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“Our Gathering Philosophy is Our Ecological Policy”: The Archaeology of Cultural Burns, Biodiversity, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Department: Anthropology
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Paper000
Specimen Elements
Pocatello
Unknown to Unknown
Nicole Falvey
Idaho State University
Thesis
No
6/25/2025
digital
City: Pocatello
Master
California is home to prairies, savannah, chaparral, and coniferous forests—the prime fire-adapted ecosystems in the world. Historic documentation indicates that Indigenous Californians performed low-intensity cultural burns upon European arrival, a practice that is corroborated by global ethnographic data from similar environments. European fire-suppression policies put an end to these cultural burns, which has caused the Californian landscape to become overgrown, decreasing biodiversity and setting the scene for the mega-fires witnessed over the last two decades. Interdisciplinary, collaborative eco-archaeological research in Central California has shown that the archaeological record has much to contribute to the study of precontact landscape management through cultural burning. However, no archaeological studies have been undertaken to identify cultural burning in precontact Southern California. This thesis aims to fill that gap by first examining the ethnographic record of Indigenous fire-use around the world to determine if cultural burns are used to construct human-environmental niche landscapes. Secondly, it spot-lights San Diego County, California to determine if the archaeological record suggests that similar practices were conducted before European arrival. Pollen and phytolith data recovered from archaeological excavations throughout San Diego County, California were analyzed to determine if paleoecological evidence correlates to the use of cultural burns by precontact, Indigenous San Diegans. I calculated the Vegetation Response Index for each sample and compared this to the available paleoclimatic data (KlimaszewskiPatteson et al. 2019). My results agree with the hypothesis that landscape-level cultural burns were conducted; however, there is not enough data available to definitively prove this was the case. Previous studies have shown that the primary predictor for the use of cultural burns is a lightning-fire-prone, and therefore fire-adapted, landscape (Coughlan et al. 2018). Every sample from every time period identified by my research indicates that precontact, historic, and modern San Diego County is fire-adapted. This landscape quality is a strong predictor for the use of cultural burns. The paleoecological record is corroborated by the historically recorded use of cultural burns by Indigenous Californians, which indicates the presence of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). TEK refers to a collection of Indigenous environmental wisdom passed down through generations of landscape co-evolution. Such wisdom takes time to accumulate and, therefore, was likely present in the precontact period. The evidence for fire-adapted ecosystems combined with the TEK of local Indigenous groups indicates that precontact Indigenous San Diegans practiced cultural burns to manage their landscapes. The archaeological and historical records show the antiquity of cultural burns by Indigenous Californians, which supports modern efforts to revitalize the practice as a landscape management tool against wildfires. Today, the recognition of TEK’s importance can bring Indigenous knowledge to the forefront of State policymakers, benefitting California’s landscape, Indigenous communities, and everyone who calls California home. Keywords: cultural burns, anthropogenic burns, controlled burns, prescribed burns, traditional ecological knowledge, precontact San Diego County archaeology, Vegetation Response Index, Anna Klimaszewski-Patterson, Christopher T. Morgan, and Scott Mensing, historical ecology theory

“Our Gathering Philosophy is Our Ecological Policy”: The Archaeology of Cultural Burns, Biodiversity, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge

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