Amazonia

Amazonia provides the most comprehensive anthropological discussion so far of the Amazon basin as a human habitat. . . . This book specifies variables influencing cultural adaptation in the Amazon basin and presents a set of general principles constituting a theory of cultural evolution. In two descriptive sections of the book, Meggers analyzes the selective pressures in two distinct geographical zones: the terra firme or unflooded land, and the várzea or periodic floodplain. (Ellen B. Bass Science) Meggers has marshalled an impressive argument on the ecological imperatives of a truly unique Amazonia. . . . We are given a well-written and quite thorough description of the physical features of the two zones and a series of ethnographic vignettes to illustrate the action of cultural adaptation. (Man) An excellent, concise statement of the facts of the ecology of humid tropical lowlands, systematic descriptions of a number of widely spread Amazonian cultures, and a skillful integration of these two bodies of knowledge. The result is a demonstration that cultures are as surely subject to and molded by natural selection and environmental characteristics as are species of plants and animals. . . . Amazonia will inevitably be a basic text for the field of tropical ecology. (F. R. Fosberg Ecology)