[3] These reserves exhibit ecological diversity, including vast swaths of tropical rainforest covering steep escarpments and large river valleys where many Cabécar still employ traditional subsistence livelihoods and cultural practices.

[2][13] Spanish records document the names of many closely related groups (Ara, Ateo, Abicetaba, Blancos, Biceitas or Viceitas, Korrhué, Ucabarúa, and Valientes) living in this area who became known collectively as the Talamanca.

[2][13] A scarcity of historical documents describing aboriginal groups in southeastern Costa Rica has made it difficult for scholars to differentiate the culture histories of the present-day Bribri and Cabécar.

Spanish Franciscan fathers in the early 17th century noted linguistic differences among the various Talamancan tribes mentioned above, but generally these groups became known more broadly as the Bribri or Cabécar according to their geographic location east or west of the Río Dyke.

Cedar (Cedrela odorata), laurel (Cordia alliodora), balsa (Ochroma pyramidale) and peach palm (pejibaye or Bactris gasipaes) are among the tallest trees often found in Cabécar tropical home gardens.

The lowest stratum is characterized by medicinal plants, shrubs, and tubers, including chili pepper (Capsicum annuum), manioc (Manihot esculenta), and tiquisque (Xanthosoma violaceum).

After the plot cools, the farmer can sow basic grains by placing seeds into shallow holes in the topsoil made by the sharpened tip of a branch fashioned from the pejibaye palm (Bactris gasipaes).

[14] Cabécar farmers generally select a plot roughly one hectare in size in either alluvial valleys or on steep upland slopes where basic grains like rice (Oryza sativa) and maize (Zea mays) are cultivated with beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and rotated with alternating fallow (rest) periods.

[14] Cultivation of the exotic plantain hybrid (Musa x paradisiaca) in both monoculture and polyculture plots has become increasingly prevalent in Cabécar communities and has changed the structure of their traditional tropical home gardens.

The notion of densely nucleated towns or villages was introduced in the region by the Spanish in the colonial era to coerce Talamancan indigenous groups into concentrated settlements, but these attempts were met with resistance.

[2] Most Cabécar and Bribri villages reflect patterns of dispersed settlement today, an indicator of the geographic isolation of the Talamanca region and of the limited contact these indigenous groups had with the Spanish.