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  • From: Rain Tenaqiya <raincascadia@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Toby, please define horticultural society
  • Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 19:40:53 -0800 (PST)

Hi Toby,

Could you please define what you mean by horticultural society? The
sociology textbook I read in the early 90's did not characterize any cultures
in the Americas as agricultural. The closest thing was "advanced
horticultural society." As I recall, the definition hinged on the use of the
plow, which never occured in the Americas due to the lack of domesticated
animals suitable for pulling one. Many cultures in the Americas seemed just
as sophisticated and screwed up as early agricultural societies in Eurasia,
such as in Egypt and Southeast Asia, particularly the Maya. The Maya, of
course, deforested and eroded the land they depended on without using a plow,
so it seems you are referring to what this book called "simple horticultural
societies." Many, or most, of these cultures practice swidden, or slash and
burn, which can be sustainable and even promote biological diversity if the
population density is low enough. However, it seems that we are a long, long
way away
from getting the humun population down to that level, and it would probably
require giving up all or most of the modern electronics and other industrial
goods which most of us cherish (such as solar photovoltaics, plastic pipe,
pumps, telephones, etc). A society with such as low population density
probably could not support the kind of economy required to produce such
things. Are you just describing the kind of farming that you think we should
be doing, or the entire culture? Is it possible to separate the two? Is it
possible to produce enough food with horticulture to support the people
producing other things? I am really interested in the answers to these
questions. What do you think?

Rain


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  • [permaculture] Toby, please define horticultural society, Rain Tenaqiya, 01/31/2007

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