Salt Exploitation in the Northern Ecuadorian Highlands: A Substance of Transformations

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Salt extraction was always important to local communities due to its uses in food preparation, food preservation, therapeutic practices, and ritual performances. The importance of this mineral for food conservation, nutrition, and other human physiological needs is widely known. However, few local studies have specified the role of this mineral in Andean people’s health, particularly in its effects against endemic goiter. In 1986, Pomeroy explored the effects of salt consumption in Ecuadorian highland societies identifying goiter disease as a major public health issue from colonial times until the early twentieth century. However, information about salt contents from Santa Catalina de Salinas, and other saline sources in Ecuador, is limited. Preliminary data obtained from the chemical and mineralogical analysis of saline soils and salts extracted from the three major saline sources in Ecuador show important information that will reinforce the understanding of the benefits or issues that salt consumption could generate in ancient times. The objective is to identify the role of salt in human health; particularly, to determine how the physical and chemical properties of salt impacted the health of residents of the northern Ecuadorian Andes allowing to establish the vitality that circulates between people and things they consumed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32700