tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362115269031083756.post7824917434269161520..comments2024-03-20T19:06:07.339-04:00Comments on Notes from the Ethnoground: Rainforest Crunch: Origins of the Brazil nut in ancient Amazonia (Bertholletia excelsa)Glenn H. Shepardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18241377494829249336noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362115269031083756.post-31234403770269507392015-05-16T19:50:54.124-04:002015-05-16T19:50:54.124-04:00Yes, it took a while to dig into the nested Matrio...Yes, it took a while to dig into the nested Matrioshka-doll references and work my way back to Ducke's original hypothesis. Always interesting to hear more evidence, circumstantial as it may be, about the association of Brazil nut groves with ancient sites of human occupation. The "smoking gun" is going to have to come from archeology, not ethnobotany, so I urge you all to go out there and please! Prove me wrong! Or right! Or some other explanation altogether different! Thanks for the feedback, GlennGlenn H. Shepardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18241377494829249336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362115269031083756.post-26287859193111815592015-05-16T17:34:59.320-04:002015-05-16T17:34:59.320-04:00Also, Glenn and Marcos: While working at lithic si...Also, Glenn and Marcos: While working at lithic sites in the middle Xingu along the Curua river, traveling in riverboats, we saw many Brazil nut groves at abandoned villages. They furnished a great supplement to our monotonous diet of rice, beans, and manioc.Annanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362115269031083756.post-47144781309880312442015-05-16T17:32:08.118-04:002015-05-16T17:32:08.118-04:00Glenn: I'm glad to be reminded of Ducke's ...Glenn: I'm glad to be reminded of Ducke's prescience about the anthropic Brazil nut groves and to hear about your and the others recent studies confirming it. And thank you for remembering Caverna de Pedra Pintada's Terminal Pleistocene Brazil nut specimen, for which Scott Mori confirmed the botanical identification.Annanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362115269031083756.post-33476988955570216262012-09-04T11:12:33.267-04:002012-09-04T11:12:33.267-04:00Dear Marcos,
Thanks for your knowledgeable obser...Dear Marcos, <br /><br />Thanks for your knowledgeable observations and questions. Hunter-gatherer populations 11,000 years ago already seemed to be eating Brazil nuts. No one "depends" on Brazil nut, but considering how nutritious and delicious it is, and how adaptable it is to anthropogenic environments, it seems natural that people would use and manage it. But other than that one mention of Brazil nut from Pedra Pintada, and lots of contemporary evidence, we don't really know how extensive Brazil nut use was in ancient times. <br /><br />Nor do we have clear evidence how, when or if it was cultivated or managed. The genetic and linguistic evidence suggests a pattern of expansion that would have to be confirmed by additional work especially by archeologists. <br /><br />I'd be glad to look at your photos. I've seen Brazil nuts planted in native gardens all the way up on the Içana River, it's easy enough for people to carry and plant it, which makes me suspect they have done so for quite a long time. Send me your email and we can correspond further. <br /><br />Thanks again for your comments, <br /><br />GlennGlenn H. Shepardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18241377494829249336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362115269031083756.post-7586813738497426122012-09-03T16:26:57.963-04:002012-09-03T16:26:57.963-04:00we have two questions here. one is how much did an...we have two questions here. one is how much did ancient peoples in amazonia depend on the brazil nut. Considering how much fish and game a well organized tribe can complement a diet based on cassava, I think it is hardly necessary. Other agricultural societies were much larger based on less productive crops, like wheat, maize or rice. It´s much more a problem of social organization than of agricultural technology. The other question is how much they helped spread this tree over long distances. <br />There is already a large scientific literature that proves that traditional slash and burn agriculture, hunting and gathering of nuts improves bertholletia`s regeneration. I indeed saw it in the field. On the shores of igarapé pupunha I saw many brazil nut trees growing in the igapó near abandoned vilages. This is obviously impossible to occur without the help of man, and although it does not thrive as much as in the terra firme, it shows how much people can help spread the tree. <br /><br />I´d like you to comment on some pictures I took from a tree in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, it is one of the most productive trees I´ve ever seen, in a region with a very short dry season (I think there is hardly a month without rain in a decade there), which goes against general observations of most brazil nut trees.<br /><br />good blog, congratulations!Marcos Bentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05277468642717302713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362115269031083756.post-22422624223754652372012-08-17T20:16:19.182-04:002012-08-17T20:16:19.182-04:00Dear Cesar, Thanks for your comment, you certainly...Dear Cesar, Thanks for your comment, you certainly know the situation of Peruvian Brazil nut harvest as well as anyone. This is precisely the point made in the 2011 Scoles & Gribel article in Human Ecology, though over a time scale of centuries: heavily managed Brazil nut groves are much more productive than ones that are abandoned by humans. In fact, "natural" Brazil nut groves with no human intervention go slowly extinct with time, since regeneration falls to nil. Thanks again, Glenn<br />Glenn H. Shepardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18241377494829249336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362115269031083756.post-64332252210835801602012-08-17T15:45:27.065-04:002012-08-17T15:45:27.065-04:00Thank you for the note! We can even go further to...Thank you for the note! We can even go further to propose that human management (harvesting plus cleaning around the crown projection) helps to increase the annual crop. I have seen the crops in Tambopata and compared to the non harvested grooves in Manu basin are incredible higher.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02922153292972911673noreply@blogger.com