Spell of the Urubamba: Anthropogeographical Essays on an Andean Valley in Space and Time

Daniel W. Gade (1936–2015) conducted seven research trips to the Urubamba River Valley, located within the Cuzco Region of the Peruvian Andes, between 1963 and 2013. Archival research and visits to libraries and collections enriched his extended fieldwork. The Urubamba River spans an altitudinal gradient of over 4,000 meters, flowing 650 kilometers from melting glaciers to lowland tropical rainforest. Organized into ten chapters, Gade’s book emphasizes the important role of environment and biology in history and culture. Specifically, Gade offers a diachronic approach to place, theoretically informed by cultural biogeography and historical geography. During fifty years, Gade witnessed major cultural change and changes in land use and livelihoods in the valley; furthermore, he accumulated details of ethnohistorical and environmental change in the valley since pre-Colombian times. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the human and physical geography of the valley as well...