Dr Whitmore is director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Geography, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill: secretary/treasurer of the Cultural Ecology Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers.Professor Turner is a former Guggenheim Fellow, Senior Fellow of the Green Center for the Study of Science and Society, member of the National Academy of Sciences, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Delivered the Clarendon Lectures in Geography and Environmental Studies on 'Integrated Land Change Science: The Yucatan Case' in Oxford, November 2000.

Whitmore and Turner have produced a very good read. Their work will stand for a long time as a benchmark of thoughtful and comprehensive synthesis that takes stock of our present understanding and points the way to fruitful future research in archaeology, geography, ecology, ethnobotany, ethnography, and history.

• List of Figures ; List of Maps ; 1. On the Eve of Conquest: The Context and Background to the Problem ; 2. The Context of Cultivation: Social and Economic Organization and the General Nature of Cropping ; 3. Arboriculture and Horticulture ; 4. Rainfed Cultivation ; 5. Terrace Cultivation ; 6. Floodwater and Irrigated Cultivation ; 7. Wetland Cultivation ; 8. Inventing Histories? Themes and Implications ; Bibliography ; Index

Dr Whitmore is director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Geography, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill: secretary/treasurer of the Cultural Ecology Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers.Professor Turner is a former Guggenheim Fellow, Senior Fellow of the Green Center for the Study of Science and Society, member of the National Academy of Sciences, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Delivered the Clarendon Lectures in Geography and Environmental Studies on 'Integrated Land Change Science: The Yucatan Case' in Oxford, November 2000.

Whitmore and Turner have produced a very good read. Their work will stand for a long time as a benchmark of thoughtful and comprehensive synthesis that takes stock of our present understanding and points the way to fruitful future research in archaeology, geography, ecology, ethnobotany, ethnography, and history.

• List of Figures ; List of Maps ; 1. On the Eve of Conquest: The Context and Background to the Problem ; 2. The Context of Cultivation: Social and Economic Organization and the General Nature of Cropping ; 3. Arboriculture and Horticulture ; 4. Rainfed Cultivation ; 5. Terrace Cultivation ; 6. Floodwater and Irrigated Cultivation ; 7. Wetland Cultivation ; 8. Inventing Histories? Themes and Implications ; Bibliography ; Index

Dr Whitmore is director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Geography, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill: secretary/treasurer of the Cultural Ecology Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers.Professor Turner is a former Guggenheim Fellow, Senior Fellow of the Green Center for the Study of Science and Society, member of the National Academy of Sciences, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Delivered the Clarendon Lectures in Geography and Environmental Studies on 'Integrated Land Change Science: The Yucatan Case' in Oxford, November 2000.

Whitmore and Turner have produced a very good read. Their work will stand for a long time as a benchmark of thoughtful and comprehensive synthesis that takes stock of our present understanding and points the way to fruitful future research in archaeology, geography, ecology, ethnobotany, ethnography, and history.

• List of Figures ; List of Maps ; 1. On the Eve of Conquest: The Context and Background to the Problem ; 2. The Context of Cultivation: Social and Economic Organization and the General Nature of Cropping ; 3. Arboriculture and Horticulture ; 4. Rainfed Cultivation ; 5. Terrace Cultivation ; 6. Floodwater and Irrigated Cultivation ; 7. Wetland Cultivation ; 8. Inventing Histories? Themes and Implications ; Bibliography ; Index