Paper short abstract:

Whale hunting was a Portuguese royal monopoly between 1614 and 1801 with an impact on economic, social, cultural and scientific levels. I intend here to make a revision about whaling in Brazilian shores, between the 17th and the 18th centuries, using different kinds of historical sources.

Paper long abstract:

The appropriation of natural elements within the Portuguese Expansion is well documented, namely in what concerns to plants and minerals. Sugar, tobacco, later gold and diamonds were natural valuable resources that, in many ways, acted as fuel for the colonization of the new world, and namely Brazil. Among them, but not so often studied, was the whale, a marine mammal that could be transformed into oil for a multitude of purposes. The whale was not per se a novelty, like other animals observed for the first time, but the quantity of whales probably was, in a region that we know now as being one breeding area for baleen whales. Given the abundance of this resource, and the need for oil to illumination and pitch production, it was soon understood that those whales should be exploited. Whaling in the Brazilian shores started, at least, in the beginning of the 17th century and was a royal monopoly from 1614 to 1801. The whale and its products were of major economic importance to the Portuguese crown and entrepreneurs. The activity had also a social impact considering slave work to perform the most difficult tasks, a cultural value since whaling techniques circulated between Europe and south Atlantic, and a scientific significance by observing and describing whales' behaviour and, somehow, its ecology. In this work I intend to make a revision about shore based whaling in Brazil, between the 17th and the 18th centuries, using different kinds of sources as cartography, iconography and written sources.

Paper short abstract:

The history of commercial whaling in Chile distinguishes three foreign whaling traditions installed on a local pre-existing tradition: processing of stranded whales. This sequence of overlapping processes has been narrated and evaluated by contemporary witnesses in the turn from XIX to XX century.

Paper long abstract:

The history of commercial whaling in Chile distinguishes the presence of three foreign whaling traditions, "Yankee", "Norwegian" and "Japanese", that are installed on a pre-existing tradition: the passive whaling or processing stranded whales, conducted not only for indigenous peoples but also by Europeans and their descendants. This assemblage of traditions configures a sequence of overlapping processes that has been narrated by a group of contemporary witnesses of the facts. The revision of their texts show different conceptual constructions about whales (like "monster", "resource" and "scarce resource") and the whalers (as "heroes", as "professionals" also as "monsters"), linked to technological developments (passive, traditional and modern whaling) in Chile. In passive whaling people saw the whale as "monster" and its presence on the Chilean coast was a "spectacle". Traditional whaling thinks the whale as a "resource" and the whaler as a "hero". Modern whaling and its impact on whale populations leads to the emergence of the whale as a "scarce resource" and the transformation of the whaler into a "professional". Luis Castillo builds a consistent ethnographic narrative of whaling in the first decades of the 20th century on the coast of Chile. He reminds the old Chilean whalers: "In those times, the animal was catch with a reckless audacity, really inconceivable for a time as cowardly and colorless as the present. They were other times, of less professional expertise but more wisdom". The use of "retrospective ethnography" allows us to reconstruct the dynamics of these processes.

Paper short abstract:

The proposal aims to present questions about the preservation of the sealers archaeological remains of the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica), the first occupants of this part of Antarctica since the eighteenth century.

Paper long abstract:

The collection of sealers artifacts from Antarctica is usually composed of dense objects and with few aesthetic details, made to be cheap and sturdy. It also contains fragments and artifacts made provisionally, in response to the needs of step Antarctica and the daily workload they would endure. However, the classical conservation methods are focused on theoretical principles that evidence artistic and historical narratives aspects of culture, coming from intellectual and economic elites, in example of the principles of "aesthetic and historical originality". It was only in the last three decades that the dialogue created by theorists in conservation with interpretive paradigms in Human Sciences, became possible a contemporary conservation theory able to value the collections relating to whalers and sealers popular groups in the recent modern and contemporary history. Recently the traces have also been protected by the Antarctic Committee, fortifying the interest for the conservation of antarctic environment, and recognizing the important history of the arrival of the first human groups in the coastal regions for animal extractivism.

Paper short abstract:

Before oil, the Persian/Arabian Gulf had few exploitable resources on land or in the sea. The dearth of large numbers of fish meant little interference for coastal communities that maintained relative freedom of political control as a result.

