Study showing how Australian Aboriginal people shaped the distribution of useful plants across their lands, dispersing them in more preferable areas, etc:

"The findings call into question our whole notions of what agriculture is," said Douglas Bird, study co-author and professor of anthropology at Penn State. "Rather than thinking about the difference between agricultural societies and hunter-gatherer societies as a matter of kind, we'd be better off thinking about it as a matter of degree—that people influence plants long before they engage in what we think of as farming."" - phys.org/news/2024-10-landscap…

Peoples who are used to living with the environment (instead of "against" it) understand that often the best interventions are the ones that are extremely subtle. In this case, the interventions were so subtle that they didn't fit into traditional western understandings of cultivation and agriculture.

So it's good to see this kind of subtle cultivation getting more recognized by science. There are many ways to live with the environment and to place the resources you need into places that are convenient for you and your people. The more that westerners can learn that, the more possibilities open up for how to live with the land.

#indigenous #australia #cultivation #agriculture #science #gardening #gardeningau #plants #nature #environment #ecology #anthropology

On the wild pigs that roam the Hawaiian islands, wrecking havoc on any unprotected gardens: "Hawaiian pigs are the product of 200 years of interbreeding between the pint-sized Polynesian pigs from Asia and the much larger breeds developed by Europeans. They possess a globally distinct mix of genes, including a unique mutation that controls their black coat color." - hakaimagazine.com/features/isl…

One of the easiest ways to connect with people in our area is to ask "so, do you have many problems with pigs?" Pigs are truly a force of nature. Sometimes they take chickens. Sometimes they ruin lawns with their rooting. They come quietly in the night when it's raining, with the sound of the rain covering their sounds. They are smart, sneaky, very strong, and very determined. I've had pigs break into plastic tubs in the shed, and eat all the cans of cat food (I found the cans chewed flat). If they find an unprotected source of food (like a garden with a hole in the fence), they'll come back night after night until everything is gone. They are the fruit of the meadow and are an important part of many people's diets. They live here and we live with them. They are PIG!

#hawaii #nature #animals #history #ecology #gardening #pigs #tropical