Cassava and Carrying Capacity in Aboriginal Puerto Rico- Revisiting the Taino Downfall at Conquest

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Southeastern Geographer, Volume 49, Number 4, Winter 2009, pp.

394-403 (Article)

DOI: 10.1353/sgo.0.0059

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southeastern geographer,49(4) 2009: pp. 394403

Cassava and Carrying Capacity in

Aboriginal Puerto Rico

Revisiting the Taino Downfall at Conquest

FRANCISCO WATLINGTON

University of Puerto Rico

How many aborigines lived in late Borikn (mod-

ern Puerto Rico) at the inception of the Spanishconquest? The question has raised much con-

troversy both because of the lack of primary data

and the disparate research approaches employed

by practitioners of different academic disciplines.

However, available surrogate sources of informa-

tion make possible a heuristic model of former

population, grounded in the geographic concept

of carrying capacity. Assessment of available

multi-source evidence suggests that aboriginalPuerto Rico was an exceptionally dense ecumene

with a geographical subsistence base that tee-

tered on the verge of collapse from resource ex-

haustion when the Spanish intrusion pushed it

over the edge.

Cuantos aborgenes vivan en el viejo Borikn

(Puerto Rico moderno) al principio de la con-

quista espaola? Esta pregunta ha levantadomucha controversia, tanto por la falta de infor-

macin de primera mano, como por los distintos

enfoques usados por practicantes de diferentes

disciplinas acadmicas. Sin embargo, fuentes se-

cundarias de informacin hacen posible desarrol-

lar un modelo heurstico de la poblacin pasada,

basado en el concepto geogrfico de capacidad de

carga poblacional. La evaluacin de mltiples

evidencias disponibles sugiere que el Puerto Ricoaborigen era un ecmeno excepcionalmente denso

con una base de subsistencia geogrfica al borde

del colapso por el agotamiento de los recursos

cuando la intrusin espaola los llevo ms all desus lmites.

key words: Geographical constraints of island

population

introduction

Much of the native Taino population of

the Island disappeared between the pas-sage of Columbus in 1493 and the begin-

ning of effective Spanish occupation by

Jun Ponce de Len in 1508, fifteen years

later. In contrast with Hispaniola and

other early landfalls (Cook and Lovell

1992; Smith 1994), the epidemiological

and ecological impact of the conquest was

mitigated in Puerto Rico by having been

anticipated during a generation prior tothe definite invasion. The indigenes had

time and distance to recover from the zoo-

notic influenza introduced by Columbus to

Hispaniola on his second voyage (Guerra

1985, 1986), with the high rates of mor-

bidity and mortality characteristic of vir-

gin soil epidemics (Cohen 1989).

The plague plausibly arrived on Puerto

Rico mitigated by distance, mutation andmestizage. The wave of advance of the

pathogen would have accompanied the


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Cassava and Carrying Capacity in Aboriginal Puerto Rico 395

desperate throng, some already infected,

fleeing Hispaniola. Seeking refuge with

their boricua kinfolk, those that were ill

advanced the contagion that was decimat-

ing their homeland. Among the fugitives,however, came a multitude of women im-

pregnated by the invaders, prospective

mothers of the first generation of mestizos

with enough paternal genetic resistence

to ensure continuity of the authoctonous

population.1 Concurrently, as the disease

extended its range, the pathogen would

presumably have diminished its virulence

through adaptive selection, the epidemicbecoming more benign.

Recovery of the native population from

introduced disease occurred in a socio-

ecological environment unperturbed by

the direct onslaught of colonization. It is

likely that much of the original population

of Puerto Rico survived until the takeover

of 15111512 (Sued-Badillo 2001), a

good generation after Columbus took pos-session of the Island. In 1508 the para-

mount cacique (indigenous chief) of the

densely inhabited south and west coasts

opted for vassalage. Following the Taino

protocol ofguatiaohe exchanged his name

of Agueyban for that of Ponce, thus per-

petuating the toponym of his territorial

seat, the premier urban center of south-

ern Puerto Rico. The abuses of the en-comienda system soon did away with the

alliance and revolt was followed by repres-

sion and drawn out guerrilla resistance

for at least a decade (Anderson-Crdova

2005; Sued-Badillo 2008).

