The French Migratory Fishery and the Maritime Cultural Landscape of Newfoundland’s Petit Nord

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Landscapes endure for centuries. A landscape can been understood as a network of landmarks where human activity occurs, for example the extraction of natural resources. The relationship of landscape and landmark is recursive; landscapes of different scales nest, like Matrushka dolls, one within another. A landscape at one level is a landmark, taking a broader view. The fundamental geographical unit in the early-modern, transatlantic, dry salt-cod fishery was the fishing room, the shore station needed for processing fish caught in daily voyages. Within the wider context of the whole Petit Nord, fishing rooms were landmarks -- but their complex structure suggests that they were also, in their own way, landscapes. This session explores the cultural landscape of the Petit Nord at several different levels, including taskscape, gender and the interdependence of land and sea in coastal zones.

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Documents
  • An Archaeology of Landscape on the Petit Nord (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Peter Pope.

    Landscapes endure for centuries. A landscape can been understood as a network of landmarks where human activity occurs, for example the extraction of natural resources. The relationship of landscape and landmark is recursive; landscapes of different scales nest, like Matrushka dolls, one within another. A landscape at one level is a landmark, taking a broader view. The fundamental geographical unit in the early-modern, transatlantic, dry salt-cod fishery was the fishing room, the shore...

  • Exploring the concept of «taskscape» and living landscapes in archaeology: a case study of the French fishing room Champ Paya (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mélissa Burns.

    Anthropologist Tim Ingold has introduced the concept of taskscape as an aspect of the cultural landscape. The taskscape is created by people working; it is the living environment in which tasks happen. This paper explores the application of this concept using Champ Paya, a French migratory fishing room, as a case study. Taskscape analysis of the cultural and natural features (e.g. fishing stage, cobble beach, bread oven, cabins, cross and crucifixes, but also forest, stream and hill) allows us...

  • Gendered Landscapes of Fishing Rooms in Northern Newfoundland (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Hilary Hatcher.

    The fishing room Champ Paya, in Cap Rouge Harbour, northern Newfoundland, was in use from about 1540 to 1904, primarily occupied by transatlantic migratory Breton fishermen. However, during the period of the Napoleonic and French Revolutionary wars, from about 1790 to 1820, the French were absent from Newfoundland waters and Anglo-Newfoundlander families prosecuted a regional migratory fishery on the vacant French Shore. Though both groups undertook a similar industry here ‘ preparing salted,...

  • Mapping maritime cultural landscapes of the French inshore salt-cod fishery, Petit Nord, Newfoundland, 1500-1904 (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Bryn Tapper.

    The analysis of the spatial distribution and chronological evolution of the fishing rooms and their environs is used to investigate how the local environment and topography, marine and terrestrial, dictated where sites were selected and subsequently established. Seasonal occupation led to an intense exploitation of natural resources (for bait, wood and water) and necessitated the installation of a navigational and cognitive infrastructure to sustain the industry. The concept of the historic...