Conversation2-Hydroponics (Chinampas)
Narrator
Listen to part of a conversation between a student and the professor of his history of technology class.
Student
Would it be okay to focus on something related to agriculture?
Professor
Sure, farming technology is fine, as long as it’s pre-modern. But this isn’t a long paper, so are you going to need to pick a specific area of pre-modern agriculture, like irrigation or food crops of ancient Greece.
Student
I am actually interested in hydroponics.
Professor
Hydroponics. Growing plants in water instead of soil.
Student
Well, not in pure water, in water that has the proper mix of nutrients.
Professor
OK. But is it a pre-modern technology? I mean, hydroponics isn’t really my specialty but from the research I have read, we are talking the nineteenth century, maybe the seventeenth century if you really stretch it.
Student
Oh? But the Aztec civilization back in the thirteenth century in basically where Mexico city is today … An article I read said the Aztecs were using hydroponics in something they called … I have got the word right here. Um. Chinampas.
Professor
Chinampas, the so-called floating gardens.
Student
Exactly. So yeah the chinampas, the article said very clearly these floating gardens are proof that the Aztec invented hydroponic farming.
Professor
Well, chinampas are artificial islands built up in shallow lakes. Islands made from packed earth and weeds and uh, material from the bottom of the lake. They may have appeared to be floating in the water, but in fact they reach all the way to the bottom of the lake. So the primary growing medium, what the plants draw nutrients from, is actually soil, not water.
Student
So the article was wrong about that? Too bad, it seems like a great topic, but I guess…
Professor
Wait a minute. Just because chinampas were not technically hydroponic doesn’t mean this couldn’t be an appropriate topic for your paper. Chinampas were still a great technological achievement. I mean, they enabled the Aztecs to grow plenty of food in an area without much available farmland.
Student
But I wondered why the author wrote that chinampas were hydroponic.
Professor
Well it’s pretty common for writers to generalize, say use a term like hydroponics to describe other types of agriculture. Personally, I would never say hydroponic except for plants growing in liquid. The crops on chinampas definitely benefited from the water surrounding them. But… hydroponic…
Student
OK. So I will go with chinampas but leave out with the hydroponics part.
Professor
Actually, there’s an important lesson here. We should pay attention to what happened in history but also how historical events are presented. Why, for example, would writers use a word like hydroponics so casually?
Student
I guess ‘cause it’s a popular topic people want to read about?
Professor
Or to help modern-day readers to understand something historical, maybe these writers think a familiar frame of reference is needed.
Student
Well that article was in a popular magazine, not a scholarly journal for historians.
Professor
OK. But historians sometimes do the same thing.
Student
So I guess then that all historians might not describe chinampas in quite the same way either.
Professor
Good point. Why not look into that too? And include it along with your description and analysis.