Casual Cultivation among Contemporary Small Scale Farmers in Southwestern Tamaulipas, Mexico, and Implications for Prehistoric Low-level Food Production
J. Kevin Hanselka
Contemporary small-scale farmers near Ocampo, Tamaulipas, Mexico demonstrate behaviors that have broader implications for prehistoric human ecology. Common incidences of casual, informal cultivation of squashes and gourds take place around routine seasonal activities, often miles away from homes and conventional agricultural plots. These observations elucidate prehistoric subsistence behaviors in a region historically known for archaeological data concerning low-level food production. Such activities may serve as analogies for behaviors characterizing the extended period following the arrival of cultigens in Ocampo about 6,500 years ago, until the establishment of the first settled agricultural villages around 3,500 years ago.
