Rethinking the Study of Landscape Management Practices Among Hunter-Gatherers in North America

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RETHINKING THE STUDY OF LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AMONG HUNTER-GATHERERS IN NORTH AMERICA

Kent G. Lightfoot, Rob Q. Cuthrell, Chuck J. Striplen, and Mark G. Hylkema

There has been little movement to systematically incorporate the study of indigenous landscape management practices into the method and theory of hunter-gatherer research in North American archaeology, despite a growing interest in this topic. The purposes of this article are twofold. One is to address why, until quite recently, archaeologists have been reluctant to engage in the current debate about the scale and ecological impact of these practices, particularly anthropogenic burning. We argue that this stems from a long tradition of viewing hunter-gatherers as passive, immediate-return foragers, as well as from the daunting methodological challenges of identifying landscape management activities using archaeological data. Our second purpose is to explore how archaeologists can make significant contributions to our understanding of past resource management practices through the creation of new kinds of collaborative, interdisciplinary eco-archaeological programs. Based on the current work of scholars in archaeological and environmental disciplines, as well as on our own implemen - tation of such an approach in central California, we discuss the importance of maintaining mutual relationships with local tribes, the challenges of coordinating multiple data sets, and the process of rethinking our analytical methods and tempo - ral scales for undertaking hunter-gatherer studies.

Ha habido poco movimiento para incorporar sistemáticamente el estudio de los prácticos de direcciones recursos indígenas en el método y en la teoría de las investigaciones de los cazador-recolectores en la arqueología Norte Americana, a pesar del interés creciendo en este tema. Hay dos propósitos de este artículo. Uno es abordar porqué, hasta recientemente, arqueólo - gos han sido reacios en dedicarse dentro del debate actual del escalo y del impacto ecológico de estos prácticos, particular - mente los fuegos antropológicos. Argumentamos que este viene de una gran tradición de pensar en los cazador-recolectores como forrajeros pasivos quienes regresan inmediatamente a sus tierras ya habitadas. También viene de los desafíos metodo - lógicos tan desalentados en identificando los prácticos de direcciones recursos usando datos arqueológicos. Nuestro según propósito es explorar cómo arqueólogos pueden hacer contribuciones significantes a nuestro entendimiento sobre los prácti - cos de direcciones recursos pasados por la creación de nuevos tipos de programas colaborativos, interdisciplinarios, y eco - lógicos. Basada en el trabajo actual de los eruditos en disciplinarios arqueológicos y ecológicos, además de nuestra implementación de tal enfoque en California Central, discutimos la importancia en manteniendo relaciones mutuales con tri - bales locales, los desafíos en coordinando múltiples conjuntos de datos, el proceso de repensar nuestros métodos analíticos y escalos temporales para emprender los estudios de los cazador-recolectores.

erceptions about hunter-gatherers in North ments. Anthropologists describe diverse activities America have undergone significant trans - that hunter-gatherers employ to stimulate the formations in the anthropological litera - growth and diversity of floral and faunal re - ture in recent years. Once depicted as passive sources across the landscape, which include pre - Pforagers who simply harvested available foods scribed burning, tillage, pruning, seed broadcast - and raw materials from relatively pristine ecosys - ing, transplanting, mulching/fertilizing, weeding, tems, they are now recognized as agents who ac - and irrigation, as well as the tending of clam beds tively modified and constructed local environ - and fish eggs (Anderson 2005; Blackburn and Ⅲ Kent G. Lightfoot Department of Anthropology, Archaeological Research Facility, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3710 ([email protected]) Ⅲ Rob Q. Cuthrell Department of Anthropology, Archaeological Research Facility, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3710 Ⅲ Chuck J. Striplen Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, San Francisco Estuary Institute, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3114 Ⅲ Mark G. Hylkema California Department of Parks and Recreation, Santa Cruz District, Felton, CA 95018-9660

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Anderson 1993; Deur and Turner 2005; Fowler agement practices, even though they have been and Lepofsky 2011; Peacock and Turner 2000; discussed in the local anthropological literature Turner and Peacock 2005). In particular, the for many decades (e.g., Anderson 2005; Bean strategic use of fire is argued to be an important and Lawton 1976; Lewis 1993). This is unfortu - management tool once used to construct produc - nate on two counts. tive anthropogenic landscapes in many regions of First, since the 1940s, when Omer Stewart be - North America (e.g., Boyd 1999; Hammett 1991, gan researching his massive synthesis of indige - 1992; Lewis 1993; Patterson and Sassaman 1988; nous burning in North America, the majority of Stewart 2002). Fowler and Lepofsky refer col - the anthropological research on TREM has been lectively to the various activities and knowledge based on ethnohistorical and ethnographic re - employed to enhance the abundance, diversity, search. Although detailed analyses of these ob - and/or availability of local resources as “tradi - servations have led to major contributions to our tional resource and environmental management” understanding of indigenous resource manage - (TREM [2011:286]). This article considers man - ment strategies (e.g., Blackburn and Anderson agement practices, particularly anthropogenic 1993; Boyd 1999; Deur and Turner 2005; Fowler burning, used by hunter-gatherers to enhance the et al. 2003; Turner and Peacock 2005), there are productivity of nondomesticated plants and ani - well-recognized constraints in relying primarily mals (e.g., Smith 2011). 1 on these sources to study past Native practices, Although most scholars today recognize that particularly those originating before European hunter-gatherers employed systematic burning and contact (Deur and Turner 2005:20–28). other management techniques to modify local habi - A particularly vexing problem is that our cur - tats, there is considerable debate about the magni - rent understanding of TREM practices in many tude of such practices and their overall impact on regions of North America has been greatly de - the environment. Some ecologists and environ - termined by the timing, methods, and impacts of mental scientists argue that the scale of environ - European exploration and settlement. For exam - mental modification is greatly exaggerated in the ple, along the Pacific coast of North America, current anthropological literature. Vale (1998:231, early settler accounts, ethnographic observations, 2002:7) cautions that this perspective is creating a and tribal memories of anthropogenic burning by new “myth” or “revisionist history” about Native hunter-gatherers vary greatly (Boyd 1999; Lewis Americans, one in which they modified and eco - 1993). Along the central and southern California nomically enhanced vast swathes of land (see also coasts— areas colonized in the late 1700s by Allen 2002; Barrett et al. 2005; Parker 2002). Vale Franciscan missionaries who implemented fire and others believe that relatively small areas were suppression policies— recollections of anthro - typically altered when such management practices pogenic burning “had long faded from cultural were employed. More importantly, they argue that memory by the late 19th and early 20th cen - major transformations in the composition and turies” (Timbrook et al. 1993:118). In other structure of plant communities often attributed to places, there are few or no firsthand ethnographic Native fire management by anthropologists can observations of anthropogenic burning, since the be best explained by natural, nonanthropogenic earliest trained anthropologists did not go into the ecological processes. field until after the implementation of federal Significantly, the field of archaeology has been and state fire suppression policies that prohibited relatively quiet throughout this debate. Although Native peoples from setting fires in wildlands some innovative research is now taking place, (see Lightfoot and Parrish 2009:94–97). Among particularly in the Northwest, there has been lit - some tribal groups, elders can recount oral tradi - tle systematic movement to incorporate TREM tions of anthropogenic burning, but often they implications into the method and theory of hunter- can provide few specific details of the process gatherer research in North American archaeol - (e.g., on fire ignition, control, frequency, patch ogy. In some regions, such as California, archae - size, etc.) since they grew up after government ological studies of hunter-gatherers continue to be fire restrictions had been implemented (Deur implemented with little reference to past man - 2009; Lepofsky et al. 2005a:224). AQ78(2)Lightfoot_Layout 1 2/8/13 10:43 AM Page 3

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The heavy reliance on ethnohistorical and communities? Did these fire management prac - ethnographic observations to make the case for tices increase species richness and decrease fuel TREM in the anthropological literature is an im - loads over the long term? How can traditional portant factor in current debates about the scale practices, in concert with modern range and for - and ecological impact of these practices. Some est management protocols, provide new insights scholars have raised criticisms about the highly for managing wildlands today? “selective” and “biased” use of a few historical We believe that archaeology can make signifi - sources to paint “careless generalizations” about cant contributions to the study of anthropogenic the degree to which Native Americans modified burning and other management practices among local environments (Allen 2002:145, 160; Barrett hunter-gatherers that can help address these broadly et al. 2005:31–32; Vale 2002:6–7). They contend relevant questions. The diachronic perspective of that a full evaluation of the problem will not be archaeology is well suited for providing critical in - possible until other lines of empirical evidence, formation about TREM practices at the landscape preferably involving “scientific and ecological scale and their implications for understanding past perspectives,” are brought to bear on this issue fire regimes and vegetation succession patterns (Allen 2002:163–166; Barrett et al. 2005:32–33). over many centuries, spanning precontact and con - Clearly, archaeology should be a crucial compo - tact times. In this article, we follow Lepofsky nent of this dialogue. (2009:162–163) in arguing that the systematic Second, by largely abstaining from the ongo - study of past TREM practices will require some re - ing debate about the scale and ecological impact thinking in how we undertake the study of hunter- of TREM practices, archaeologists are overlook - gatherer societies. Specifically, we argue that this ing an excellent opportunity to contribute to a se - will involve modifications in our standard proce - ries of important and broadly relevant issues con - dures for undertaking archaeological research to - cerning the contemporary management of open ward creating new kinds of collaborative, inter - spaces and public lands. While various concerns disciplinary eco-archaeological programs. have been raised about the integration of tradi - The purposes of this article are twofold. One is tional ecological knowledge with modern re - to address the challenges of studying traditional source management practices (Hunn et al. 2003; resource and environment management in ar - Nadasdy 1999), it is clear that “understanding chaeology and why we have, until quite recently, the role of humans in ecosystem history is a fun - been reluctant to study these practices among damental first step in managing ecosystems to - hunter-gatherer societies despite their prominent day” (Lepofsky 2009:161). Resource managers discussion in the anthropological literature for are experimenting with new policies and practices more than five decades. The other purpose is to for managing contemporary ecosystems that will explore how archaeologists can contribute to the enhance species richness and diversity, promote study of anthropogenic burning by rethinking the growth of indigenous species over exotics, and some of our protocols in contemporary archaeo - reduce the risks from major firestorms. In creat - logical research. This latter section is based on re - ing the next generation of treatment protocols, cent work by various colleagues in archaeologi - there is movement in the field of restoration ecol - cal and related environmental disciplines, as well ogy to experiment with traditional ecological as our ongoing study of historic and late Holocene knowledge in the management, treatment, and hunter-gatherers in central California. rehabilitation of ecosystems (Anderson 2005; Clewell and Aronson 2007; Egan and Howell The Challenges of Studying 2001; Fowler et al. 2003; Mason et al. 2012; So - Past Management Practices ciety for Ecological Restoration 2004). Questions are now being asked about the agency of Native people in shaping past fire regimes and vegetation Theoretical Issues patterns. What kinds of strategies did they employ There is a long tradition in North American ar - in regards to the timing, intensity, and extent of chaeology of viewing hunter-gatherer societies traditional burns in specific kinds of vegetation separately from agrarian people who intentionally AQ78(2)Lightfoot_Layout 1 2/8/13 10:43 AM Page 4

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manipulated the environment to increase the pro - cratic but, rather, as part of broader evolutionary ductivity of specific resources using horticultural processes that can have long-term implications for or agricultural practices (i.e., the classic forager/ both habitats and associated life-forms. In addi - farmer dichotomy [Erickson 2006:241–242]). tion, recent research considering management Early anthropologists, such as Alfred Kroeber practices as a broader process of “landscape do - (1925), drew a distinction between passive for - mestication,” in which the cultivation of wild in - agers, who exclusively collected available re - digenous plants and animals reconfigured the sources from the landscape (leaving only foot - types and distributions of biological communities, prints), from agrarian groups, who constructed is providing a new perspective for rethinking hu - anthropogenic landscapes that were the product of man/environmental interactions among hunter- direct manipulation of particular plant resources gatherers (e.g., Balée 2006; Erickson and Balée and vegetative communities. This dichotomous 2006; Yen 1989). perspective remained a common theme in the Scholars are now making important advances writings of some of our most influential anthro - in the study of hunter-gatherers and resource en - pologists into the late twentieth century (Ingold hancement strategies employing archaeological 1987:70–73; Wolf 1982:91–92). and ecological data sets in such areas as the Amer - However, this long-held view began to un - ican Northwest, the Southeast, New England, the ravel in the archaeological literature in the 1980s, Plains, and California (e.g., Boyd 2002; Clark when scholars began to rethink the distinctions and Royall 1995; Gassaway 2009; Hammett between hunting/gathering and agrarian societies, 1991, 1992; Hammett and Lawlor 2004; Lepofsky recognizing the broad gradient of societies that and Lertzman 2008; Lepofsky et al. 2005a; Lep - employed various forms of cultivation— used here ofsky et al. 2005b; Patterson and Sassaman 1988; in the broad sense to refer to any practices that en - Weiser and Lepofsky 2009). Yet there has been lit - hanced the production of natural resources, not tle movement to systematically incorporate the just cultigens per se (i.e., resources dependent on study of indigenous landscape management prac - human intervention for their reproduction [Ford tices into the method and theory of hunter-gath - 1985; Harris 1989]). Bruce Smith’s (2001) mas - erer research in North American archaeology. terly overview of this subject created a pragmatic This is evident in many of the theoretical ap - framework for placing various hunter-gatherer proaches employed in the study of hunter-gath - and agrarian societies along a continuum of food erers, such as those deriving from early versions production, showing that many classic hunter- of optimal foraging models (e.g., diet breadth, gatherers were part of a broader class of “low- patch choice, central place foraging), which have level food producers” who employed various been highly influential in archaeological research methods of cultivation (weeding, tilling, trans - (Bettinger 1991:83–111; Kelly 1995:73–110). planting, sowing, strategic burning) to tend plants These studies analyze hunter-gatherers as imme - across the broader landscape but for whom the diate-return foragers who maximize returns based majority of important plant foods were not the on resource encounter frequency and caloric re - products of intensive horticulture. turn rates. They assume that hunter-gatherers Employing niche construction theory, some made instantaneous decisions about the procure - archaeologists are now conceptualizing hunter- ment of resources as they were encountered dur - gatherer resource enhancement practices within a ing foraging activities. In highlighting the imme - wider evolutionary framework— one that recog - diacy of hunter-gatherer movements, decisions, nizes how a diverse range of life-forms modify and foraging practices, these models have tended their environments, producing new kinds of se - to preclude archaeologists from addressing re - lective pressures on succeeding generations of search questions about economic activities that in - organisms inhabiting those niches (Rowley- volved longer-term planning and delayed returns, Conwy and Layton 2012; Smith 2007, 2011; such as the management of resource patches Zeder 2012). Niche construction theory suggests through fire or other cultivation methods (see cri - that TREM activities among hunter-gatherers tiques in Erickson 2006:243; Smith 2006:300; should not be viewed as anomalous or idiosyn - Zeder 2012:257–258). AQ78(2)Lightfoot_Layout 1 2/8/13 10:43 AM Page 5

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Our purpose is not to criticize optimal forag - pruning, seed broadcasting, and other cultivation ing models for something they were never in - methods may have been precursors to the devel - tended to analyze. We acknowledge that a new opment of agriculture in some cases, but in many generation of evolutionary ecology models is other situations these methods were strategically now being developed to examine delayed-re - incorporated into various hunter-gatherer life - turn economies and the transition to agriculture ways to produce stable, long-term economies and using a variety of concepts (e.g., future dis - social organizations that were distinct from those counting, cooperation, proprietary [EAG1]use of agrarian societies. rights, ideal free distribution, cultural transmis - Some resource enhancement strategies in - sion theory [Bettinger 1998, 2006; Kennett et al. volved the creation of domesticated landscapes 2006; Tucker 2006; Winterhalder and Kennett designed to enhance the productivity and richness 2006]). As these models are refined, they should of various suites of plants and animals (e.g., Er - contribute greatly to the study of resource en - ickson 2006:243; Yen 1989). These kinds of hancement practices, but they have yet to make economies, based on the intentional transforma - a major impact on mainstream hunter-gatherer tion of a potentially broad range (gradients) of research. ecological communities across the landscape, dif - Another factor that has impeded archaeolo - fered from those of field agriculturalists who of - gists from seriously investigating landscape man - ten focused on the production of a few genetically agement practices among hunter-gatherer soci - modified cultigens (Erickson 2006:243–244). eties is the perceived link to more intensive Rather, in cases of landscape domestication, peo - agrarian practices. The cultivation methods of ple typically worked at broader scales to promote hunter-gatherers are often described as examples the richness, productivity, and predictability of a of “proto-agriculture” or “semi-agriculture” and multitude of plants and animals that could be em - compared with those of farmers (Anderson ployed for food, medicines, raw materials, and 2005:252–253; Bean and Lawton 1976). While ceremonial regalia. In maintaining a flexible re - not discounting the potential insights that TREM lationship with local resources, which were not may offer in understanding the rise of agriculture, wholly dependent on human intervention for their it is highly problematic to place these economic reproductive success, hunter-gatherers maintained practices at an intermediary stage on an evolu - their ability to choose from diverse constellations tionary path between hunting-gathering and agri - of resources from season to season and year to culture (Erickson 2006:241–243; Smith 2001:25; year depending on local environmental and social Yen 1989:66–71). This directional evolutionary conditions. Shipek (1993:381) also notes that the alignment has hampered archaeologists from an - timing and organization of labor for these kinds of alyzing indigenous landscape management as part economies may have been more evenly distrib - of the common repertoire of “real” hunter-gath - uted throughout the year, in contrast to the inter - erers. Instead, it has fostered a perspective that mittent, concentrated efforts of agrarian people in - these practices are transitional, highly situational, volved in the production of field crops. and relatively uncommon and that they should be Still another factor that has hampered archae - analyzed as part of the broader process of agri - ologists from seriously investigating TREM is - cultural adoption. sues is how we conceptualize resource and envi - It is time that archaeologists recognize that ronmental management. As Fowler and Lepofsky landscape management practices may have played (2011), Lertzman (2009), and others note, man - an important and enduring role in many North agement can be a loaded term, which in contem - American hunter-gatherer economies. Recent syn - porary usage may imply some form of collective theses indicate that many hunter-gatherer societies control over resources and land to produce some that maintained resource enhancement practices desired future condition. It is true that some did so over many centuries or millennia (Diehl hunter-gatherer groups may have initiated col - and Waters 2006; Lightfoot and Parrish 2009; lective strategies designed to enhance the overall Rowley-Conwy and Layton 2012; Smith 2006; abundance, diversity, and availability of economic Wills 1995). Burning, collecting, weeding, tillage, resources on a landscape scale. But many other AQ78(2)Lightfoot_Layout 1 2/8/13 10:43 AM Page 6

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niche construction activities may have focused on Aboriginal Australian women burn small patches enhancing particular resources, more localized in to enhance the hunting of small, burrowing prey. scale and less directed toward producing broader The intent of these burns is not to enhance plant ecological outcomes. However, the cumulative collecting, the hunting of larger game, or the pro - effects of many small acts over time may still duction of landscape fire mosaics per se. How - have produced significant and novel anthro - ever, depending on the number of women in - pogenic landscape effects, as exemplified by the volved and the frequency at which camps were practice of anthropogenic burning. moved, the outcome was the creation of a fine- People burn their environments for many dif - grained mosaic of habitats with greater biological ferent reasons. Some burning may be initiated as resource availability than that produced by natural a form of community-level resource management fire regimes alone. to create specific kinds of habitats or successional We believe that it behooves archaeologists to stages (Turner and Peacock 2005:126–127). For employ a more inclusive operating definition of example, Lightfoot and Parrish (2009:14–36, TREM that spans a continuum of resource en - 94–122) argue that people may have enhanced the hancement activities ranging from highly di - productivity and richness of some California rected, community-based, landscape-scale prac - ecosystems by initiating a rotational sequence of tices to less coordinated, individualized, and small fires, creating and sustaining patchy mo - localized scales of action involving various forms saics of vegetation stands at different stages of of niche construction (Smith 2007, 2011; Zeder succession in a region. Different combinations 2012:257–259). In taking this position, we rec - of herbaceous plants, insects, and animals thrive ognize that hunter-gatherer resource management in the first few years after a grassland or chapar - practices may include a diverse range of anthro - ral habitat is burned than in subsequent years pogenic activities that shaped, modified, and en - (Keeley 2002:310–312; Lewis 1993). Theoreti - hanced local environments at various scales and cally, within a relatively small territory, a hunter- produced many different outcomes, some delib - gatherer community could have created a diverse erate and others less directed or even inadvertent. patchwork of unevenly aged habitats containing different mixes of nuts, seeds, fruits, greens, tu - Methodological Issues bers, birds, and other game. By igniting small It is one thing to argue that past hunter-gatherers patches regularly within a multiyear rotational across North America may have employed re - cycle, hunter-gatherer groups could have reaped source management practices, such as anthro - the harvests of new-growth vegetation (and the pogenic burning (e.g., Stewart 2002). It is still an - animals attracted to it) from recently burned other to demonstrate this using empirical data. stands, as well as from plants in mature habitats Another major factor in why North American ar - at later successional stages (e.g., Lightfoot and chaeologists have been reluctant to address in - Parrish 2009:100–105). digenous management practices among hunter- Anthropogenic burning may have also been gatherers is the significant challenge that is initiated by individuals or smaller kin groups for acknowledged in documenting anthropogenic a variety of other reasons. The proximate pur - burning and other resource enhancement methods poses of these fires may have been to control in - in archaeological contexts. sects or pests, to open up pathways, to enhance a This is certainly the case in Australia and the patch of specific plants, to hunt game, and so on Amazon, where archaeologists have been at the (e.g., Lewis 1993). In some cases, these small- forefront of studying the anthropogenic land - scale practices may have had minimal impact on scapes created through TREM practices (e.g., the environment. However, depending on the fre - Black et al. 2007; Erickson 2006; Jones 1969). quency, timing, extent, and placement of fires, the Landscape management practices employed by consequences of these sustained acts may have re - hunter-gatherers are often subtle and not prone to sulted in the indirect production of novel and di - leave smoking guns in the archaeological record. verse successional mosaics at a broader scale. As Bowman (1998:394–395) notes in his discus - For example, Bird et al. (2008) describe how sion of Tasmanian Aborigines, there is no neces - AQ78(2)Lightfoot_Layout 1 2/8/13 10:43 AM Page 7

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sary relationship between the level of sophistica - dinated programs for integrating archaeological tion in anthropogenic burning skills and the com - and historical ecological research, and generate plexity of associated tool kits. In fact, there ap - testable expectations for evaluating resource man - pears to be little relationship between agement practices using archaeological and eco - sophisticated knowledge of fire management and logical data. specific kinds of artifacts or technological inno - vations that will readily distinguish them from Partnerships with Tribal Groups other peoples (e.g., Lewis 1991:281–282). Our investigation of anthropogenic burning and Furthermore, some resource enhancement prac - other resource management strategies has been tices, such as anthropogenic burning, may mimic greatly facilitated by working closely with tribal natural disturbances, often making them difficult elders and scholars. In fact, we believe that these to distinguish from natural ecological processes kinds of studies may provide one avenue for (Lepofsky 2009:162; Lepofsky and Lertzman building the foundations of long-term collabora - 2008:138–139; Lepofsky et al. 2005a:219). The tive research programs with tribal groups, an is - study of fire management among hunter-gatherers sue of increasing concern in North American ar - involves detecting and documenting such subtle chaeology (e.g., Kerber 2006; Silliman 2008). shifts in the relative densities of indigenous, eco - Descendant communities are often concerned nomically important plant species and vegetation with the state of their local environments and the communities commonly found in the local region. health of indigenous plant and animal resources This is in contrast to investigations of agrarian sys - that continue to be employed as foods, medicine, tems, which are marked by the analysis of one or and raw materials for making baskets, ceremonial a few domesticated species (sometimes foreign to regalia, and other cultural objects. It can be mu - the region) that can be readily identified in the ar - tually beneficial for tribal groups to establish re - chaeological record by morphological and/or ge - lationships with archaeologists as part of the study netic markers. of landscape management practices, which may provide new insights for restoration treatments de - Collaborative Eco-Archaeological Research signed to enhance local biodiversity, habitat vi - tality, and the availability of traditional resources. Despite these formidable challenges, we believe Native elders and scholars will be critical partners that archaeologists can make significant contri - in eco-archaeological studies by providing infor - butions to the ongoing debate about the magni - mation about indigenous management drawn tude and ecological impact of anthropogenic from their own daily activities, their oral histories burning. However, it will require the creation of and traditions, and language related to burning novel interdisciplinary approaches integrating ar - (Bird et al. 2005:449; Deur 2009; Lepofsky et al. chaeological research with relevant ecological, 2005a; Mason et al. 2012). historical, and ethnographic sources of informa - Our research program in central California is tion. As Bowman (1998:395) and Lepofsky and being undertaken in close collaboration with Lertzman (2008:130) emphasize, these types of members of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, who eco-archaeological research programs are still in have a keen interest in enhancing the health and their infancy. We have spent several years exper - vigor of indigenous plants and animals that are imenting with one such approach in our study of still providing sources of traditional food, medi - resource managers in central California. Specifi - cine, basket making, and dance regalia. Recently, cally, we have been investigating the magnitude the tribe secured an agreement with the Califor - and frequency of anthropogenic burning in the nia Department of Parks and Recreation (CDPR) Año Nuevo State Reserve near Santa Cruz, Cal - designating Quiroste Valley (so named for the ifornia (Figure 1). Based on these experiences, as site’s aboriginal community) as a “State Cultural well as those of others attempting to implement Preserve” in the Año Nuevo State Reserve. similar kinds of projects, we think that these eco- Quiroste Valley, a well-drained valley tucked into archaeological approaches will be most success - the Coast Ranges a few kilometers from the coast, ful when they partner with tribes, develop coor - is rich in cultural resources and has been a major AQ78(2)Lightfoot_Layout 1 2/8/13 10:43 AM Page 8

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Figure 1. The Quiroste Valley Cultural Preserve study area in Año Nuevo State Reserve, California.

locus of our research (see Figure 1). In designat - ment cores from historic wetlands that yield ac - ing this area a State Cultural Preserve, CDPR cumulation rates of charcoal as proxies for past will work collaboratively with the tribe in man - fire events, as well as pollen counts and frequen - aging and restoring its floral and faunal commu - cies that provide information on vegetation trans - nities. Both the tribe and CDPR are interested in formations over time; and analyses of silica phy - melding the best of modern landscape manage - toliths from modern soils and paleosols that can ment protocols with those from ancient practices indicate significant vegetation changes in the past. to revive indigenous habitats in an area that is re - There is an extensive literature about the effi - covering from large-scale industrial logging, cat - cacy of employing these various methods, as well tle ranching, and agriculture throughout much of as their potential constraints in documenting fire the latter nineteenth and twentieth centuries. histories and ecological changes (Bowman 1998:395–400; Carle 2008:29–31; Clark and The Integration of Archaeological and Royall 1995; Evett et al. 2007; Hotchkiss et al. Historical Ecological Research 2007; McWethy et al. 2009; Whitlock et al. 2008). Another critical component for the study of in - Document- and imagery-based historical ecol - digenous resource management is to integrate the ogy, using postcolonial spatial and narrative archaeological work in local regions with state-of- sources, can also provide important and highly de - the-art research in historical ecology. Fire histo - tailed insights about local systems’ responses to ries may be constructed using a suite of methods: changing land uses and anthropogenic perturba - dendroecology that tracks the frequency of fires tions (Whipple et al. 2011). through time by analyzing fire scars across the In sum, it is best to employ multiple lines of ev - ring structures of certain species of trees; sedi - idence in building fire histories for local regions AQ78(2)Lightfoot_Layout 1 2/8/13 10:43 AM Page 9

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and for understanding vegetation changes over gional scales, we will use these wetland cores to time (Bowman 1998:404–405; Lepofsky and link vegetation changes to fire regimes from the Lertzman 2008:139–140; Lepofsky et al. 2005a). early Holocene through the historic periods. Furthermore, in recognizing that fire regimes vary significantly over space and time, investigations of Archaeological Expectations anthropogenic burning must be localized to specific As noted above, it is not expected that the fire areas and tribal peoples (Bird et al. 2008:14800; management activities of hunter-gatherers would Black et al. 2007:478; Hallam 1979:46). necessarily produce readily identifiable markers A common criticism of anthropological studies in the archaeological record, such as major tech - of indigenous burning is that natural ecological nological transformations, novel tools, or genet - processes have not been adequately addressed in ically modified plant remains. Rather, we expect accounting for past fire events (Allen 2002; Parker to observe more subtle markers, such as increased 2002). Fire frequency is influenced by such factors evidence for long-term successional-stage vege - as fuel buildup, fuel moisture, and ignition tation, as well as organizational changes denoting sources, which under nonanthropogenic condi - how people were using, occupying, and modify - tions are controlled primarily by precipitation, ing the local landscape. Below we outline five temperature, and lightning (Pyne 1991; van Wag - kinds of expectations about the relationship of fire tendonk 2006). Small changes in temperatures regimes, vegetation patterns, and archaeological over extended durations can have major implica - remains that may be useful in investigating past tions for past fire regimes (Sprugel 1991:12–13). anthropogenic burning using an eco-archaeolog - There is growing evidence that extended climatic ical approach. events involving cooler temperatures (e.g., the Fire Regimes and Vegetation Patterns. One Little Ice Age) reduced fire frequencies, while pe - set of expectations concerns the delineation of riods of warmer and drier conditions (e.g., the what fire regimes and vegetation patterns would Medieval Climatic Anomaly) increased them have looked like in a local region under nonan - (Hotchkiss et al. 2007; Sprugel 1991; Whitlock et thropogenic conditions and under different sce - al. 2008). Thus, in modeling the relationship of fire narios of landscape management practices. regimes, vegetation patterns, and archaeological Cuthrell et al. (2012) suggest that natural fire remains, we must take into account the determin - regimes, in which landscape fires are the result of ing role that climate has played in driving the fre - lightning ignitions, can serve as the null hypoth - quency, spatial extent, severity, and seasons of esis for the investigation of anthropogenic burn - fires (Black et al. 2007; Hotchkiss et al. 2007; ing. Nonanthropogenic fire regimes may be mod - Lepofsky and Lertzman 2008; Lepofsky et al. eled by incorporating data on lightning strike 2005b; Whitlock et al. 2008). frequency and ignition rate with vegetation suc - Our research at Quiroste Valley has also inte - cession models (e.g., Syphard et al. 2006). In grated vegetation mapping, geomorphological in - simulating the frequency rates of natural fires vestigations, and survey work to locate suitable and how local vegetation communities may have ecological sites for obtaining additional lines of responded to these conditions, an expected base - evidence. In our landscape-scale study with the line model for long-term vegetation under nonan - Amah Mutsun, we detected various hunter-gath - thropogenic fire regimes can be generated for a lo - erer sites, collected wedge samples from nearby cal region. The magnitude of anthropogenic redwood stumps for dendroecological analysis, burning and its overall impact on the environment excavated a number of off-site locations to collect can then be assessed by comparing the observed phytolith samples, and cored two wetlands (Sky - paleoenvironmental and archaeobotanical find - lark Pond, Laguna de las Trancas), which we are ings from the field with the baseline predictions analyzing to quantify temporal changes in pollen, for natural fire regimes. This can be done in sev - microscopic charcoal, macroscopic charcoal, and eral ways; two of these will serve as examples. phytolith assemblages. By correlating palyno - First, fire-return intervals from fire-scar den - logical changes with relative densities of charcoal droecological studies can be compared with the size fractions that represent fires at local and re - baseline predictions. If the observed fire-return in - AQ78(2)Lightfoot_Layout 1 2/8/13 10:43 AM Page 10

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tervals from the ecological investigations are not Weiser and Lepofsky 2009 for a case example statistically distinct from those expected for nat - from Washington). ural fire regimes, then we may conclude that there Foodways. The resources harvested by hunter- is little evidence that fire management took place. gatherers for foods, medicines, raw materials, However, if observed and expected fire-return and other needs represent a critical database for intervals do differ significantly, then the case for the study of management practices. Archaeolo - anthropogenic burning may be supported. Second, gists can examine the suite of plants and animals pollen from sediment cores and archaeobotanical processed, consumed, and deposited at sites to remains from excavated contexts can be com - evaluate how they compare with the baseline ex - pared with the baseline predictions for vegetation pectations for resources exploited from habitats patterns. If the observed vegetation patterns from supported by nonanthropogenic fire regimes. As the field studies compare favorably with those ex - with paleoecological data sets, the degree of con - pected under natural fire regimes, then this may formity to the baseline model will suggest suggest that minimal anthropogenic burning took whether fire management practices were em - place, while deviation in vegetation patterns from ployed. With the development of sustained burn - baseline predictions would bolster the case for fire ing practices, we expect to observe significant management. shifts in the type, diversity, and distribution of One advantage of studying anthropogenic plant and animal resources used by local groups. burning on the central coast of California is that Furthermore, we expect more of the vegetative re - natural sources of ignition (lightning strikes) are sources utilized to be fire-dependent, fire-adapted, relatively rare, as the frequency of lightning in the and/or disturbance-dependent species. state increases with distance from the Pacific In our ongoing archaeological investigations in Ocean and elevation (van Wagtendonk and Cayan Quiroste Valley, particularly at CA-SMA-113, we 2008). In this area, recent fire ecology studies have recovered a rich and dense assemblage of ar - have identified fire regimes in the late Holocene chaeobotanical remains that dates from cal A.D. with fire-return intervals at a frequency much 1000 to 1700. Significantly, the majority of the greater than that expected from lightning strikes plant food resources used at this site were har - or natural fire occurrences alone (Greenlee and vested from grassland communities (see Cuthrell Langenheim 1990; Keeley 2002; Stephens and et al. 2012). Particularly, grasses (Poaceae), tar - Fry 2005). In summarizing this literature, Cuthrell weeds ( Madia spp.), clover ( Trifolium spp.), com - et al. (2012) note that nonanthropogenic fire posites (Asteraceae), and other forbs form the regimes are characterized by fire-return intervals overwhelming majority of the assemblage, while on the order of a century or more. The regional nut remains are relatively few. The results to date successional pattern for open flatlands and hill - indicate that late Holocene people in Quiroste Val - sides is characterized by transitions from grass - ley were focusing on the exploitation of grassland lands to coastal scrub shrublands and then to ei - and open woodland resources, consistent with our ther mixed conifer or oak/bay woodlands, with the model expectations for anthropogenic burning. tempo of succession governed by local environ - Regional Settlement Systems. Anthropogenic mental conditions (Keeley 2002, 2005; McBride burning practices, if implemented on a regional 1974; Williams et al. 1987). Under nonanthro - scale, would have posed organizational and lo - pogenic fire conditions, woodland and shrubland gistical challenges for hunter-gatherers (Light - communities would thrive in areas such as foot et al. 2011). Members of local groups must Quiroste Valley. In contrast, coastal grasslands are have been mobile and flexible enough in their disturbance-dependent communities, requiring movements to facilitate the monitoring and man - regular grazing, tillage, or burning to persist. We agement of varied resource patches across the believe that the historic large-scale grasslands landscape. However, they must have also been along the central California coast may be the able to coordinate and disperse information about product of indigenous fire management practices when resource patches needed to be tended and characterized by frequent, small, low-intensity where resources were available for bulk harvest - anthropogenic burns (Cuthrell et al. 2012; see ing, as well as overseeing the movement of peo - AQ78(2)Lightfoot_Layout 1 2/8/13 10:43 AM Page 11

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ple across the region. Given these considerations, tial layout of villages, the size and layout of house we are exploring whether pyrodiversity structures, and the appearance and elaboration of economies may have been embedded within lo - public architecture such as plaza space, dance gistically organized collector settlement systems houses, and storage facilities. on the central coast of California. Semisedentary residential bases represented places where mem - Rethinking Archaeological Practices bers of local groups could periodically aggregate for communication and planning, undertake com - We argue that the creation of collaborative, inter - munal food gathering and food processing events, disciplinary eco-archaeological programs capable store bulk harvested goods, and perform mortuary of evaluating landscape management practices practices, ceremonies, and feasts. As one compo - among hunter-gatherers will necessitate modifi - nent of our fire management model, we envision cations in our standard procedures for undertak - a regional settlement pattern that would include ing archaeological research. Below we consider semisedentary residential bases dispersed across the implications that these kinds of programs will the region from which specialized task groups have for undertaking field and laboratory work, and family units might tend nearby habitats or for coordinating and analyzing multiple data sets, bulk collect resources from patches managed and for examining hunter-gatherers at the scale of through burning. These work parties may have the longue durée. been dispersed across the landscape during some part of the annual cycle, setting up a series of Archaeological Field and Laboratory Methods small camps and work spaces in the near and far Close collaboration with tribes may necessitate hinterlands of the residential bases. some significant modifications in excavation Bulk Harvesting. The advent of logistically strategies that focus on low-impact procedures, organized economies that were associated with minimizing disturbances to archaeological sites fire management should also be correlated with but maximizing information from intact, well- increasing evidence for the bulk collection of dated features with higher densities of inter - foods and potentially with innovations in mass pretable archaeobotanical and faunal remains. As harvesting, processing, and storage of food re - outlined elsewhere (Lightfoot 2008), this kind of sources. Archaeological signatures of these kinds approach involves a greater emphasis on surface of innovations might include evidence for game and near-surface investigations (geophysical sur - drives (e.g., ambush sites, hunting blinds, etc.), veys, topographic mapping, and systematic sur - the use of large pit ovens, changes in hunting im - face collections) specifically designed to delineate plements, new developments in ground-stone site overall structure and distinguish discrete fea - technology used to process plant resources, evi - tures from midden deposits prior to excavation. In dence for feasting events, increases in the con - addition, forensic canines can be used to minimize sumption of foods that could be most efficiently the potential for disturbance of human burials harvested in bulk, new and more extensive stor - (Lent 2007). The information gained from these age facilities in villages, and the establishment of techniques can then be employed, in direct con - outlying bulk harvesting camps. sultation with tribal scholars and other members Communal Social Organizations. The advent of the research team, to develop excavation strate - of some kinds of landscape management practices gies that are implemented with greater accuracy. among hunter-gatherers may be associated with As part of this excavation strategy, archaeolo - changes in the social organizations of local groups gists may need to modify their sampling strategies that would have facilitated game drives, aggre - for recovering archaeobotanical and small faunal gations of people for bulk harvesting and pro - remains. In some areas, wet screening through 6- cessing foods and raw materials, and the spon - or 3-mm mesh persists as the only technique used sorship of more elaborate community gatherings, to generate these assemblages, often resulting in dances, and feasts. Changes in communal social impoverished and biased data sets. Cuthrell et al. organizations may be detected in the archaeolog - (2012) advocate a systematic approach to macro - ical record through a careful analysis of the spa - botanical and faunal sampling aimed at con - AQ78(2)Lightfoot_Layout 1 2/8/13 10:43 AM Page 12

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structing data sets suitable for statistical analysis. dendroecological samples, and sediment deposits This method involves the collection of multiple that may contain intact paleosols. and robust flotation samples (i.e., number of iden - tified specimens >300 per sample, often 5–10+ Archaeology of the Longue Durée liters of deposit) from each interpretive archaeo - Hunter-gatherer studies will need to take place at logical context so that measures of central ten - the scale of the longue durée. In constructing dency and comparative statistical techniques can records of fire histories, vegetation successions, be employed to identify meaningful differences in and climatic change over many millennia, it is contexts within and between sites. This stands in ideal to evaluate regional conditions before and contrast to the widespread practices of collecting after humans first settled an area. In some cases, only small, judgmental flotation samples from a the initial colonization of an area (especially is - site, which results in extreme selection bias, and lands) may be marked by significant changes in of collecting only one or a few column samples fire frequencies and transformations in floral and from an entire site, which precludes characteri - faunal populations, which are argued to be evi - zation of the overall assemblage (Lennstrom and dence for significant anthropogenic landscape Hastorf 1995). modifications (Kirch 1996; McWethy et al. 2009). However, in many cases, the evidence may be Coordination of Multiple Data Sets more muted and ambiguous, particularly where As outlined above, a critical component of the management practices appear to have developed next generation of hunter-gatherer research is to in situ over many centuries. For example, there is coordinate within the study area the collection of some controversy about the patterning and quan - archaeological and ecological samples, includ - tity of charcoal accumulation that may be ex - ing off-site sediment samples for the extraction of pected when people begin to implement a sys - phytoliths, cores from wetlands with intact pollen tematic program of frequent, low-intensity, small and charcoal records, and dendroecological sam - burns (Black et al. 2007:478; Hallam ples. Most of these ecological studies tend to be 1985:11–12). We believe that the best course of done independently of the archaeological re - action is to take a diachronic perspective in ex - search, so integrating the research design and amining the interrelationship among archaeolog - field and laboratory work of eco-archaeological ical remains, past fire events, and ecological and projects will be a major step forward. climatic changes over centuries or millennia when Our experience in implementing this kind of these data are available. eco-archaeological approach is that it can be a sig - In implementing this long-term eco-archaeo - nificant challenge to coordinate archaeological logical approach, the interface between prehistory research with the collection of fine-grained pale - and history, when indigenous management sys - oecological data. The ideal scenario is to syn - tems became entangled in colonial regimes, is of chronize the collection of ecological samples so particular importance. The archaeology of colo - that they are taken systematically in the nearby nialism should play a significant role in the study hinterland of the archaeological remains of inter - of anthropogenic burning. We can examine how est. But this presupposes that appropriate sources landscape management practices were altered and of paleoecological data will be located near rele - transformed during encounters between indige - vant archaeological sites, which is not always the nous peoples and colonizers and how these case. Thus, in choosing study areas for undertak - changes may have had long-term, cumulative ef - ing eco-archaeological studies of resource man - fects among both Native and colonial cultures, agement, we must take into account not only the fire regimes, and local ecosystems. Were signifi - archaeological potential but also the potential for cant declines in the diversity and structural com - paleoecological data sets. To do this, we will need plexity of habitats instigated primarily by the ter - to undertake archival research and landscape- mination of Native burning practices, as some scale surveys to assess not only the archaeologi - anthropologists have suggested? Or were they cal possibilities but the presence of nearby wet - due to the implementation of fire cessation poli - lands with pollen and charcoal accumulations, cies that no longer allowed nonanthropogenic fire AQ78(2)Lightfoot_Layout 1 2/8/13 10:43 AM Page 13

