Regime de queima das caçadas com uso do fogo realizadas pelos Xavante no cerrado

Abstract

Science literature has underestimated the fire management with cultural purposes. Nevertheless, there are evidences that fire was broadly used as a management tool by indigenous people in different types of ecosystems. In Brazil, the indigenous have been using fire as a management tool. The objective of this article is to investigate and characterize the aspects which integrate the fire regimen adopted within hunting with fire by Xavante, and offer subsides to a sustainable management of fire in Cerrado. In the first phase of research, it was done structured interviews based on a list of main themes proposed by researches in ecology of fire. In the second phase, considering the results of the previous phase and the understandings about the indigenous environmental concepts, partially structured interviews were done. The huntings with fire were done in the dry season, between June and September. The periodicity of the burnings and the changes in the location of fire are dependent of the phytophysiognomy. The Xavante do previous burnings, just after the end of the rainy season, as part of strategy to control fire, jointly with the planning of the burning sites. The definition of the resting period of the sites depends on the evaluation by older people. The activity of hunting with fire presents similar results to the traditional patters of burning by indigenous societies according to the scientific literature.