During the first quarter century of the

colony, the replacement of a subsistence

economy for one of resource exploitation,

with transformation of agricultural fieldsto livestock rangeland, suffices to explain

an exodus to South America (Vzquez

de Espinosa 1629). However, the unre-

strained exploitation of the natives would

diminish after the conquest of Mexico in

1521, with the departure of many enco-

menderos (labor pool consignees), takingtheir Indians with them to more promising

continental destinations. A remnant of lo-

cal Indians designated de encomienda in

the Lando slave census of 1532 (Damiani-

Csimi 1994) excludes probable nuclei

of hispanicized Indians which the topon-

omy of indigenous settlement names sug-

gests were disseminated throughout the

Island.2

the research problem

The drastic historical decline of the

Taino population belies indications that

Puerto Rico was among the most densely

peopled Caribbean islands at the time of

the arrival of the Spaniards. Although

first-hand census documents have yet tobe found, it is known that the conquista-

dors, to avail themselves of the native la-

bor pool, developed geographical registers

of able-bodied young men for allotment of

manpower in their encomiendas (Sauer

1966). Thus, a century later the Crowns

fact-finding envoy Vzquez de Espinosa

(1629) would cite an estimated popula-

tion of 600,000 Indians, not countingwomen and children.3 Adding the same

number of women yields an able adult

population of 1.2 million.

However, when children are included

an impressive total population of 3.6 mil-

lion is obtained. An unsurprising result if

the paleodemographic estimate takes into

account the high infant mortality, which

according to reliable estimates would haveaveraged around 50 percent (Cohen 1989;

Curet 2005). Consequently, in order to


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396 francisco watlington

maintain a stable population, that neither

decreases nor increases significantly, each

woman of reproductive age would have

borne no less than four children, to in-

sure that at least two of them would reachgenerational recruitment age.4Therefore,

adding 2.4 million youngsters to the 1.2

million adults gives a sum total of 3.6 mil-

lion persons, more or less the same num-

ber of residents in Puerto Rico at the be-

ginning of the present millenium.5

State of knowledge

The chronology of attempts by histo-rians and others to estimate the size of

the original aboriginal population of Pu-

erto Rico was exhaustively reviewed by

Moscoso (2008), who nonetheless failed

to mention the ponderable paleodemo-

graphic assessment of Curet (2005). As

documented by Moscoso, many historians

have rejected the existence and subse-

quent extinction of the sizable Contact pe-riod population of Puerto Rico postulated

by Vzquez de Espinosa.

For example, at the turn of the twen-

tieth century, pathfinding anthropolo-

gist Salvador Brau declared (Brau 1907,

pp 133134):

The production of the country in the

state of incipient culture in which it

was would not have allowed filling the

alimentary needs of 600,000 souls

which correspond approximately to

two thirds of the present census.

Brau was the first modern investigator

who attempted to refute with a logical dis-

course the estimate of native population

established by Vzquez de Espinosa, al-

though he interpreted it incorrectly. Fi-nally, he asked rhetorically (Brau 1894,

p 310):

Has anyone calculated the number of

cassava plants that must be cultivated

to sustain a half million persons?

Brau did not attempt the calculation.Nor have others who have accepted Braus

position uncritically. Few have applied al-

ternative methodological approaches such

as the one elaborated by Moscoso, who ar-

rived at a hypothesized population of

110,000 Indians by combining a list of

known caciques(chiefs) by presumed rank

with documentary estimates of probable

village size (Moscoso 2008). However,Moscoso explicitly rejects the early co-

lonial synonymy of Indian as family

head postulated by Las Casas (1965)

[1535/1548] as implying an unacceptable

330,000 Tainos by his own accounting of

village size (Moscoso 2008, p 224).

method of analysis

The estimate of endemic population re-

corded by Vzquez de Espinosa can be

evaluated by calculating total consump-

tion of the Tainos basic subsistence crop:

cassava, and determining the agricultural

area necessary for its production. From the

analysis one can infer the ancient carrying

capacity of Puerto Ricos arable land. Cas-

sava, yuca in Taino and Spanish (Mani-hot esculenta) is the root crop which pro-

vided the foodstuff that sustained dense

population masses on the Antilles as docu-

mented in historical records (Figure 1).

Cassava produces more alimentary bio-

mass per agricultural unit area than any

other cereal crop. Currently, world-wide

productivity of the tuber averages some

11 metric tons per hectare (1 hectareis equivalent to 2.471 acres), and has

reached 80 to 100 tons in experimental


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Figure 1. Yuca illustration from the 18th

century. Taken from D.W. Gade, 2003.


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plantings (Taylor et al. 2004). Its nutri-

tional properties are four times greater

than rice or maize, reaching 250,000 calo-

ries per ha (De Vries et al. 1967). Cassava

is the sixth most cultivated foodstuff in theworld, after potatoes, and represents the

basic subsistence for more than 700 mil-

lion persons (Marcon et al. 2007).

Present productivity of cassava in

circum-Caribbean countries including

Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Jamaica and Do-

minican Republic reaches 15 to 20 metric

tons per ha, from 75 percent to 100 per-

cent over the world average (Hershey et al.1997). The antipodal region comprising

southern Brazil, Paraguay and northern

Argentina (Gade 2003) is equally produc-

tive, surpassing the total production of

Brazil (Hershey et al. 1997). It has been

noted that the latitudinal amplitude of

daylength, which increases toward the pe-

riphery of the tropical zone is a critical

phenological parameter of Manihot escu-lentawhich correlates with increased pro-

ductivity (Gade 2003; Watlington 2003).

