Abstract

GAINETTE PRATES, Luís Enrique. Human adaptation and occupation of the Amazon environments by pre-Columbian indigenous populations. Cuad. Geogr. Rev. Colomb. Geogr. [online]. 2016, vol.25, n.1, pp.139-152. ISSN 0121-215X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcdg.v25n1.52596.

The article revises the theories concerning human adaptation and occupation of the different Amazon environments by pre- Columbian populations. The ecological threads in anthropology support a physical environment as having an important role in the daily activities of the people and as interacting with all the components of the cultural system. Nonetheless, contributions from historic ecology and from ethnohistory have revealed new and important data concerning the topic; for example, how the indigenous cultures that survived the Amazonian occupation process have been forced to adapt both physically and to the political and economic external forces that operate in the region. For that reason, this level of adaptation depends also on historical, political, and socioeconomic forces present in this context.

Keywords : Amazon region; ecological determinism; historical ecology; ethnohistory; pre-Columbian indigenous peoples.

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