• (*AGRICULTURE
• *SOUTH AMERICA)
• (*TERRAIN
• SOUTH AMERICA)
• DISTRIBUTION
• HISTORY
• GEOGRAPHY
• IRRIGATION SYSTEMS
• WATER
• ECONOMICS
• DIFFUSION
• RIVERS
• EROSION
• SOILS
• DRAINAGE
• FLOODS
• MOUNTAINS
• THESES
• ARGENTINA
• CHILE

Subject Categories:

• Agricultural Economics
• Agronomy, Horticulture and Aquiculture

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE