The Maya Forest Garden Book Review: Sustainability and the “Slash-and-Burn” Myth

Within the Maya anthropology community, many aspects are disputed or debated because of the large number of artifacts and evidence lost during the Spanish invasion in the 16th century. The colonial conquest of the Maya as well as the intensity of the environment have left anthropologists with many unanswered questions. One of the largest questions asked is: What happened to the Maya? Historians such as Jared Diamond offer an answer to this question, suggesting that the Maya people over-exploited their environment. 

While the lack of luxury artifacts from royals and nobles after what is defined as the “Classic Period” (200-900 AD) might point to a demographic collapse because of resource mismanagement, archaeological evidence suggests otherwise. “The Maya Forest Garden: Eight Millennia of Sustainable Cultivation of the Tropical Woodlands” by Anabel Ford and Ronald Nigh focuses on the sustainable agricultural practices of the Maya people, focusing on milpa, a complex form of “slash-and-burn” agriculture. These authors aim to debunk not only the argument of scholars like Diamond but also demonstrate the ingenuity of the Maya milpa and agricultural system.

The main purpose of “The Maya Forest Garden” is to disprove those who discount not only the sustainability of milpa but also those who believe that the Maya caused their downfall because of the over-exploitation of their resources. This is a common theme that is tied throughout the book as the book serves to illustrate how the Maya forest gardens were not only sustainable but also extremely productive and effective in terms of providing resources and water management. The three main successes of this book are the debunking of false narratives, the explanation of modern implications and examples, and the continuity between the crux of the novel, the study in chapters four and five, and the rest of the chapters.

Along with the common theme of proving milpa and forest gardens to be successful and sustainable, there is a continuous theme of providing additional explanations and narratives that both add layers to the Maya’s cultivation tactics and disprove false narratives. An example of this occurs in chapter two of the book. The authors highlight the mistranslation of the Yukatek word “tax,” which has been typically used as the term forest in colonial documents. This book emphasizes the incorrect use of this word and ties it to grander cultural meaning for the Maya people. 

“Kanan k’ax is a well-tended forest or a deity considered a guardian of the forest.” This redefinition not only changed the narrative but also had impactful cultural implications. This not only demonstrates the flaw of the Eurocentric misconception that the Maya desired to exploit the land as means of progress but exemplifies the deep spiritual meaning that milpa and forest gardens have. This example shows how discounting the sustainability and effectiveness of milpa forest garden management not only discounts how Maya cultivated their resources, but also how they spiritually connected to the world around them. By utilizing these switches of narratives, the authors successfully emphasize the connection to the main point.

Another powerful tactic the authors use to illustrate their argument is the mention of modern examples and cases. The authors provide a more modern case study of the Lakantun Maya people, who sectored off and practiced milpa well into the twentieth century. This group displays not only the success of the original practice of milpa from the ancient Maya but also the improvements made by careful management over time. Lakantun’s practice of weed management prevents multiple burns in one milpa cycle. This preserves the organic matter and fertility in the soil. 

Not only does the Lakantun Maya demonstrate the effectiveness and longevity of milpa management, but also how this practice can successfully be applied to modern environments. This grounds the research being discussed and allows the reader to have a modern understanding of the importance and cultural significance of milpa. Providing modern examples also helps the ground of Maya culture in reality. A common narrative is that the Maya is an ancient civilization that has since disappeared. Modern examples such as the Lakantun Maya demonstrate how there are still indigenous Maya people in the Yucatan Peninsula to this day. Furthermore, these examples for individuals who are promoting misconceptions grapple with their assumptions about not only a past ancient civilization, but a modern culture as well.

This book presents not only many different ideas and examples of evidence but also many different forms of arguments to support this. There are historical chronologies, archaeological evidence, and paleoenvironmental evidence to name a few. These are all varying, yet how they are presented and put together provides the book with continuity. 

The strongest example of this is the continuity of the intricacies of milpa management explained in chapter two and the scientific methodology explained in chapter four. On page 71 of chapter two, the authors highlight the differences between infields and outfields. Outfields are cultivated areas that are at varying distances in front of the Maya people’s residential unit. Infields are closer and maintained more often. This page also provides an image of what residential units look like in relation to infields and outfields. 

This connects to chapter four’s scientific method to calculate El Pilar’s population. In chapter four, the authors explain primary residential units, and how they could predict the multitude and where this settlement would be. By connecting the concept of a residential unit household to that defined in chapter two, the book can maintain continuity and use various evidence while presenting it in the same matter. This is one of this book’s greatest strengths and allows the main support of Ford and Nigh’s argument, the research presented in chapters four and five, to be easily understood and assimilated into the more historical data presented in the other chapters. Ultimately, chapters four and five are the greatest successes in this book, combining the changing of narratives and applicable examples to disapprove any who are that the Maya over-exploited their environment.

Although this book is overall effective and has extreme successes in calculating the efficiency of milpa and Maya agricultural management, there are some aspects that either broke away from the book’s goals or did not align with the purpose. There is a huge amount of data and taxa presented in this book, which is vital to the argument discussed, but the number of taxa is often not balanced by the explanation of the significance. 

The most prominent instance of this is in chapter three. Chapter three turns to taxa from paleoenvironmental data and pollen data and a large portion of the chapter are spent explaining the flaws in pollen dating. This explanation is important, but it is not balanced out with an explanation of the significance of this data. The significance is explained in chapter four, but the authors left out an opportunity to add more insight into chapter three.

Another portion that did not align with the authors’ goals was both the use of the word sinner and the lack of explanation of the Eurocentric history of the “Preclassic- Classic- Postclassic” chronology framework. When explaining the spiritual and religious significance of nature and agriculture in chapter two, the authors use the word “sinner” and outline how rainfall “expresses the will of God.” The use of the word sinner and the singularness of “God” does not align with the Maya religion having no hell. 

Although what is said may be accurate, using traditional Western terms to define Maya religion does not align to deconstruct Eurocentric views. Another example of this is the use of the “Preclassic- Classic- Postclassic” chronology framework. This framework does make chronologies more homogenous across historians' and anthropologists' work, but the authors do not address how this is a Western framework being applied to the Maya people and history, once again not unpacking the Eurocentric history.

Ultimately, although this book is dense in data, I would highly recommend this book. It is one thing to know that misconceptions of Maya over-exploitations are not true, but the information of this book uses both history and modern applications of the scientific method on the ancient Maya, making this book not only interesting but successful in defending the Maya and their sustainability.