The legacy of cultural landscapes in the Brazilian Amazon: implications for biodiversity
The legacy of cultural landscapes in the Brazilian Amazon: implications for biodiversity
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DOI：
10.1098/rstb.2006.1979
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发表时间：
2007-02-28
影响因子：
6.3
通讯作者：
Schmidt, Morgan J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Heckenberger, Michael J.;Russell, J. Christian;Schmidt, Morgan J.
几个世纪以来，在西方科学界和大众的想象中，亚马逊一直是一片原始森林，只有居住在该地区的小型、简单和分散的群体对它的影响很小。历史生态学的研究驳斥了这一观点。比起原始的热带森林，一些地区更适合被看作是被建造或“驯化”的景观，在过去被土著群体极大地改变了。本文回顾了最近在亚马逊河沿岸几个地区的考古研究，并提供了前欧洲（距今400-500日历年）大规模占领和森林和湿地环境大规模转变的证据。对位于新古河源头的封闭热带森林南部边缘的研究，被强调为亚马逊地区人工自然的一个例子。在所有情况下，人类的影响都极大地改变了生物群落和生态环境的分布、频率和配置。历史变化和文化变异的研究结果，包括各种中小型复杂社会，对保护和可持续性的问题，特别是对亚马逊地区生物历史多样性的“热点”构成的问题有明确的影响。
For centuries Amazonia has held the Western scientific and popular imagination as a primordial forest, only minimally impacted by small, simple and dispersed groups that inhabit the region. Studies in historical ecology refute this view. Rather than pristine tropical forest, some areas are better viewed as constructed or 'domesticated' landscapes, dramatically altered by indigenous groups in the past. This paper reviews recent archaeological research in several areas along the Amazon River with evidence of large pre-European (ca 400-500 calendar years before the present) occupations and large-scale transformations of forest and wetland environments. Research from the southern margins of closed tropical forest, in the headwaters of the Xingu River, are highlighted as an example of constructed nature in the Amazon. In all cases, human influences dramatically altered the distribution, frequency and configurations of biological communities and ecological settings. Findings of historical change and cultural variability, including diverse small to medium- sized complex societies, have clear implications for questions of conservation and sustainability and, specifically, what constitutes 'hotspots' of bio-historical diversity in the Amazon region.