El fuego en las altas latitudes: Los Selk’nam de Tierra del Fuego como referente etnográfico para el Mesolítico europeo

Abstract

The ethnographic record of modern hunter-gatherers in Tierra del Fuego, southern Patagonia, South America, can be applied to Mesolithic Europe. Climates, environments and cultural strategies were similar. Evidence for the use of fires is ubiquitous, though interpretations are almost exclusively functional, as hearths are considered to structure economic and technological activities of hunter-gatherer campsites. By moving away from an exclusively practical and economic interpretation, we can begin to approach a more realistic understanding of the function of hearths within hunter-gatherer societies. The reinterpretation of the hearths excavated at the sites of March Hill Carr and Top, in the central Penines (United Kingdom), lead us to consider social and symbolic practices related to the use of fire.