Paper long abstract:

The Persian/Arabian Gulf was uniquely resource poor prior to international oil market of the 20th Century. My paper explores how coastal residents accessed available resources by using locally successful technologies to survive in the hostile environment. European visitors often described the coast as dotted with fishing villages, but little research has been done to explain how such villages functioned.

Unlike fertile oceans, the region's high temperatures and a watershed with very little rain means high salinity and water temperatures. This, in turn, creates a marine environment for many species of fish but few with numbers justifying imperial interest. Thus, while the Ottoman Empire strictly controlled fishing in Istanbul and the Nile Valley, Gulf residents had less oversight. Moreover, since fish were a staple of the Gulf diet, difficult fishing conditions helped keep coastal populations small.

In addition to the unique marine environment, the lack of trees on the coast limited the number of smaller vessels available to local residents. Wood came from the Malibar coast for construction in Kuwait and Bahrain, but boats were used for trade and pearl diving, not fishing. Thus, most fishing was done from shore using a variety of traps made from local materials.

Mediocre fishing resources made it difficult to thrive economically from fishing alone, but there were other benefits. Because the basic source of sustenance for most people came from the sea and did not require any infrastructure, it was easy to simply find a new shoreline if a local leader made unreasonable demands.

Paper short abstract:

Manatees have historically been use as food elements and with medical and religious purposes in West Africa. History and tradition play an important role in local communities, and understanding past uses of natural resources may be a step towards conservation of this vulnerable species.

Paper long abstract:

The West African manatee, Trichechus senegalensis, is presently an endangered species due to severe reduction and fragmentation of its habitat and to continuous overtime exploitation and use in several regions of West Africa. Manatees have historically been perceived as an easy and valuable resource as they provided a different food sources for early modern sailors and explorers roaming Atlantic waters. They were also considered historically as magical beings and were used both symbolically and materially in religious cults. Still today in West Africa, some parts of the animals (such as the heart) are used in ritual ceremonies, or as a traditional medicine, and are an important natural element for local communities. In these regions, the hunt of the manatee is also a tradition passed from the father to the son. Despite the increasing conservations measures and its international conservation status, West African manatees are still being captured for consumption in several West African countries. Early modern and recent literature here analysed often describes manatees as monstrous animals, and this type of description perpetuated over time does not inspire the kind of imagery necessary to elicit support based on aesthetics. Out study shows that manatees are sometimes mistaken by mermaids or water spirits which places them even further from an earthly reality. History and tradition play an important role in local communities, and being aware of the past uses of natural resources may be a step in developing and applying new conservation programs.

Paper short abstract:

Ethology was defined and redefined through different perspectives, constituting a peculiar trajectory as multidimensional science. I intend to elucidate the controversies and historical, ontological and epistemological particularities in the development of the marine mammals behavior, since they developed from dialogues and dissolutions of borders between local knowledge and scientific knowledge.

Paper long abstract:

Knowledge about the marine-mammals behavior has developed from networks of connections between different types of information. Ethology is the study of animal behavior, and hence the study of the living animal, of its perceptions and interactions with the environment. To study the behavior of marine species, it is necessary to have specific knowledge about the marine environment. In the case of whales, it is very difficult to observe their behavior, geographic locations and to follow their migratory routes, without maritime-local knowledge, and without the aid of underwater technologies. Currently, the scientific practices of marine mammal ethology constitute sociotechnical networks with the participation of different actors and actants. In the first voyages of observation and study of the marine animals behavior, it was necessary for the naturalists to enter an unknown maritime world, as well as to know about navigations. According to Odile Gannier, before the end of the eighteenth century, there were no naturalists on board. Some naturalists traveled, but were given other functions besides the observation of the marine fauna. Thus, the first naturalistic knowledge about marine-animals arose through dialogue and cooperation between these different actors who were the crew of the ships: exploring-travelers, sailors, whalers, naturalists and marine-animals. In this work, I intend to highlight the role of these networks in the production of ontoetologies about the multiplicity actors that inhabit the marine universe. Through relational perspectives, we can rethink the seas as boundary landscapes that cross, translate, and dissolve physical and ontological boundaries, shared by a multiplicity of subjects, human and non-human, in symmetrical relationships, and working together. Finally, we can reflect on the importance of crossings of physical, epistemological and ontological boundaries, among seamen, ethologists and marine-animals, in the production of scientific knowledge, as well as in the construction of a non-anthropocentric and non-eurocentric oceanic history.