Chapter 10

Agricultural Terraces in Mexico

José Manuel Pérez Sánchez

Abstract The Mexican territory’s geographical characteristics allow the development of diverse agricultural systems, which have been practiced since ancient times. The terrace system is one of these, and it is found in various challenging landscapes, such as hills, cliffs, and ravines. This work aims to show the diversity of agricultural terraces in Mexico and present a general description of this system’s characteristics. Studies in this field identify several types of terraces: terraces with stone walls, metepantles, and lama-bordo. To understand the characteristics of these terraces, a documentary review of five Mexican regions was made: Tlaxcala, the basin of Mexico, the valley of Toluca, the Mixteca Alta, and the Mayan area. Traditional agricultural systems in Mexico are an important subject, studied by archeologists and anthropologists from the perspective of traditional agriculture, agroforestry systems, and traditional ecological knowledge. This paper’s introduction emphasizes the role of agricultural terraces for the development of civilization in Mesoamerica, specifically in central Mexico, the Mixteca Alta, and the Mayan area. Traditional agriculture and the different agricultural systems practiced in Mexico are also addressed. The document continues with the subject of terraces, presenting the various names given to them in different studies and regions. Terraces in Mexico have always been important for societal development—from ancient cultures to the rural communities managing the systems today. Through terraces, models may be generated to help improve soil management, control erosional processes, and support food security for the population.

J. M. Pérez Sánchez (&)

Faculty of Anthropology, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Mariano Matamoros sur s/n, Colonia Universidad, Toluca CP 50130, Mexico e-mail: jmps9@hotmail.com

M. Varotto et al. (eds.), World Terraced Landscapes: History, Environment, Quality of Life, Environmental History 9, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96815-5_10

10.1Introduction

In Mexico, agricultural terraces are a system of ancient origin that, along with other agricultural systems (chinampas), allowed the development of pre-Hispanic societies. Most studies on terraces highlight archeological and geographic–cultural analyses, leaving aside social organization, construction, and maintenance methods, as well as changes in the terraces themselves. However, some recent anthropological research is beginning to examine these important, left-behind considerations (Pérez 2014). The objective here is to examine these considerations by presenting a general overview of the terraces in five Mexican regions: Tlaxcala, the Toluca Valley, the basin of Mexico, Oaxaca, and the Mayan area.

In Mexico, the debate concerning intensive farming systems was crucial to the origin and development of Mesoamerican civilization. Three important, representative cases are the basin of Mexico, the Mayan area, and Oaxaca. In the early 1950s, Palerm (1972) became interested in the relationship between cultivation techniques and civilization development in the basin of Mexico. He studied and compared the systems of slash-and-burn, fallow, and irrigation as they relate to productivity, demography, and urbanism. After analyzing each agricultural system, Palerm concludes that the Mesoamerican civilization did not emerge from areas of slash-and-burn agriculture. Its origins might be in an area with fallow agriculture, which was slightly more settled and semi-permanent. However, Palerm ultimately claims that urban culture originated and developed in places with irrigated agriculture, and from there it spread. Both the environment and the technological levels of agriculture are elements that limited and conditioned the spread of civilization in Mesoamerica.

Palerm and Wolf (1972) describe the importance of the irrigation system in the old Acolhuacán Dominion (Northeastern Mexico City) and relate the agricultural terraces to the irrigation system in the Somontano and the Sierra. They document that, according to ancient remains, past irrigation systems were associated with terraces. The terraces contained a network of canals that carried water from springs to deposits for domestic purposes, and the inhabitants cultivated the terraces and built houses on them.

Pérez (2006) considers that the development of agriculture and complex societies occurred independently in different places in Mesoamerica. For example, in the Mixtec Region such societies developed around 1200 BC, when there was high economic potential due to elevated population densities, regional markets, and sociocultural development. In the Mixtec Region, the degree of agricultural and socioeconomic complexity was equal to that of the valley of Mexico and the Mayan area. In a complex environment such as the Mixtecan, both society and agriculture had to adapt and did so by constructing various terraced systems for both housing and agriculture. Pérez (2006), like Palerm, argues that, in the Mixteca Alta, lamabordo terraces and their agricultural production were important for civilization development. This contributes to the discussion of the role of society, the State, and domestic units in landscape transformation and the creation of intensive agricultural terrace systems in the region.

The hydraulic hypothesis for the development of civilization in Mesoamerica’s central highlands suggests that elsewhere (e.g., in the Mayan area) civilization originated through hydraulic agriculture—that irrigation systems similar to those in the central highlands were required for development. However, this supposition is not valid in the Mayan area because the environmental conditions of the humid tropics do not necessitate large irrigation works, or other agricultural irrigation systems, for complex societies to develop (Lobato 1988). In the Mayan area currently, the most extensive agricultural system is the slash-and-burn technique, which is purported to be the technique used by the ancient Mayan people.

Around the early 1970s, other agricultural systems in the Mayan area, such as terraces, drained fields, and orchards, were discovered, revealing that Mayan agriculture was more diverse than previously thought. In the mid-1970s, a more intensive study on the terraces began (Harrison and Turner II 1978). Turner II (1974) reports agricultural terraces between the states of Campeche and Quintana Roo on the banks of the Becan River. Interest in studying terraces reinforced the claim that the Mayan people practiced other intensive systems adapted to the humid tropic environment, not merely the slash-and-burn technique (Lobato 1988).

10.2Traditional Agricultural Systems

The study of traditional agricultural systems began in Mexico with anthropological and archeological research (Palerm 1967; Palerm and Wolf 1972). Archeology has played a key role in documenting the origins of agriculture and the domestication of plants and animals. Traditional agriculture, by feeding human groups, allowed the emergence of irrigation, urbanism, and the State in ancient societies. Traditional agricultural systems are of ancient origin and are adapted to local environmental conditions such as relief, soil, altitude, rainfall, humidity, and climate (González 2016).

In Mexico, a wide variety of agricultural systems are known: slash-and-burn, fallow, intensive rainfed moisture and irrigation, temporary, tlacolol, rotation, coamil, chinampas, camellones, marceño, tecallis, mawechis, marsh agriculture, terraces, banquetera, kool, milpa, huamil, oasis, cacao plantations, agroforests, kuajtakiloyan, calal, metepantles, te’lom, and orchards (Aguilar et al. 2003; Palerm 2008; Moreno et al. 2013, 2016; González 2016). These agricultural systems result from a long process of adapting to the conditions and requirements of the geographical and socioeconomic environment, and they have resulted in a repertoire of cultivable plants with alimentary and commercial value, agricultural technology, and family organization for agricultural work. The importance placed on family units is visible in the way farmers manage different agricultural systems through crop diversity, production destinations, family work, and traditional ecological knowledge (Moctezuma et al. 2015).