ABSTRACT
Studies suggest that aboriginal populations in the New World tropics were considerably larger than previously assumed (Dobyns 1966; Denevan 1976; Lathrop 1968; Hemming 1978). Indigenous agricultural and ecological management systems have likewise been shown to be more sophisticated and productive than expected, and, consequently, to offer a higher aboriginal population potential (Posey and Hecht 1988; Barbira-Scazzocchio 1981; Moran 1981a). Other prevailing misconceptions have also been undermined; for example, it is no longer accepted that indigenous agricultural systems were simple and poorly developed or ‘marginal’ (Meggers 1971; Goodland and Irwin 1975); nor that all tropical ecological zones are insufficiently fertile to support substantial human populations (Moran 1979, 1981a; Smith 1980).
