milpa
1
9.8
- noun
- /ˈmɪlpə/
Examples
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We got a big milpa, huh, pa?
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In michoacan, we had a milpa that was 8 miles long.
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Again, these notions depart from milpa agriculture and traditional lifestyles and emphasize the need for alternative means of subsistence.
Academic text (1991) -
Cyclical cropping followed a twenty-year sequence of forest-milpa-secondary, while virgin stands and secondary forests supplied wood, clean water, medicinal herbs, fish, and small game.
Academic text (1996) -
In the summer, we cultivate our milpa to grow corn and beans.
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The farmers in the village prepare their milpa by clearing the forest land.
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Each year, the community gathers to plant their crops in the shared milpa.
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word milpa comes from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, and meant 'corn field'. Today a milpa is often a field made by clearing forest at the edge of a village where farmers grow corn and beans.