A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1068 entries
fire-stick farming
The Aboriginal Australian practice of constant, precise, small-scale burning to manage landscape — clearing understory, encouraging new growth, driving game, maintaining open woodland. Recognized as agriculture only in retrospect by cultures that couldn’t see farming without plows. The fire-stick was the tool.
Etymology
Coined in 1969 by Australian archaeologist Rhys Jones to describe the systematic burning practices of Aboriginal Australians, translating the use of a firestick as a land-management tool into agricultural terms.