Although cassava is processed in di-

verse ways, available documentation in-

dicates that the hardtack biscuit-bread

known as casabe was the basic provision

of the pre-Columbian Antilles (Watlington

2003). Yield of casabe is equivalent to 33

percent of the weight of fresh cassava(Hillocks et al. 2002). Therefore, assum-

ing a tuber crop of 15 tons per ha, a conser-

vative estimate of casabe bread yield in an-

cient Borikn would be about 5,000 kilos

(5 metric tons) per ha.

At present, few regions of the world are

so dependent on casabe bread or its mealy

alternates so that consumption per person

reaches one kilogram daily. The most nota-ble exception appears to be in West Africa

where the consumption of gari, a fer-

mented casabe meal has exceeded 300 kg

per person yearly (Jones 1959). In Amer-

ica the highest level of consumption occurs

in Paraguay at 340 kg per person yearly

(Hershey et al. 2000). Sixteenth centurycolonist-historian Bartolom de Las Casas

offered a more modest estimate of roughly

half as much for the Taino, about a half

kg daily per adult (Las Casas 1967). As-

suming an annual cycle of production, one

hectare of cassava would provide enough

casabe to feed 27 persons (two children =

one adult). Therefore, a population equiv-

alent to 2.4 million adults would have re-quired less than 90,000 ha of conucos

(plantations) of cassava.

Puerto Rico with Vieques (a smaller is-

land that is part of Puerto Rico) comprises

a land area of some 9,000 ha, of which an

estimated 60 percent is cultivable (Lpez-

Marrero and Villanueva-Coln 2006).

Roughly 40 percent of that area, 216,000

ha, is considered to have the highest agri-cultural potential. Thus the hypothesized

Taino population would have required less

than half (41.6 percent) of the best land

for its basic sustenance. Nonetheless, be-

sides the area in conucos of cassava, a

comparable area in brush fallow must be

added, as well as additional land for per-

manent orchards of select tree and palm

crops (Watlington 2003).

discussion

It has been well documented that in-

digenous populations in widespread re-

gions of the world were far larger before

the post-Columbian European expansion

diminished their numbers (Crosby 1972,

1986; Butzer 1992). Nonetheless, diversetraditional agrarian societies that are

densely peopled continue to be viable in


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Asia, Africa and America (Weischet and

Caviedes 1993). Moreover, some modern

countries that inherited high population

densities have developed very productive

agro-industrial systems, analogous to thatof the native Taino, in which agricultural

raw materials are processed into various

durable products by means of technologi-

cal inputs which generate collateral eco-

nomic activities (Watlington 1974; Dufour

et al. 1996).

All things considered, if the population

at Contact derived from Vzquez de Es-

pinosas estimate is reliable, the Islandwould have been populated close to the

limit of its agricultural carrying capacity,

with all of its most productive land being

utilized in some manner. To be sure other

resources must be taken into account.

Streams, wetlands and coastal to oceanic

waters would have contributed most of

the protein nutriments to complement the

caloric foods from agriculture (Watlington2003; Newsom and Wing 2004). What hu-

man and environmental impacts would

have resulted from population pressure on

the available geographic resources?

That the late prehistorical Taino were

under serious nutritional stress has been

recently determined from skeletal remains

unearthed at two widely separate archae-

ological sites by paleopathologist EdwinCrespo-Torres (2008). His analysis con-

firms the findings of others indicating an

infant mortality rate of around 50 percent

and an average adult life expectancy of

30 to 35 years (Watlington, unpublished

data). Moreover, the very young and sub-

adult segments were the most severely

stricken by the pathological consequences

of undernourishment.Diverse sources provide circumstantial

evidence of an extensively deforested

Taino landscape, not very different from

the degraded rural countryside of Puerto

Rico during the first half of the past cen-

tury.6 The most abundant seeds found in

archeobotanical sites are those of guava(Psidium), cotton (Gossypium) and nu-

merous other useful shrubby species that

spring up quickly in recently cultivated

fallowed fields (Newsom and Wing 2004;

de France and Newsom 2005). The neces-

sity of firewood for baking casabe and

cooking, and of lumber for housing, as

well as the practice of fire-drive hunting of

jutas, cavylike rodents, had transformedvast areas of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico

into shrubby second growth sabanas (a

Taino toponym), as observed by Columbus

himself (Varela and Gil 1992).

