Chinampas

Chinampas, a term from the Nahuatl chinámitl that refers to an indigenous method of agriculture used to promote the high yields required to support a dense population. By extending strips of land (chinampas) into the shallow lakes and wetlands of Mesoamerica, the farmers have the benefit of year-round irrigation. Best known in the Basin of Mexico and dating there from as early as 1100, chinampas are still extant in, for example, Xochimilco. Some sources employ the Spanish term camellones as a synonym for chinampas. Recent archaeological and historical research may be broadening the temporal and spatial framework for this type of agriculture, pointing to the importance of "raised fields" as a means of sustaining state formation in the Maya sphere.

For centuries foreign observers have mistaken chinampas for "floating gardens," possibly because chinampas often have woven reed structures fortifying their banks. Alternatively, the confusion may be owing to some movable nurseries that were towed about Lake Chalco-Xochimilco.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

S. L. Cline, Colonial Culhuacán, 1580–1600: A Social History of an Aztec Town (1986), pp. 132-135, provides data derived from indigenous sources on chinampas. See also Jeffrey R. Parsons, "The Role of Chinampa Agriculture in the Food Supply of Aztec Tenochtitlán," in Cultural Change and Continuity: Essays in Honor of James Bennett Griffin, edited by Charles E. Cleland (1976), pp. 233-257, and Pedro Armillas, "Gardens on Swamps," in Science 174 (1971), pp. 653-661, for a discussion of the importance of this type of farming for the support of a large population.

Additional Bibliography

Rojas Rabiela, Teresa. Presente, pasado y futuro de las chinampas. México, D.F.: CIESAS, 1995.

                                      Stephanie Wood