The Role of Guadua Bamboo in Land Management and Indigenous Perspectives on Bamboo Ecosystems in Southwestern Amazonia

Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen, Francisco Apurinã, Kalle Ruokolainen, Lucas Manchineri

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

Abstract

We examine the Indigenous uses, oral histories, and knowledge of native Guadua bamboo species in southwestern Amazonia. Two Guadua species form dense stands in which individual plants die en masse at regular intervals of about 28 years. Scholars suggested that pre-colonial earth builders took advantage of these die-off events as a natural aid in removing the forest to construct geometric earthworks. Our results show that Guadua species have a significant position in Indigenous socio-cosmologies, land use, and as a protector of diverse resources. Indigenous ontological understandings cannot be separated from discussions of the abundance and geographical distribution of Guadua as a critical controlling factor in the vegetation structure and function of southwestern Amazonian rain forests. Furthermore, oral histories point to the connection between land management and bamboo, as well as bamboo and the use of fire, conforming to the suggestion of opening ceremonial spaces in bamboo patches in pre-colonial earthwork societies.
Original languageEnglish
JournalHuman Ecology
Issue number50
Pages (from-to)1077–1088
Number of pages12
ISSN0300-7839
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2022
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Fields of Science

  • 6160 Other humanities
  • Guadua bamboo
  • Indigenous onto-epistemology
  • Animacy
  • Forest structure
  • Pre-colonial geoglyphs
  • Southwestern Amazonia
  • Brazil
  • DOMINATED FORESTS
  • UPPER PURUS
  • FIRE
  • ACRE
  • IMPACT
  • CYCLE

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