Is Choice Acceptable? How the Anthracological Paradigm May Hinder the Consideration of Fuel Gathering as a Cultural Behaviour

Abstract

Charcoal analysis is a powerful and well-established means of documenting past environments and the impact of ancient societies on vegetation. Nowadays, the palaeoecological accuracy of anthracological spectra built from scattered charcoal derived from long-term use of domestic fuel is widely acknowledged. This broadly accepted paradigm relies on the hypothesis that firewood gathering is done following the Least Effort Principle, in areas frequented for routine activities, and may include any species encountered therein. Nevertheless, ethnographic studies, despite the fact that they often underline the opportunistic aspects of wood gathering, always reveal that choice comes into play at some stage of the process. Moreover, most anthracologists think in terms of 'fuel management', admitting that firewood gathering is subject to technical, economic and cultural prescriptions. For historical times and specialised activities, we easily accept that fuel may be chosen according to various properties, including species. However, we still deny that prehistoric societies potentially preferred or rejected certain wood species for feeding their domestic fires. Through concrete ethnographic and archaeobotanical examples and a case-study, this paper aims to question our capacity to consider that fuel procurement could be affected by cultural traits, to identify the behaviours that could make the charcoal record differ from the vegetation and, finally, to consider charcoal assemblages from an anthropological angle.

Sampling and quantitative analysis methods in anthracology from archaeological contexts: Achievements and prospects

“…Additionally, various socio-economic and cultural factors can contribute to woodland use, beyond parameters involved in fuel wood procurement. Research on ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological and theoretical aspects of woodland use practices and the question of fuel selection beyond properties linked to pyrology and/or environmental availability addresses some of these complex issues in greater detail (Dufraisse et al, 2007;Henry, 2011;Picornell-Gelabert et al, 2011;Delhon, 2018;Picornell-Gelabert, 2020).…”

Assessing the Function of Palaeolithic Hearths: Experiments on Intensity of Luminosity and Radiative Heat Outputs from Different Fuel Sources

“…This may include the speed of burning (fast or slow), or whether the people were using fuels with varying degrees of outgoing radiative heat or light in different ways, inside or outside of housing structures or within caves and rockshelters. As Delhon (2018) cautions, there is no reason to think that Palaeolithic populations were not practising taxonomic selection given the wider acceptance of all the environmental socio-cultural factors affecting fuel management strategies in this period.…”

“…However, seasonality can also affect what fuel is selected, as well, especially in terms of moisture content and deadwood availability. Cultural practises can also determine strategies of fuel management, with some fuels being avoided due to cultural biases (Delhon 2018;Henry et al 2018;Théry-Parisot 2002a, b). Importantly, the ethnographic record demonstrates that both the state of the wood and the combustion properties of species are being considered in relation to fuel selection by some contemporary hunter-gatherers when it comes to aspects of hearth function.…”

“…Identifying materials used for fuel in the archaeological record may also provide information on other important behaviourally relevant functions relating to hearth activity if the combustion properties of a fuel could be determined to provide enough benefit for a particular purpose. Delhon (2018) highlights the importance of the many socio-cultural factors that influence fuel use in the ethnographic record and stresses that, at some point, choice is always a factor when it comes to domestic hearths. It is further suggested by Delhon (2018) that identifying situations where selection of wood (whether size, species, vegetal association or phenotypic characteristics) is probable could provide a means to utilise charcoal assemblages as palaeoethnological proxies.…”

“…Delhon (2018) highlights the importance of the many socio-cultural factors that influence fuel use in the ethnographic record and stresses that, at some point, choice is always a factor when it comes to domestic hearths. It is further suggested by Delhon (2018) that identifying situations where selection of wood (whether size, species, vegetal association or phenotypic characteristics) is probable could provide a means to utilise charcoal assemblages as palaeoethnological proxies. White et al (2017) state that the ability to maximise light and heat would be beneficial to Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers, and in fact, this ability would be beneficial to all Palaeolithic populations, especially those at the mid-to-northern latitudes where the effects of seasonality on ambient temperature and length of daylight hours are most pronounced.…”