Pre-Columbian Urbanism, Anthropogenic Landscapes, and the Future of the Amazon Export

@article{citeulike:3171000, abstract = {The archaeology of pre-Columbian polities in the Amazon River basin forces a reconsideration of early urbanism and long-term change in tropical forest landscapes. We describe settlement and land-use patterns of complex societies on the eve of European contact (after 1492) in the Upper Xingu region of the Brazilian Amazon. These societies were organized in articulated clusters, representing small independent polities, within a regional peer polity. These patterns constitute a "galactic" form of prehistoric urbanism, sharing features with small-scale urban polities in other areas. Understanding long-term change in coupled human-environment systems relating to these societies has implications for conservation and sustainable development, notably to control ecological degradation and maintain regional biodiversity. 10.1126/science.1159769}, author = {Heckenberger, Michael J. and Russell, Christian J. and Fausto, Carlos and Toney, Joshua R. and Schmidt, Morgan J. and Pereira, Edithe and Franchetto, Bruna and Kuikuro, Afukaka}, citeulike-article-id = {3171000}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1159769}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/321/5893/1214}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18755979}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=18755979}, day = {29}, doi = {10.1126/science.1159769}, journal = {Science}, keywords = {amazon, archaeology, development, savageminds, urban}, month = {August}, number = {5893}, pages = {1214--1217}, posted-at = {2008-08-31 07:39:53}, priority = {2}, title = {Pre-Columbian Urbanism, Anthropogenic Landscapes, and the Future of the Amazon}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1159769}, volume = {321}, year = {2008} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:3171000 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3171000 N2 - The archaeology of pre-Columbian polities in the Amazon River basin forces a reconsideration of early urbanism and long-term change in tropical forest landscapes. We describe settlement and land-use patterns of complex societies on the eve of European contact (after 1492) in the Upper Xingu region of the Brazilian Amazon. These societies were organized in articulated clusters, representing small independent polities, within a regional peer polity. These patterns constitute a "galactic" form of prehistoric urbanism, sharing features with small-scale urban polities in other areas. Understanding long-term change in coupled human-environment systems relating to these societies has implications for conservation and sustainable development, notably to control ecological degradation and maintain regional biodiversity. 10.1126/science.1159769 IS - 5893 JF - Science EP - 1217 TI - Pre-Columbian Urbanism, Anthropogenic Landscapes, and the Future of the Amazon VL - 321 SP - 1214 KW - amazon KW - archaeology KW - development KW - savageminds KW - urban AU - Heckenberger, Michael AU - Russell, Christian AU - Fausto, Carlos AU - Toney, Joshua AU - Schmidt, Morgan AU - Pereira, Edithe AU - Franchetto, Bruna AU - Kuikuro, Afukaka PY - 2008/08/29/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1159769 ER -