Rehabilitation of terraces: an approach from social archaeology

Abstract

In Peru, the topic of rehabilitating canals and terraces for food sovereignty has been addressed from the perspective of Social Archaeology, as well as other disciplines. Therefore, there are various ways to understand and define terraces or stepped fields. We start from the definition that highlights terraces as stepped constructions aimed at expanding the agricultural frontier of mountainous slopes and that, by allowing irrigation, reduce soil erosion. The classification criteria serve to establish typologies, which are ultimately used to create inventories of terraces that influence rehabilitation practices. In this article, we will review the most common definitions from bibliographic sources on the subject, weigh them, and propose a broader vision with a holistic understanding of agricultural infrastructure systems for managing a sub-basin or micro-basin, explaining the social implications of large-scale construction of these systems. The relationship between terrace inventories and the typologies used to create them will be analyzed. Finally, the term “Natural Infrastructure” adopted by the Ministry of the Environment and the NGOs involved in the rehabilitation of infrastructure works for agricultural pro- duction will be discussed.