Olga F. Linares

Garden Hunting in the American Tropics

Using faunal analysis, this article outlines a coastal mammalian harvesting pattern involving a few terrestrial mammals whose biomass appears to have been greater when associated with man than under “natural” conditions. Archeological evidence suggests that these animals fed regularly on cultivated crops and were hunted in house gardens and cultivated fields. By concentrating the supply of both carbohydrates and animal protein, “garden hunting” may have eliminated seasonality and scheduling problems. And because it artificially increased the biomass of selected animals, it may have functioned as a substitute for animal domestication.

Adaptive strategies in western Panama

Abstract An example of prehistoric ‘adaptive radiation’ in western Panama is explored by comparing two allotropic types of tropical forest agriculturalists: those occupying the Bocas del Toro province on the Atlantic side of the isthmus and those living in Chiriqui province on the Pacific side. The two populations appear to be descended from common ancestors who once settled the highlands separating these two coastal provinces. Using the method of controlled comparison and the biological concept of radiation, the possible effects of the vegeculture and seed culture agricultural systems of these peoples on their social and political arrangements are explored. The model developed during the course of discussion is parallel to models built by biogeo‐graphers to deal with processes of migration, colonization, population change, divergence and adaptation in the humid versus the seasonal tropics.