swidden

plural swiddens

1. An area of land that has been cleared by cutting the vegetation and burning it; slash and burn.

   ‘Swidden’ has entered anthropological jargon, denoting not only a practice widespread in non-state societies, but also a problem.

   2006 August, Guido Sprenger, “Out of the ashes: Swidden cultivation in highland Laos”, in Anthropology Today, volume 22, number 4, page 9

   2 more examples

   Kamiali Village is a community of swidden horticulturists and fishers lying 80 kilometers in a south-southeasterly direction along the coast from the City of Lae, Papua New Guinea.

   2007 Fall, F. L. (Rick) Bein, “Food Garden Capacity and Population Growth: A Case in Papua New Guinea.”, in Focus on Geography, volume 50, number 2, pages 28–33

   These facts reinforced the view that the Maya drew their basic sustenance from corn, most of it grown on slash-and-burn plots known as swiddens.

   2009 Jul/Aug, Roger Atwood, “Maya Roots”, in Archaeology, volume 62, number 4

present singular third person swiddens · participle present swiddening · participle past swiddened · past swiddened

1. To clear an area of land by cutting and burning.

   The reason, Scott says, is that swiddening provides a freedom that fixed agriculture does not.

   2009 February 13, Drake Bennett, quoting James Scott, “The mystery of Zomia”, in The Boston Globe, Boston, archived from the original on 28 Oct 2011