Cultivating salt: socio-natural assemblages on the saltpans of the Venezuelan islands, seventeenth to nineteenth century

Abstract

This paper discusses the socio-natural assemblages of salt cultivation involving humans, other organisms and natural phenomena on the Venezuelan islands of La Tortuga and Cayo Sal from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. The research is based on archaeological, documentary and oral evidence marshalled to understand the dynamics of past solar sea salt production. In the past, a keen knowledge of the climatic conditions, the tides, and the effects of the microorganisms involved in the concentration of brine and the subsequent crystallisation of sodium chloride (NaCl) was indispensable to augmenting the quantity and quality of a salt harvest. These natural phenomena could be managed through anthropic intervention to the benefit of a saltpan enterprise by investing in infrastructure and tools such as dikes and pumps, thereby modifying the natural environment of a salt lagoon. This research indicates that the Dutch in the seventeenth, the Anglo-Americans in the seventeenth and eighteenth, as well as the Dutch Antilleans and a US American in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, approached the process of obtaining salt on the Venezuelan saltpans differently. This resulted in different configurations of the socio-natural assemblages on the saltpans and a variable final product conditioned by distinct market necessities.