ABSTRACT
The pre-Columbian farmers had a specialized system of agriculture that physically reshaped large parts of the South American continent. The pre-Columbian inhabitants of the area chose instead to modify the landscape. They raised mounds, causeways and serried ridges for their crops, all of which stood high enough to surmount the floodwaters. Putting together all our evidence concerning pre-Columbian agriculture in the seasonally flooded lowlands of tropical South America, we find that remarkably little is known other than what can be deduced from studying the ridged fields themselves. The well-known chinampas, or artificial islands, of the Valley of Mexico have some characteristics in common with the various drainage-promoting earthworks that are found in South America. New archaeological evidence and new analyses of historical records attest to the existence of a surprisingly large aboriginal population in many parts of tropical South America.
