Charles C. Mann Quote

Metal tools largely created slash-and-burn agriculture, William M. Denevan, the Wisconsin geographer, told me. This picture of swidden as this ancient practice by which Indians kept themselves in a timeless balance with Nature—that is mostly or entirely a myth, I think. At least there’s no evidence for it, and a fair amount of evidence against it, including the evidence of simple logic. Slash-and-burn, supposedly a quintessentially Amazonian trait, is a modern intrusion.

Charles C. Mann

Metal tools largely created slash-and-burn agriculture, William M. Denevan, the Wisconsin geographer, told me. This picture of swidden as this ancient practice by which Indians kept themselves in a timeless balance with Nature—that is mostly or entirely a myth, I think. At least there’s no evidence for it, and a fair amount of evidence against it, including the evidence of simple logic. Slash-and-burn, supposedly a quintessentially Amazonian trait, is a modern intrusion.

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