How about swidden, aka slash and burn cultivation? Still a field (ager) of sorts, but there’s a rotation system in place to allow high forest to make a comeback. It doesn’t even have to be grains (see: manioc) and there’s plenty of ‘unofficial’ crops to make use of while the area goes through the various fallow stages back to the climax ecosystem. Funnily enough Vera recently sent me an in-depth piece about the Karen people - rice farmers in the Thai highlands which might be of interest:
http://www9.ocn.ne.jp/~aslan/karen/karenpmp.htm
There’s some antagonism evident in their social rituals, many of which are about encouraging the rice plants and warding off incursions from wildlife or disease, but still they have strong animist perceptions and a great sensitivity to the ethics of their actions within the wider living community:
After the New Year is celebrated, the village chief begins to survey forest fallow for dry (upland) rice farming. All the villagers follow his lead and survey their new farm lands. There are many taboos regarding the choosing of forest fallow for cultivation. For example, people will not cultivate forest fallow that has caught fire, fallow that produces wild bananas, forest in mountain passes, forest in watershed areas (described as places where green frogs incubate their eggs, and so on). While surveying, fallow will not be chosen if the person hears deer barking, a "s'pgauz" bird singing, or sees a snake crossing the path. Moreover, in the night following the survey of the fallow, it is considered a sign of bad luck to dream about forest fire or the breaking of machetes that are used to cut down trees. In contrast, dreaming about elephants or about flooding is a good sign that means the surveyed fallow land should be cultivated. The Karen have many taboos regarding the selection of forest fallow for farming because they want to choose the best fallow, and also minimize impacts on the forest and the wild life.
It reminds me of Jason’s way of defining horticulture as a system that involves, at some point, moving away from the ‘ground zero’ of annual tillage and allowing succession to take place, even if this is limited or managed. Some kind of fallow, basically. The Karen make use of hundreds of plants and animals who move into their zones of cultivation, for food, medicine, building materials, clothing etc. As such, an appreciation of these other beings is built into their subsistence practice (and therefore into cultural practices and spiritual awareness). If they were to concentrate on rice full-time, all of that would go out the window and they would begin to view most wildlife with the extreme suspicion and hostility that’s so common among western farmers.