Abstract
Indigenous peoples have been using fire in the cerrado (savannas) of Brazil as a form of management for thousands of years, yet we have little information on why, when and how these fire practices take place. The aim of this paper was to explore the traditional use of fire as a management tool by the Krahô indigenous group living in the north-eastern region of Tocantíns state, Brazil. The results indicate that the Krahô burn for a variety of reasons throughout the dry season, thereby producing a mosaic of burned and unburned patches in the landscape. The paper discusses this burning regime in the context of contemporary issues regarding fire management, and in the face of changing perceptions to fire by the Krahô themselves.
References
Alexandre, A., Meunier, J. D., Mariotti, A., and Soubies, F. (1999). Late Holocene phytolith and carbon-isotope record from a latosol at Salitre, south-central Brazil. Quaternary Research 51: 187–194.
Anderson, A. B., and Posey, D. A. (1985). Manejo de cerrado pelos indios Kayapó. Boletim do Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi Botânica 2(1): 77–98.
Anderson, A. B., and Posey, D. A. (1989). Management of a tropical scrub savanna by the Gorotire Kayapó of Brazil. Advances in Economic Botany 7: 159–173.
Anderton, J. B. (1999). Native American, fire-maintained blueberry patches in the coastal pine forests of the northern Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Geographer 6(1/2): 29–39.
Balée, W. (1994). Footprints of the Forest. Ka’apor Ethnobotany—The Historical Ecology of Plant Utilization by an Amazonian People, Columbia University Press, New York.
Barberi, M., Salgado-Labouriau, M. L., and Suguio, K. (2000). Paleovegetation and paleoclimate of “Vereda de Aguas Emendadas, ” central Brazil. Journal of South American Earth Science 13(3): 241–254.
Barbosa, A. S. (2002). Andarilhos da Claridade: os primeiros habitantes do Cerrado, Universidade Católica/Instituto Trópico Subúmido, Goiânia.
Behling, H. (1995). A high-resolution Holocene pollen record from Lago do Pires, SE Brazil—vegetation, climate and fire history. Journal of Paleolimnology 14 (3): 253–268.
Behling, H. (1998). Late Quaternary vegetational and climatic changes in Brazil. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 99: 143–156.
Behling, H. (2002). South and southeast Brazilian grasslands during Late Quaternary times: A synthesis. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 177(1–2): 19–27.
Boyd, R. (1999). Strategies of Indian burning in the Willamette Valley. In Boyd, R. (ed.), Indians, Fire and the Land in the Pacific Northwest, Oregon State University Press, Corvallis.
Braithwaite, R. W. (1996). Biodiversity and fire in the savanna landscape. In Solbrig, O. T., Medina, E., and Silva, J. (eds.), Biodiversity and Savanna Ecosystem Processes, Springer, Berlin.
Brockett, B. H., Biggs, H. C., and van Wilgen, B. W. (2001). A patch mosaic burning system for conservation areas in southern African savannas. International Journal of Wildland Fire 10: 169–183.
Dawson, S., Manderson, L., and Tallo, V. L. (1993). A Manual for the Use of Focus Groups, International Nutrition Foundation for Developing Countries, Boston.
Dewalt, K., Dewalt, B., and Wayland, C. (1998). Participant observation. In Bernard, H. (ed.), Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology, Alta Mira, Walnut Creek, CA.
França, H., and Setzer, A. (1997). Regime de queimadas no Parque Nacional das Emas, GO: 1973–1995 (Relatório de pesquisa), I.N.P.E.-D.S.R., São José dos Campos, SP.
Geertz, C. (1983). Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology, Basic Books, New York.
Giaccaria, B., and Heide, A. (1984). Xavante: Povo autêntico, Editora Salesiana Dom Bosco, São Paulo.
Hall, J., McLeod, R. A., and Mitchell, V. (1987). Pequeno Dicionário Xavante/Português e Português/Xavante, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Brazil.
Haynes, C. D. (1985). The pattern and ecology of munwag: Traditional Aboriginal fire regimes in north-central Arnhemland. Proceedings of the Ecological Society of Australia 13: 203–214.
Haynes, C. D. (1991). Use and impact of fire. In Haynes, C. D., Ridpath, M. G., and Williams, M. A. J. (eds.), Monsoonal Australia: Landscape, Ecology and Man in the Northern Lowlands, A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam.
Hecht, S., and Posey, D. A. (1989). Preliminary results on soil management techniques of the Kayapó Indians. Advances in Economic Botany 7: 174–188.
Jeltsch, F., Milton, S. J., Dean, W. R. J., van Rooyen, N., and Moloney, K. A. (1998). Modelling the impact of small-scale heterogeneities on tree-grass coexistence in semi-arid savannas. Journal of Ecology 86: 780–793.
Jeltsch, F., Weber, G. E., and Grimm, V. (2000). Ecological buffering mechanisms in savannas: A unifying theory of long-term tree-grass coexistence. Plant Ecology 161: 161–171.
Kerr, W. E., and Posey, D. A. (1984). Notas sobre a agricultura dos indios Kayapo. Interciencia 9(6): 392–400.
Krueger, R. A. (1994). A Practical Guide for Applied Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks.
Laris, P. (2002). Burning the seasonal mosaic: Preventative burning strategies in the wooded savanna of southern Mali. Human Ecology 30(2): 155–186.
Lavallée, D. (1995). The First South Americans. The peopling of a Continent From the Earliest Evidence to High Culture, The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Levy, R. I., and Hollan, D. W. (1998). Person-centred interviewing and observation. In Bernard, H. (ed.), Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology, Alta Mira, Walnut Creek, CA.
Lewis, H. T. (1989). Ecological and technological knowledge of fire: Aborigines versus park rangers in Northern Australia. American Anthropologist 91: 940–961.
