Shellfish Perspectives: Marine Resource Exploitation and Maritimity in Zanzibar

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Social Archaeologies and Islands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Zanzibar Archipelago experienced dramatic socioeconomic and socioecological changes over the last 2,000 years in line with the rest of the Swahili Coast. The onset of Iron Age transformations linked to foraging and farming economies, connections via the broader Indian Ocean trade network, through the colonial period and into the present day, together mark significant shifts in the way that people have engaged with the coast and marine resources. Although under debate, investigations of occupation and economic social structures throughout this period have also led to discussions about the timing and nature of “maritimity” in the region. The sea and its resources have been, and continue to be, of high importance to the people of the Zanzibar Archipelago, with an increasing body of socioecological literature emphasizing the economic, ecological, and social factors that drive the nature of fishing and shellfish foraging through time and space. Here, I explore how the exploitation of marine resources—especially shellfish—serves as evidence of maritime worldviews, requiring intense knowledge of maritime landscapes and what they offer. Using ethnographic and archaeological evidence, I show that significant engagement with the ocean began fairly early in the occupation sequence of Zanzibar and continues to the present.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Social Archaeologies and Islands   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38825.0