Geology and Civilization Part 8: Living Harmoniously With Nature

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

And after a very long break, we're back to this series! Though I know I tend towards doom and gloom when discussing human civilization's relationship to the environment, there are some civilizations that have fairly successfully balanced their needs with their environment. I'm going to talk about a number of them over the next few posts, along with the lessons they have to offer us. Today we're going to start with one of my favorites: The Incan Empire.

Macchu Picchu, one of the cities of the Incan Empire. Also one of the biggest tourist destinations on the planet. [Image source]

The Incan Empire is often compared to the Roman Empire, and for good reason. It was by far the largest empire in the Americas before contact with Europe, and might have been the largest geographic empire in the world in the early 1500s- an impressive achievement for an empire that had only risen in 1438. By 1572, however, they were gone, wiped out by European diseases and conquerors. While they were in power, however, they adapted to the harsh landscapes they resided in quite skillfully. Where the Romans turned Italy into a near-desert wasteland through deforestation and destructive farming, the territory of the Incans was undamaged or even benefited from the stewardship of the Incans.

One thing that immediately springs to mind is the sheer unfriendliness of much of Incan territory to agriculture. They were based in the Andes Mountains, a young, steep, and rugged environment. There is little in the way of rain there, and what little there is tends to flow downhill to quickly to be absorbed by plants- often even eroding fields on the way. Plus, if you've ever gardened or worked on a farm where you had to do tasks by hand, your back's going to hurt at even the thought of working in a non-flat field. The Incan solution? Terraces.

Incan terraces, or andenes as the Spanish called them, in the Sacred Valley of the Inca. Machu Picchu is located in the Valley as well. [Image source]

Incan terraces are incredible feats of engineering. It involved the laying of an artificial & level bedrock foundation, then building a large retaining wall above it. The area uphill of the retaining wall was then filled with a layer of large stones, then a layer of sand or gravel, then a layer of topsoil. The retaining wall had channels built into it to help drain the terraces, a task which the sand & gravel layer also helped with. The stone retaining walls absorbed sunlight all day, then radiated it at night, helping to prevent frost damage to crops. This allowed crops to be farmed at higher altitudes than would be normally feasible, as well. (It's thought by some that they continued to migrate higher and higher in altitude for religious reasons, to be closer to their sun god, Inti. Population growth likely contributed to the expansion as well.) The result of all this was a series of fertile, well-drained, and erosion resistant fields, a huge number of which remain excellent farmland to this day. Again, this is an important contrast to the extensive damage Rome did to their environment.

The Incans were also masters at moving water around. They built extensive irrigation systems leading away from their rivers. Their aqueducts weren't quite as impressive as the Roman ones, but then, they didn't need to move nearly as much or as far as the Romans did. Still, compared to anyone else their aqueduct system was impressive as hell. Fountains and water features abounded in their cities. Remember how well drained their terrace fields were? They usually drained into irrigation channels and aqueducts, both keeping water from going to waste and avoiding irrigation.

An Incan aqueduct. [Image source]

Terraces and aqueducts were hardly the extent of the means by which the Incans thrived in their harsh environment. They codified environmental coping techniques into their infrastructure, laws, social organization, economy, and even religion. While the mountainous region where their royalty dwelt is the classic image of the Incans, they also extended their rule down into the dry coastal lowlands to their west and the dense jungles to their east. The Incans, using their extensive system of well-maintained roads, shipped goods from all of these regions across the empire. While "buying local" is a popular buzzword today, and can indeed contribute to reducing carbon emissions, the Incans carefully balanced the different growing conditions and resources available in their regions, allowing them to reduce environmental stresses. They played to each region's strengths. In fact, this was the basis of much of their power. By redistributing resources to prevent hunger or want, they made life considerably better for a people after they'd been made subject. The Incan emperors stored huge amounts of food in high altitude warehouses. The cold and aridity made the warehouses function essentially like modern refrigerated warehouses. They even invented the process of freeze-drying food centuries before anyone else. Famines were almost unknown in the Incan Empire.

The Incan Emperors accepted labor in lieu of taxes, since there was no money. They applied that labour overwhelmingly to building all of the above infrastructural improvements, along with quite a few others. They might have lived lavishly, and built huge palaces for their dead, but the Incan Emperors made it their genuine priority to care for their subjects, creating a stable, sustainable society. They might have started running into issues later on, but thanks to the Spanish destroying them, we'll unfortunately never know how they would have dealt with them. We have a lot of lessons to learn from the Incans- not necessarily specific farming techniques or the like, but from their attitudes towards their civilization and its place in nature, as well as a worldview that accommodated the long term much better than ours. The Incans possessed a genuine talent for managing to live alongside and working with nature, rather than trying to force it to their will.

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