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["Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

> but it also makes much of the
> development of maiz and how that revolutionized the diet of
> peoples around the world.

Jared Diamond make the case in his book "Guns, Germs, and Steel" that corn 
allowed the empires to develop but also in the end also restricted the size 
of the empires and made it easy for upstarts to create new empires.  Several 
other books also point out that the surplus of corn is also making us 
"People of the Corn."

The mental image I'm having on the part I'm listening to now
> is mini-farms covering the Peruvian hillsides where families
> raised the majority of their own foods but also participated
> in a co-operative community.

I don't have my books here to refresh my memory but one low land culture 
developed an interesting farming method for areas prone to winter flooding 
and summer droughts.  Tall walled garden beds were built on the flood plain 
and farmed during floods.  In summer the areas between were farmed.  Water 
trapped in the tall beds helped irrigate the lower beds and also shaded them 
from the summer sun.

> I'm just wondering what you thought of this book and the
> archelogical and agricultural interpretations it presents?