RECONSTRUCTION OF SOCIAL HISTORY OF CONTROL AND APPLICATION OF THERMAL ENERGY PROCESS AND ITS TECHNICAL, SOCIAL, SYMBOLIC AND PALAEOENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES
RECONSTRUCTION DE L'HISTOIRE SOCIALE DU PROCESSUS DE LA MAÎTRISE ET DE L'APPLICATION DU ÉNERGÉTIQUE THERMIQUE ET SES CONSÉQUENCES TECHNIQUES, SOCIALES, SYMBOLIQUES ET PALÉOENVIRONNEMENTALES
Résumé
Reconstruction of fire history since its discovery, control and application to the transformation of matter within the different human societies has followed a theoretical - methodological rather complex history, result of the different theoretical frameworks that given rise to the emergence of the study of fire structures in archaeology. This session focus on methodological approach’s and the use of experimental and analytical methods concerning the study of societies that evolved in the Mediterranean region in late prehistory with having different degrees of complexity. In previous works we trying to explain that, “rebuilding to understand”, is a necessary step for the reconstruction of this process. But this approach is also essential for the reconstruction of the history of every fire structure and for each site studied and must be adapted in relation to the complexity of uses of thermal energy in the different kind of societies under study. In this article we will try to unravel, analyzing examples from these periods, how the fire structure analysis continues to be problematic due to: the complexity of the phenomenon; the incomplete interactions between different analytical methods applied and the consequent hyper-specialization and fragmentation of our object and subject, the lack of a systematic study in a well-established theory framework among specialists and generalists and finally how the practical inherent problems of our disciplinary approach are reinforcing this inductive tradition that frequently neglected a broader theoretical perspective necessary to solving the problem. In our sense this approach needs to incorporate a reflection about different human modes of appropriation, production and uses of thermal energy and the strategies implemented by these different societies to reproduce themselves. Therefore we need to give to these question the necessary relevance of their significance at the different aspects of each society and culture structuration, from infrastructural to ideological levels.