Lewis, H. T., and Ferguson, T. A. (1988). Yards, corridors and mosaics: How to burn a boreal forest. Human Ecology 16: 57–77.
Lukesch, A. (1969). Mito e vida dos indios Caiapós, Editora da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo.
Maybury-Lewis, D. (1984). A sociedade Xavante, Francisco Alves, Rio de Janeiro.
Mbow, C., Nielson, T. T., and Rasmussen, K. (2000). Savanna fires in east-central Senegal: Distribution patterns, resource management and perceptions. Human Ecology 28(4): 561–583.
McLeod, R., and Mitchell, V. (1980). Aspectos da Lingua Xavante. Summer Institute of Linguistics, Brazil.
Melatti, J. C. (1972). O Messianismo Krahô, Héder USP, São Paulo, Brazil.
Melatti, J. C. (1986). Índios do Brasil, HUCITEC, Universidade de BrasÍlia, São Paulo.
Mentis, M. T. (1978). Population limitation in grey rhebuck and oribi in the Natal Drakensberg. The Lammergeyer 26: 19–28.
Mentis, M. T., and Bigalke, R. C. (1981). The effect of scale of burn on the densities of grassland francolins in the Natal Drakensberg. Biological Conservation 21: 247–261.
Miranda, H. S., Bustamante, M. M. C., and Miranda, A. C. (2002). The fire factor. In Oliveira, P. S., and Marquis, R. J. (eds.), The cerrados of Brazil. Ecology and natural history of a neotropical savanna, Columbia University Press, New York.
Mistry, J. (1998a). Fire in the cerrado (Savannas) of Brazil: An ecological review. Progress in Physical Geography 22: 425–448.
Mistry, J. (1998b). Decision-making for fire use among farmers in the savannas of central Brazil. Journal of Environmental Management 54: 321–334.
Nimuendajú, C. (1983). Os Apinayé, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi (tradução da edição inglesa de 1939), Belém.
Norton, G. A., and Walker, B. H. (1985). A decision analysis approach to savanna management. Journal of Environmental Management 21: 15–31.
Parr, C. L., and Brockett, B. H. (1999). Patch-mosaic burning: A new paradigm for savanna fire management in protected areas? Koedoe 42: 117–130.
Posey, D. A. (1992). Interpreting and applying the “reality” of indigenous concepts: What is necessary to learn from the natives? In Redford, K. H., and Padoch, C. (eds.), Conservation of Neotropical Forests. Working From Traditional Resource Use, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Posey, D. A. (1998). Diachronic ecotones and anthropogenic landscapes in Amazonia: Contesting the consciousness of conservation. In Balée, W. (ed.), Advances in Historical Ecology, Columbia University Press, New York.
Pyne, S. J. (2001). Fire. A brief history, The British Museum Press, London.
Rowe-Rowe, D. T., and Lowry, P. B. (1982). Influence of fire on small-mammal populations in the Natal Drakensberg. South African Journal of Wildlife Research 16: 32–35.
Russell-Smith, J. (1995). Fire management. In Press, T., Lea, D., Webb, A., and Graham, A. (eds.), Kakadu. Natural and Cultural Heritage and Management, Australian Nature Conservation Agency, North Australia Research Unit, The Australian National University, Darwin.
Russell-Smith, J., Lucas, D., Gapindi, M., Gunbunuka, B., Kapirigi, N., Namingum, G., Lucas, K., Giuliani, P., and Chaloupka, G. (1997a). Aboriginal resource utilisation and fire management practice in western Arnhem Land, monsoonal northern Australia: Notes for prehistory, lessons for the future. Human Ecology 25(2): 159–195.
Russell-Smith, J., Ryan, P. G., and Durieu, R. (1997b). A LANDSAT MSS-derived fire history of Kakadu National Park, monsoonal northern Australia, 1980–94: Seasonal extent, frequency and patchiness. Journal of Applied Ecology 34: 748–766.
Salgado-Labouriau, M. L., Barberi, M., Ferraz-Vicentini, K. R., and Parizzi, M. G. (1998). A dry climatic event during the late Quaternary of tropical Brazil. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 99: 115–129.
Saxon, E. C. (1984). Anticipating the inevitable: A patch-burn strategy for fire management at Uluru (Ayers Rock-Mt Olga) National Park, CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Rangelands Research, Melbourne.
Stewart, O. (1953). Why the Great Plains are treeless. Colorado Quarterly 2(1): 40–50.
Théry, H. (2002). Novas fronteiras na Amazônia, Paper presented at the Cruzando fronteras en América Latina, Tercer Congreso de Latinoamericanistas, Amsterdam 3–6 July 2002.
Vale, T. R. (Ed.). (2002). Fire, native peoples and the natural landscape, Island Press, Washington.
Vernet, J. L., Wengler, L., Solari, M. E., Ceccantini, G., Fournier, M., Ledru, M. P., and Soubies, F. (1994). Fire, climate and vegetation in central Brazil during the Holocene—Data from a soil profile with charcoal (Salitre, Minas Gerais). Comptes Rendus de l Academie des Sciences Serie II 319 (11,2): 1391–1397.
Villas-Boas, O., and Villas-Boas, C. (1976). Xingu—Os indios, Seus Mitos, Zahar Editores, Rio de Janeiro.
Watanabe, S., Ayta, W. E. F., and Hamaguchi, H. (2003). Some evidence of a date of first humans to arrive in Brazil. Journal of Archaeological Science 30: 351–354.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mistry, J., Berardi, A., Andrade, V. et al. Indigenous Fire Management in the cerrado of Brazil: The Case of the Krahô of Tocantíns. Hum Ecol 33, 365–386 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-005-4143-8
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-005-4143-8