4 ms·
Waste as used in e.g. the Domesday Book literally means “land not under [human] cultivation.”
by jaldhar 7y ago
Waste as used in e.g. the Domesday Book literally means “land not under [human] cultivation.”
- esarbe 7y agoThat's an interesting definition I knew not about. Thanks for sharing! https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wasteland https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wasteland In the previous discussion, I was mainly focused on the 'barren' and 'barely inhabitable' aspects. If your sentiment was about cultivation; yeah, you're probably right. Hunter/gatherer societies usually do very little cultivation. (There's some indication that the Amazonas river fronts were heavily cultivated in pre-columbian times, as the presence of terra preta implies, though) In that case however we'll run into the discussion about 'improving the land', since arguably cutting down woods to make room for agriculturalists is not improving the land for hunter/gatherers.