An archaeological approach to people-tree interactions: The ethnoarchaeology of firewood procurement and consumption among the Benga people of the island of Mandji (Corisco, Equatorial Guinea, Central Africa)

Abstract

Trees have commonly received limited attention in social sciences, and archaeology has been no exception. The study of past social practices related to trees remains an issue that receives limited theoretical attention. It is specially significant the lack of theorisation about the use of woody plants biomass as energy source in archaeological and anthropological approaches to people-environment interactions. Even if firewood has been (and continues to be in many parts of the globe) the most relevant energy source since domestication of fire, different authors have claimed the need of new insights to build a comprehensive archaeological approach to firewood procurement and consumption. Archaeological charcoal fragments constitute ubiquitous archaeological remains of this energy consumption in the past, placing anthracology (aka charcoal analysis), the discipline that deals with such archaeobotanical remains, in a privileged position to contribute to the building of an archaeological approach to firewood related practices. Different authors has considered that ethnoarchaeology represents a prospective line of inquiry to develop such archaeological narratives and approaches to firewood related practices as a social arena of people-environment interactions. In this paper I present an ethnoarchaeolgical study of firewood management among the Benga people of the island of Manjdi (Equatorial Guinea), offering actual ethnographic data to discuss theoretical assumptions and methodological practices in order to build up a more comprehensive approach to firewood procurement and consumption in anthracology (and archaeology).