That seems likely as a factor. Slash and burn, leveling of the ground, continuing compost, new field every year in rotation, old field used for the outhouse, and circling ‘round for generations.
I developed pretty good intuitions studying aboriginal peoples and their plantings in California, but I would dispute the ‘slash and burn,’ not in principle but by degree. With the Andes where they are, I suspect it’s always been rainy there. Hence they grew a “food forest” with multilayered production of trees, shrubs, and forbs. In that case (and based upon my experience with coppicing fruit bearing shrubs), I’m thinking it was a 3-5 year burn cycle with the “slash” coming thereafter as a matter of gathering firewood. How they might have confined their fires would be where the slashing comes in. Where I live, I suspect they used a particular groundcover plant for such burn boundaries (Gamochaeta ustulata). That stuff doesn’t burn worth a crap. Of course, the pattern of firewood gathering might accomplish much of the same thing, but groundcovers would be key anyway.