milpa
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Spanish milpa, from Classical Nahuatl.
Noun
milpa (countable and uncountable, plural milpas)
- (agriculture, uncountable) A cyclical crop-growing system used throughout Mesoamerica.
- 2007, Peter John Ucko, G. W. Dimbleby, The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals, Transaction Publishers (ISBN 9780202365572), page 13:
- Milpa is based on seed crops, particularly the uniquely productive combination of maize, beans and squash, and in the past its techniques were normally those of swidden cultivation.
- 2007, Peter John Ucko, G. W. Dimbleby, The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals, Transaction Publishers (ISBN 9780202365572), page 13:
- (agriculture, countable) A small field, especially in Mexico or Central America, that is cleared from the jungle, cropped for a few seasons, and then abandoned for a fresh clearing.
- 1993, Richard E. Blanton, Stephen A. Kowalewski, Ancient Mesoamerica: A Comparison of Change in Three Regions, Cambridge University Press (ISBN 9780521446068), page 40:
- These three plants are often grown together in a single field called a milpa, the beans creeping up the corn stalks while the squash plants catch along the lower leaves of the corn plants.
- 2010, Sheldon Annis, God and Production in a Guatemalan Town, University of Texas Press (ISBN 9780292792210), page 37:
- That means that no one can get rich or make someone else rich by farming a milpa. Since it works against capital accumulation, it is antithetical to entrepreneurship. In short, planting a milpa optimizes resources in a very particular way.
- 1993, Richard E. Blanton, Stephen A. Kowalewski, Ancient Mesoamerica: A Comparison of Change in Three Regions, Cambridge University Press (ISBN 9780521446068), page 40:
Spanish
Etymology
From Classical Nahuatl mīlpan, from mīlli (“cultivated land”) + the locative pan (“in; on”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈmilpa/
Further reading
- “milpa” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.
This article is issued from
Wiktionary.
The text is licensed under Creative
Commons - Attribution - Sharealike.
Additional terms may apply for the media files.