ABSTRACT
The grisly history of the Amazon is one of conquest, disease, slavery, persecution and displacement of the natives, leading to dizzying demographic collapses (cf. Hemming 1987). More than just colourful rituals and quaint folkways were lost in the attrition and extinction of native populations. The science constituting the material base of these societies was often partially or completely destroyed, including their soil knowledge and management techniques. The Kayapó certainly suffered from contact, but they were never formally dominated or enslaved (Bamberger 1967). To the contrary, they routinely terrorized other groups of the upper Xingu and Araguaia River Basins. They have been able to maintain and reproduce their sciences of agronomy and pedology thereby providing hints of forms of intensive agriculture which might have permitted the growth of larger regional populations.
