The Use and Circulation of Seaweeds along the Western Coast of South America

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeophycology: New (Ethno)Archaeological Approaches to Understand the Contribution of Seaweed to the Subsistence and Social Life of Coastal Populations" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The exploitation and consumption of seaweeds is a thriving matter of research, arguably started in the 1980s by the ethnographic work of Shozo Masuda in the Andes. This study goes beyond local discussions or milestones about proxies and dates and performs a large-scale follow-up on the available information on seaweed use and circulation along the Andean coast of the South Pacific Ocean. Trends can be clearly observed in five areas based on archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic data. The definition of these areas broadly corresponds to the biological availability of certain seaweed species and the environmental conditions related to cultural areas. A constant pattern is the coastal exploitation and consumption and inland circulation of these resources; while the quantity of exploited species and uses given to them vary significantly between nutritional, agricultural, trading, and ritual purposes. An open discussion is the importance played by seaweeds in Prehispanic societies along the Andean coast and their archaeological traceability if preservation is not optimal in certain contexts. These trends are discussed regarding modern phenomena, like aquaculture and recent reliance on algae for industrial and gastronomic purposes. A current diagnostic on seaweed uses is finally offered, leaving open questions about human reliance on marine ecosystems.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeophycology: New (Ethno)Archaeological Approaches to Understand the Contribution of Seaweed to the Subsistence and Social Life of Coastal Populations   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38142.0