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  • From: "Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] book question
  • Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:06:53 -0800

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?





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