The anthropogenic savannas, park-

lands, glades and grasslands abandoned

by the Taino provided an ideal environ-

ment for the proliferation of introduced

cattle, goats and range hogs. In sixteenthcentury Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, free-

range livestock numbers increased ex-

ponentially, maintaining the deforested

landscape by grazing and rooting. Hence-

forth there developed an economy of

hatos, extensive cattle baronies which

dominated the colony, and was adversarial

to agricultural and population growth un-

til the second half of the sixteenth century(Moscoso 1997).

conclusion

In conclusion, the romantic pristine

myth of picturesque Indian villages at

Contact, scattered throughout a forested

island paradise is as invalid for Puerto Rico

as it is for the rest of pre-Conquest Amer-ica (Denevan 1992). It can be said that,

based on the division of labor required for


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cultivation, processing and distribution

of food products derived from cassava,

the Tainos developed a sophisticated so-

cial order comparable to the great pre-

Columbian cultures of the Americas. TheSpanish invasion interrupted the rise of

Taino civilization, and the imposition of a

colonial economy destroyed it.

The colonial legacy should also be rec-

ognized. Rampant multiplication of feral

cattle during the early sixteenth century

fueled a dual economy of privileged hatos,

grazing rights land grants, and freelance

monteros licensed to round up ownerlessanimals and either brand or butcher them

for hides and meat to be preserved as sun

or smoke dried jerky. Predictably, mon-

teriasoften concealed rustling and contra-

band. The animals were located with dogs,

then maimed by lancing a leg tendon, a

technique called desjarretar.

Ironically, the free-ranging herds

prompted reforestation during the secondhalf of the same century by spreading

seeds of the fruits they foraged. The follow-

ing quote from royal fact-finder Antonio

Herrera (ca. 16011615) offers a vivid

illustration (freely translated from Gil-

Bermejo Garca 1970, pp 1415):

This island is very overgrown and

rugged: there were good livestockranges that are diminishing because of

certain trees calledguayaboswhich

give fruits like apples, yellow outside

and red inside, white of meat, full of

grain, of which all livestock and birds

feed; wherever the grains fall with ma-

nure a tree sprouts and the land closes

up with scrub, such that the cows hide

therein becoming feral and do not re-turn to the fold, giving birth in the

woods and thus are of no profit. Under

this tree grass will not grow.

notes

1. The mass insemination did not necessarilyresult from abduction and rape. As Ricardo Her-

ren (1991) has explained, Amerindian societies

encouraged female free love promiscuity for

social and reproductive reasons.

2. As the scale of the nascent Spanish empire

became evident, Puerto Rico was redefined as a

strategic bastion of its mercantile circuit. The

hispanicized Indians were recognized as the

fundament of a defensive populace capable ofresisting invasion. This explains early delimi-

tation of a Special Military District of Caguas

Buena Vista (Salvador Padilla, personal com-

munication), guarding the vulnerable eastern

flank of San Juan. Its coastal perimeter com-

prised a chain of settlements with Taino top-

onyms: Naguabo, Humacao, Yabucoa, Mau-

nabo, and Guayama, in time elevated to the

rank of townships (municipios).3. On Hispaniola, according to Vzquez de

Espinosa, there were 1.8 million indios not

counting women, children and the elderly.

Thus, total population would have summed

11.2 million, three times that of Borikn, which

seems proportional to the most cultivable area

of the neighboring island.

4. As noted by Columbus expert eye, the

adult population was young, appearing to aver-age some thirty years of age (Varela and Gil

1992). According to Las Casas (cited in Sauer

1966), women had 3 to 5 children. Both esti-

mates fit the proposed demographic hypothesis.

5. With the caveat that their demographic

pyramids are quite different.

6. For similar reasons. A dense and depau-

perate rural population had denuded most of

the island for firewood, timber, pasture andcane. After the mass exodus to the states in the


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1940s and the rise of urban centered industrial-

ization in the 1950s, forest cover rebounded

from 6 percent to 30 percent in about forty years

(Aide et al. 2000; Rudel et al. 2000). Inter-

estingly, guava (Psidium guajava), an abundantinvasive exotic (sic. Aide et al. 2000) in early

abandoned fields, was gone after less than 35

years of forest regeneration.

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Occidentales. Madrid: Atlas.

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18 (marzo-junio):4755.

. 2003. The physical environment:

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Caribbean prehistory. In General History of

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francisco watlington, ph.d.is a

tenured professor (Catedrtico) in the

Department of Geography at the University of

Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras, where he obtained a

B.A. cum laude in Economics and a Mastersdegree in Planning and Public Administration.


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He pursued advanced studies in geography

and archaeology at the University of Florida, in

Gainesville, where he received the doctorate

in 1990. His diverse research interests feature

three major themes: Historical biogeography of

the Neotropical realm; Population history and

prehistory of Puerto Rico; and Adaptive

viticulture in the New World tropics.

Cassava and Carrying Capacity in Aboriginal Puerto Rico- Revisiting the Taino Downfall at Conquest

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