Santander, February 19th-22nd 2008 - Aranzadi

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EDUARDO MESA, JUAN C. HERNÁNDEZ, JOSE F. NAVARRO & GUSTAVO GONZÁLEZ
thern part of the island is an ideal habitat for shellfish,
in contrast to the sea bed built up on the more
sedimentary south coast.
The oceanographic conditions also show marked
difference between north and south. The north
coast is pounded by waves and lashed by winds,
and also has a lower water temperature and higher
productivity due to nutrient-rich upwelling, which
encourages the development of marine resources.
Meanwhile in the south the waters tend to be calmer,
warmer and less productive.
3.4. Stage 4: Ethnoarchaeological study (Interpretative
analysis)
The aim of the ethnoarchaeological study was
to learn about the traditions concerning shellfish
gathering and the surroundings in which it took
place. This gave us the key to understanding
some cultural or technical issues of the prehistoric
activity, as well as diverse questions related to
the location of shell middens, the conditions of
the shellfish gathering areas and which of them
were more productive, the behaviour and influence
of the tides, the animal species, the size of the
specimens collected, the effects of the moon on
the species etc., all of which help with the interpretation
of the archaeological shell middens,
from historical or prehistorical times. Thanks to
the interviews, new shell middens were located
and we were able to understand much better
what shellfish gathering involved, including its
opportunities and its difficulties. Finally, we looked
into the more recent uses of the seashore in the
traditional economy (Fig. 7 y 8), using oral information
which occasionally extended back to the
end of the 19 th century.
The ethnoarchaeological study relied mainly on
33 interviews which were conducted over all the
island. The interviewees had an average age of 74
(having been born in the 1930s), although some of
them were over a decade or two older than that.
Both the interviews and the transcriptions were
made following a controlled, previously established
method, and were carried out using a questionnaire
elaborated for this purpose.
A brief summary of the general characteristics
of traditional shellfish gathering would be as
follows: Shellfish gathering was a non-professional
and hardly ever exclusive occupation. It actually
formed part of the chain of activities which were
carried out to exploit all the potentially edible
resources to be found in the surrounding area.
Therefore, it was mainly a seasonal harvest taking
place between May and October, which, on occasions,
was combined with fishing “from land” (with
a fixed rod from the shore). When this activity took
place in a semi-professional way those who took
part always belonged to the least well-off levels of
Gomeran society, which until the last third of the 20 th
century were mostly landless peasants with a very
low income, many of whom lived in abject poverty.
4. DISCUSSION
The current project is unfinished, as the last phase
of work which corresponds to the general analysis
and final interpretation has not yet been completed.
Despite this, we can advance some preliminary
issues which we consider to be of maximum interest
to the advancement of these studies on the island.
Archaeological shell middens exist almost everywhere
in the Canary Islands, situated preferably close
to the coast, where the molluscs were extracted from
Figure 7. Palm frond bag employed for collecting shellfish.
Figure 8. Tools for limpets gathering or “laperos”.
MUNIBE Suplemento - Gehigarria 31, 2010
S.C. Aranzadi. Z.E. Donostia/San Sebastián