Bar� Swidden gardens: Crop Segregation patterns

Abstract

The proposition that tropical forest swidden gardens mimic the extraordinary species diversity of the forest by the use of extensive intercropping is examined in the light of the field architecture of the Barí, a people of the Maracaibo basin. Barí fields manifest annular zonation rather than intercropping. It is concluded that Barí horticulture is an inversion of the jungle rather than an imitation of it.