Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1996
Abstract
Despite the dramatic landscape changes Mexico has undergone due to the introduction of cattle ranching by the Spaniards in the early sixteenth century, the ecological origins of that pastroecosystem have remained obscure. About 1521, Gregorio de Villalobos implanted an Andalusian-derived herding ecology in the Gulf Coast lowlands that involved seasonal movement of cattle between wetlands and hill lands. Land-grant records demonstrate that as the colonial economy expanded, the transhumant model proliferated and came into conflict with those native settlements that had survived the pandemics of the early sixteenth century. In circumventing viceregal laws meant to protect native cultures and ecologies, ranchers prevented their recovery; the consequences persist to the present.
Pages
161-177
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
Geographical Review
Number
61
Publisher
JSTOR
Recommended Citation
Sluyter, A. (1996). The ecological origins and consequences of cattle ranching in sixteenth-century New Spain. Geographical Review Retrieved from https://repository.lsu.edu/geoanth_pubs/61