milpa

Noun

milpa (countable and uncountable, plural milpas)

1. (uncountable) A cyclical crop-growing system used throughout Mesoamerica.
   • Milpa is based on seed crops, particularly the uniquely productive combination of maize, beans and squash, and in the past its techniques were normally those of swidden cultivation.2007, Peter John Ucko, G. W. Dimbleby, The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals, Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, page 13
2. (countable) A small field, especially in Mexico or Central America, that is cleared from the jungle, cropped for a few seasons, and then abandoned for a fresh clearing.
   • These three plants are often grown together in a single field called a milpa, the beans creeping up the corn stalks while the squash plants catch along the lower leaves of the corn plants.1993, Richard E. Blanton, Stephen A. Kowalewski, Ancient Mesoamerica: A Comparison of Change in Three Regions, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 40
   • That means that no one can get rich or make someone else rich by farming a milpa. Since it works against capital accumulation, it is antithetical to entrepreneurship. In short, planting a milpa optimizes resources in a very particular way.2010, Sheldon Annis, God and Production in a Guatemalan Town, University of Texas Press, →ISBN, page 37