Comparative Civilizations Review Volume 74 Article 7 Number 74 Spring 2016 4-1-2016 Amazonian Civilization? David Wilkinson Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr Recommended Citation Wilkinson, David (2016) "Amazonian Civilization?," Comparative Civilizations Review: Vol. 74 : No. 74 , Article 7. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr/vol74/iss74/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Comparative Civilizations Review by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. Wilkinson: Amazonian Civilization? Comparative Civilizations Review 81 Amazonian Civilization? David Wilkinson
[email protected] ABSTRACT Was there a pre-Columbian civilization, properly so called, in the Amazon River basin of South America? Civilizations imply cities. The earliest Spanish expedition reported the existence of Amazonian cities; later, however, no such cities were found. Mid-twentieth- century archaeologists considered that cities could not have been sustained in the Amazon basin. But toward the turn of the century, opinions began to shift. As of 2015, it appears that civilizationists have one more case to contemplate and compare. Amazon Civilization Before the arrival of Iberian explorers, conquerors and colonists, was there in the Amazon River basin of South America a civilization, properly so called, and separate from, not merely an outcropping of the Andean civilization? Opposing viewpoints, based on documentary and physical evidence and probabilistic reasoning have been vigorously asserted. The period in question is the pre-Columbian (or for Brazilians pre-Cabralian) era before and up to 16th and 17th century contact with Amazonia by Spanish and Portuguese explorers, missionaries, conquistadors, colonists, and bandeirantes (gold-seekers and slave-raiders).