About this Research Topic
This collection is intended to explore cross-cutting ideas/issues that influence the archaeological and paleoecological investigation of pre-modern and traditional fire management worldwide. As the centrality of human activities within fire regimes has gained traction across multiple disciplines, it is increasingly important to understand many dimensions of human pyrogeography and how fire’s many applications have contributed to human adaptation and ecosystem change across space and through time. To illustrate the significance of this topic, we have assembled a group of archaeologists and paleoecologists whose research employs a variety of methods that explore the numerous manifestations of human pyrogeography.
What distinguishes this collection is its focus on key issues in the study of people and fire and their relation to theory and methods for understanding the complexities, dynamics, and trajectories of human pyrogeography. The topical issues that frame each study are global, which include understanding the extent to which humans manage fire to achieve a variety of objectives in a variety of habitats and appreciating how cultural burning registers in various paleofire records (e.g., archaeological, paleoecological, dendroecological). Because this themed volume features the interdisciplinary research of archaeologists and paleoecologists, it is not monolithic in approach. Rather, the case studies explore theoretically inspired methods for reliably inferring a host of research topics. These include current understandings of the origins and formation histories of anthropogenic fire records (e.g., dimensions, scale), the advantages and limitations of current methods (archaeobotany, dendroecology, sedimentary charcoal, etc.), solutions for persistent problems (e.g., the “fading record” problem, methodological resolution), approaches for resolving equifinal “fire signals” (e.g., understanding the relationship between anthropogenic fire and “natural” fire), and evaluations of the legacies of anthropogenic fire history and their current effects (e.g., implications for restoration ecology and ecological sovereignty of Indigenous people).
• Human impacts on fire ecology
• Relationship between historical fire management and biodiversity
• Methodological developments in the study of human pyrogeography
• Role of human variables (culture, demography, gender) in human pyrogeography
• Role of historic/ancient fire management in applied historical ecology and ecological restoration
• Ecological resilience and human pyrogeography
What distinguishes this collection is its focus on key issues in the study of people and fire and their relation to theory and methods for understanding the complexities, dynamics, and trajectories of human pyrogeography. The topical issues that frame each study are global, which include understanding the extent to which humans manage fire to achieve a variety of objectives in a variety of habitats and appreciating how cultural burning registers in various paleofire records (e.g., archaeological, paleoecological, dendroecological). Because this themed volume features the interdisciplinary research of archaeologists and paleoecologists, it is not monolithic in approach. Rather, the case studies explore theoretically inspired methods for reliably inferring a host of research topics. These include current understandings of the origins and formation histories of anthropogenic fire records (e.g., dimensions, scale), the advantages and limitations of current methods (archaeobotany, dendroecology, sedimentary charcoal, etc.), solutions for persistent problems (e.g., the “fading record” problem, methodological resolution), approaches for resolving equifinal “fire signals” (e.g., understanding the relationship between anthropogenic fire and “natural” fire), and evaluations of the legacies of anthropogenic fire history and their current effects (e.g., implications for restoration ecology and ecological sovereignty of Indigenous people).
• Human impacts on fire ecology
• Relationship between historical fire management and biodiversity
• Methodological developments in the study of human pyrogeography
• Role of human variables (culture, demography, gender) in human pyrogeography
• Role of historic/ancient fire management in applied historical ecology and ecological restoration
• Ecological resilience and human pyrogeography
Keywords: Fire Management, Human Pyrogeography, Paleofire, Archaeology, Paleoecology, Dendrochronology
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