CALL FOR PAPERS Fire Ecology and Ethnobiology A Session at the Society of Ethnobiologys 36th Annual Conference May 15-18, 2013, the University of North Texas
Abstract Anthropologists have been studying fires evolutionary and cultural significance for more than 100 years. For several decades ethnobiologists have addressed the ways and reasons people use fire to manage resources and the effects of anthropogenic fires on resources. Attention to fire ecology has blossomed during the previous decade within anthropology as well as in other academic disciplines and in applied fields (e.g., land management). The burgeoning interest in fire ecology coincides with explosive growth in climate change science. Now is a strategic time for ethnobiologists to discuss the ways our work converges with fire ecology and climate change science. This panel brings scholars together to discuss the social, ecological, and meteorological processes that ensue when fire encounters biological organisms. Anthropogenic fires and fires caused by lightning, falling rocks, volcanoes, and spontaneous combustion link to multi-scale, multi- species processes ranging from the biographies of individual organisms, to fluxes in biological communities, and population-level dynamics. Ethnobiologists contribute to our understandings of the ways human knowledge and behavior intersects with the biological processes that cause or are caused by fire in the contemporary world and throughout human history. Panelists consider troubling questions about the biological and cultural impacts of fires. Do anthropogenic fires in small-scale communities contribute to global warming and climate change, or are their impacts minimal relative to the contributions of high-volume consumers in industrialized and post-industrialized societies? What are the consequences of fire suppression for traditional societies? What ethical issues do anthropologists consider when issues of self-determination and human rights confront issues of carbon emissions and deforestation? The analytic frame of fire complicates our abilities to offer simple solutions to the human rights and climate change problems that occur in our world today. Can we both advocate for the rights of indigenous peoples to burn their own landscapes and for the reduction in human-induced global warming? How do we protect peoples rights to self-determination and respect local systems of fire management while simultaneously reducing negative environmental impacts of human activities and conserving biocultural diversity? Panelists present the results of transdisciplinary work, which is one of the great strengths of the member-scholars in the Society of Ethnobiology. Panelists combine classical archaeological and ethnographic methods with newer geospatial techniques. Theoretically, we seek to explain the relationships between fire ecology and human ecology through time in ways that are relevant for climate policy and biocultural diversity. To participate, submit a 150-word abstract to Cissy Fowler [email protected] by February 10, 2013.
