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Abstract
Native Americans are often considered to have exploited available natural resources rather than modifying their environments to maximize yields. As simpler societies evolved into more complex ones, there is a consensus that intensification of habitat modifications also increased. However, landscape scale archeological inventories now show relatively intensive modifications of specific landscapes through most of human history, including so-called simpler societies. Records of these modifications are difficult to obtain. Archeological site distributions can be used to understand human settlement and selection of particular ecosystems. Another method uses tree-ring dating (dendrochronology) on fire-scarred trees that recorded fire frequencies and fire return intervals at points on the landscape that frequently burned due to natural and cultural processes. General Land Office records (1815-1840) provide firm evidence for culturally-induced changes in species distribution and historical landscape vegetation mosaics for the Ozark Highlands and Arkansas River valley.
Parent Publication
Citation
Jurney, David H. 2012. Anthropology of fire in the Ozark Highland region. In: Dey, Daniel C.; Stambaugh, Michael C.; Clark, Stacy L.; Schweitzer, Callie J., eds. Proceedings of the 4th fire in eastern oak forests conference; 2011 May 17-19; Springfield, MO. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-102. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 12-33.
