Fuel Production from Dung Cake in a Rural Society and the Role of Women and Children in Its Preparation

In this study we investigate the dung cake fuel that has played a major part in formation of inventions and innovations in human history. This fuel used to be obtained from animals such as cattle, sheep and goat and utilize from prehistoric period (eight millennium B.C.) till Pahlavi period in Iran as well as its vicinity lands. The usage of this fuel was in different ways: in lime kiln, in pottery kiln and pottery glaze production in addition to ordinary usage for heating and cooking in everyday life. There was a tendency in livestock-farmer societies with cold, drought and semi-desert ecosystem with little wooden sources to use the dung cake fuel. This descriptive-analytical study that is based on ethnographical and library documental data, has assessed the importance of dung cake fuel and has tried to describe the way of and the people (woman & children) who are engaged in its preparation, its functions, and the influential factors (ecosystemic and economic) in selecting it.