Remains of traditional fire use in Portugal: A historical analysis

Abstract

Traditional, rural, native, or indigenous fire has coexisted with lightning-caused fire since the origin of Humanity. In Portugal, several uses of fire played an essential role in supporting communities from the settlement of the Portuguese territory within complex agrosilvo-pastoral systems. Previous studies approached traditional fire knowledge from different perspectives, but none comprehensively described the concept. Resorting to historical documentary sources, this paper identifies and describes the traditional practices involving the different fire uses in Portuguese rural communities from the foundation of Portugal until the end of the 19th century. The approach showed a general abandonment and progressive loss of many of those traditional uses of fire at the end of the 19th century. It led to the breakdown of the conventional traditional agrosilvo-pastoral system and the disarticulation of the interdependence of Human and Nature processes. Due to legal conditionings and prohibitions, the current traditional uses of fire are only remains of the past. As a result, academia is essential to promote and revive traditional fire knowledge in the country.

Keywords

• Broadcast burning
• Cultural burning
• Traditional fire knowledge
• Native fire, wildfire