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regimes to continue, as some ecologists and en - employed to recover archaeobotanical and faunal vironmental scientists have advocated? Or were remains; and expanding the spatial and temporal they because of other kinds of colonial landscape scales of hunter-gatherer studies. modifications (e.g., livestock grazing, logging, One approach for evaluating the magnitude invasive plants, etc.) or a combination of all these and impact of anthropogenic burning among past factors (Bowman 1998:399)? Critical evaluations hunter-gatherer groups is to model expected nat - of these questions may provide important data for ural fire regimes and associated vegetation pat - developing treatment plans for enhancing the di - terns given past environmental conditions. These versity, health, and sustainability of modern expectations can be employed as a null hypothe - ecosystems. sis for evaluating the existence of anthropogenic burning. Deviations in the observed fire histories Conclusion and vegetation patterns from eco-archaeological research may be indications of landscape man - Despite many decades of debate in the anthropo - agement practices. If such management practices logical literature, archaeologists have been reluc - were being implemented, then we expect changes tant to address questions about the magnitude in fire frequency and plant communities to coin - and impact of resource management practices cide with changes in the archaeological record. among hunter-gatherers in North America. We The latter may include dramatic increases in the argue that this reticence stems from multiple fac - exploitation of fire-dependent or fire-adapted tors: a long tradition of viewing hunter-gatherers species, the advent of logistically organized col - as passive foragers who made minimal impacts on lector settlement practices, evidence of bulk har - the environment, a tendency to link those groups vesting, and changes in communal social organi - with resource enhancement practices with agrar - zations. We believe that some degree of temporal ian societies, and a rather rigid definition of re - concordance should exist across these different source management. However, a major point of data sets (fire histories, vegetation patterns, and this article is to argue that archaeologists need to archaeological findings) to generate well-sup - be more proactive in considering the possibility ported interpretations about past landscape man - that a diverse range of landscape management agement practices. activities may have been incorporated into the The time is right for archaeologists to begin to economies of Native American hunter-gatherers. systematically evaluate research issues about Furthermore, we argue that hunter-gatherer soci - hunter-gatherer management practices. Given cur - eties that maintained landscape management prac - rent concerns with restoration ecology, sustainable tices over many centuries may be distinct in many economies, and the role that indigenous knowl - fundamental ways from agrarian people. edge can play in contemporary resource manage - This article also addresses another significant ment, it is imperative that archaeologists get off reason for the reticence of archaeologists: the dif - the sidelines. In addressing this significant initia - ficulties of identifying landscape management tive, we propose that archaeologists create inno - practices among hunter-gatherers using archaeo - vative eco-archaeological approaches with re - logical data. We believe that archaeologists can search objectives relevant not only to other make significant contributions to the ongoing de - archaeologists but also to tribal entities, govern - bate about the magnitude and ecological impact of ment agencies, conservation organizations, and anthropogenic burning but that it will involve the restoration ecologists. Lessons learned from this creation of new kinds of collaborative, interdis - research may contribute greatly to restoration ciplinary eco-archaeological programs. This will treatment plans that are being developed for the require developing closer collaborations with Na - management of tribal and public lands. tive American tribes; the coordination of archae - Acknowledgments. ological research in concert with studies of past We appreciate greatly the help and support from the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and the California De - fire ecology, vegetation patterns, and paleocli - partment of Parks and Recreation in implementing our eco-ar - matic conditions; rethinking how excavation work chaeological research program in central California. We are is undertaken, specifically the sampling strategies greatly indebted to the National Science Foundation (BCS- AQ78(2)Lightfoot_Layout 1 2/8/13 10:43 AM Page 14

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0912162) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for Boyd, Matthew their generous support of the field and laboratory research in - 2002 Identification of Anthropogenic Burning in the Pale - volving hunter-gatherer resource enhancement strategies. We oecological Record of the Northern Prairies: A New Ap - are very grateful for the insightful and constructive reviews of proach. Annals of the Association of American Geographers this article by Dana Lepofsky, Torben C. Rick, and other 92:471–487. Boyd, Robert T. (editor) American Antiquity anonymous reviewers for . We are most ap - 1999 Indian, Fire, and the Land . Oregon State University preciative of the excellent editorial assistance and sage com - Press, Corvallis. ments provided by Kenneth E. Sassaman and his staff at Carle, David American Antiquity . 2008 Introduction to Fire in California . University of Cal - ifornia Press, Berkeley. Clark, James C., and P. 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