Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T06:17:39.867Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An essay on energetics: the construction of the Aztec chinampa system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Lee J. Arco  and
Elliot M. Abrams
Lee J. Arco
Affiliation:
1Department of Anthropology, Washington University of Saint Louis, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
Elliot M. Abrams
Affiliation:
2Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, USA (Email: Abrams@ohio.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The authors describe an ingenious Aztec form of irrigated field system and assess its costs and benefits. Swamps were reclaimed by digging channels by hand and the excavated soil used to construct embanked fields (chinampas). The banks were anchored by planted trees and the trees, the crops and the water channels created a sheltered space which itself raised the temperature and increased productivity. The construction of the whole system took 25 million person-days spread over 40 years. In their study of the energetics of construction, the authors show that this project, forced on the local community, was within their capacity and comparable to the labour expended on the production of cloth.

Keywords

AztecCentral Americafifteenth-sixteenth centuries CEirrigationagricultureswamp reclamation
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 310 , 1 December 2006 , pp. 906 - 918
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams, E.M. 1994. How the Maya Built Their World: Energetics and Ancient Architecture. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Abrams, E.M. 1998. Structures as Sites: The Construction Process and Maya Architecture, in Houston, S. (ed.) Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture: 123–40. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C. Google Scholar
Abrams, E.M. & Bolland, T. 1999. Architectural Energetics, Ancient Monuments, and Operations Management. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 6: 263–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armillas, P. 1971. Garden on Swamps. Science 174: 653–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berdan, F., Masson, M., Gasco, J. & Smith, M.. 2003. An International Economy, in Smith, M. & Berdan, F. (ed.) The Postclassic Mesoamerican World: 96–108. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Berres, T. 2000. Climatic Change and Lacustrine Resources at the Period of Initial Aztec Development. Ancient Mesoamerica 11: 27–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brumfiel, E. 1991. Agricultural Development and Class Stratification in the Southern Valley of Mexico, in Harvey, H.R. (ed.) Land and Politics in the Valley of Mexico: A Two Thousand Year Perspective: 43–62. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Brumfiel, E. 1996. The Quality of Cloth Tribute: The Place of Evidence in Archaeological Argument. American Antiquity 61: 453–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coe, M. 1964. The Chinampas of Mexico. Scientific American 211: 90–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crossley, P. 1999. Sub-Irrigation and Temperature Amelioration in Chinampa Agriculture. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Texas. Austin.Google Scholar
DeLaine, J. 1997. The Baths of Caracalla: a study in the design, construction and economics of large-scale building projects in imperial Rome. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 25. Portsmouth, Rhode Island.Google Scholar
Denevan, W.M. & Turner, B.L.. 1982. Hydraulic Agriculture in the American Tropics: Forms, Measures, and Recent Research, in Flanner, K. (ed.) Maya Subsistence: Studies in Memory of Dennis E. Puleston: 181–204. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Erasmus, C. 1965. Monument Building: Some Field Experiments. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 21: 277–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, S. (ed.) 1988. Excavations at Cihuatecpan (Vanderbilt Publications in Anthropology 36). Nashville: Vanderbilt University.Google Scholar
Evans, S. 1990. The Productivity of Maguey Terrace Agriculture in Central Mexico During the Aztec Period. Latin American Antiquity 1: 117–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, S. 1991. Architecture and Authority in an Aztec Village: Form and Function of the Tecpan, in Harvey, H.R. (ed.) Land and Politics in the Valley of Mexico: A Two Thousand Year Perspective: 63–92. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Frederick, C.D. 1999. Chinampa Cultivation in the Basin of Mexico: Observations on the Evolution of Form and Function. Paper presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Chicago.Google Scholar
Gomez-Pompa, A., Morales, H.L., Avila, E.J. & Avila, J.J.. 1982. Experiences in Traditional Hydraulic Agriculture, in Flannery, K. (ed.) Maya Subsistence: Studies in Memory of Dennis E. Puleston: 327–42. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hassig, R. 1988. Aztec Warfare. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Hicks, F. 1994. Cloth in the Political Economy of the Aztec State, in Hodge, M. & Smith, M. (ed.) Economies and Polities in the Aztec Realm: 89–112. Albany, New York: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies.Google Scholar
Hodge, M. 1994. Polities Composing the Aztec Empire's Core, in Hodge, M. & Smith, M. (ed.) Economies and Polities in the Aztec Realm: 43–72. Albany, New York: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies.Google Scholar
Kovar, A. 1970. Physical and Biological Environment of the Basin of Mexico, in Sanders, W., Kovar, A., Charlton, T. & Diehl, R. (ed.) The Teotihuacan Valley Project Final Report Vol. 1: The Natural Environment, Contemporary Occupation and 16th Century Population of the Valley (Occasional Papers in Anthropology 3): 13–67. Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University.Google Scholar
Nichols, D.L. & Frederick, C.. 1993. Irrigation Canals and Chinampas: Recent Research in the Northern Basin of Mexico, in Scarborough, V. (ed.) Research in Economic Anthropology: Economic Aspects of Water Management in the Pre-Hispanic New World (JAI Press Supplement 7): 123–50.Google Scholar
Parsons, J.R. 1976a. The Role of Chinampa Agriculture in the Food Supply of Aztec Tenochtitlan, in Cleland, C.E. (ed.) Cultural Change and Continuity: 233–57. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Parsons, J.R. 1976b. Settlement and Population History of the Basin of Mexico, in Wolf, E. (ed.) The Valley of Mexico: 69–100. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Parsons, J.R. 1991. Political Implication of Pre-Hispanic Chinampa Agriculture in the Valley of Mexico, in Harvey, H.R. (ed.) Land and Politics in the Valley of Mexico: A Two Thousand Year Perspective: 17–41. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Parsons, J., Brumfiel, E., Parsons, M. & Wilson, D.. 1982. Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in the Southern Valley of Mexico, The Chalco – Xochimilco Region (University of Michigan Memoir 14). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, W.T. 1957. Tierra y Agua: A Study of the Ecological Factors in the Development of Mesoamerican Civilizations. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, Cambridge (MA).Google Scholar
Sanders, W.T. 1965. The Cultural Ecology of the Teotihuacan Valley: A Preliminary Report of the Results of the Teotihuacan Valley Project. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University Park (PA).Google Scholar
Sanders, W.T. 1976. The Agricultural History of the Basin of Mexico, in Wolf, E. (ed.) The Valley of Mexico: 101–59. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Sanders, W.T., Parsons, J.R. & Santley, R.S.. 1979. The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Scarborough, V. 2003. The Flow of Power: Ancient Water Systems and Landscapes. Santa Fe (NM): School of American Research Press.Google Scholar
Smith, M. 1996. The Aztecs. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Townsend, R. 1992. The Aztecs. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Vaillant, G.C. 1966. Aztecs of Mexico: Origin, Rise, and Fall of the Aztec Nation. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Webster, D. & Kirker, J.. 1995. Too Many Maya, Too Few Buildings: Investigating Construction Potential at Copán, Honduras. Journal of Anthropological Research 51: 363–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilken, G.C. 1969. Drained Field Agriculture: An Intensive Farming System in Tlaxcala Mexico. Geographical Review 59: 215–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittfogel, K. 1957. Oriental Despotism. NewHaven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar