Understanding the timing and nature of human influence on coastal and island ecosystems is becoming a central concern in archaeological research, particularly when investigated within a historical ecology framework. Unfortunately, the coast and islands of eastern Africa have not figured significantly within this growing body of literature, but are important given their historically contingent environmental, social, and political contexts, as well as the considerable threats now posed to marine ecosystems. Here, we begin developing a longer-term understanding of past marine resource use in the Mafia Archipelago (eastern Africa), an area of high ecological importance containing the Mafia Island Marine Park. Focusing on the comparatively less researched marine invertebrates provides a means for initiating discussion on potential past marine ecosystem structure, human foraging and environmental shifts, and the implications for contemporary marine resource management. The available evidence suggests that human-environment interactions over the last 2000 years were complex and dynamic; however, these data raise more questions than answers regarding the specific drivers of changes observed in the archaeomalacological record. This is encouraging as a baseline investigation and emphasizes the need for further engagement with historical ecology by a range of cognate disciplines to enhance our understanding of these complex issues.

Red abalone (Haliots rufescens) shell middens, a distinctive site type on the California Coast dating primarily to the Middle Holocene, provide important insight into human-environmental interactions and climatic and environmental change. Despite decades of research and debate about why red abalone middens formed and how they relate to past human behavior and environmental change, significant questions persist about the nature of these sites and how they relate to broader trends in human diet and land use. Here, we present the results of excavation at three red abalone middens on the northern Channel Islands. Two of these middens, CA-SRI-26 on Santa Rosa Island and CA-SMI-692 on San Miguel Island, are among the older reported red abalone middens, at roughly 8000–7300 cal BP, and help fill a significant temporal gap in our understanding of the initial period of intensive red abalone harvest. The third midden, CA-SMI-172, dates to ~6300 cal BP and fills a spatial gap on eastern San Miguel Island. When placed in the context of other Channel Island red abalone middens, our analysis demonstrates that people at some of the earliest red abalone middens harvested more red abalone and larger sized individuals than later in time. These data suggest that people likely placed predation pressure on red abalones across the red abalone midden period (8500–3500 cal BP) and that human activities worked in tandem with other environmental changes to influence the disappearance of the red abalone midden phenomenon ~3500 years ago.

This article discusses the importance of empty shells used as artifacts and their differences with mollusks collected for subsistence by means of three French archaeological examples. The aim is to help archaeologists consider all shells as potential artifacts. The first example considers shell ornaments of hunter-gatherer populations who lived along the Atlantic coast during the sixth millennium BC. The second example focuses on a “treasure box” belonging to a child buried between the third and fourth centuries AD. The third examines a decoration style dating from the third century AD, which consisted of decorating the walls of opulent villas with shells. The archaeomalacofaunal analysis of these examples of shell use entails a description of the physical characteristics of the chosen shells. It shows that the latter were carefully selected, but not necessarily modified before being used. It is clear that the shells were intended to be exposed, as prehistoric ornaments or elements of mural decoration. The shells that were selected differ from those selected for consumption. This is interesting, as it shows a marked division between the economic contribution of marine mollusks and the symbolic value bestowed upon the shell. One shared aspect of the three cases is that shells of deep water species were gathered from high water marks on beaches. People rarely encountered these mollusks alive, which may have held additional cultural meaning. Ultimate artifact function of shells may, thus, relate closely to activities of shell selection from prehistoric beaches.

Mollusk remains from archaeological and more recent historical contexts provide good proxies to assess environmental change, as well as human impact, both negatively and positively, as reflected, for example, by resource management practices. Rigorous testing of various hypotheses to explain change or relative stability in mollusk distribution in archaeological assemblages requires an understanding of ecological and biological (life history) characteristics of the represented species, as well as access to ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological data on the interaction between people and mollusks. A growing interest in contemporary indigenous resource management among Pacific Island communities has led some archaeologists to seek evidence for sustainable use of resources in the past, to complement the more widespread research conclusions that depict mollusk resource depression and/or shifts in species composition as consequences of negative human impact. Based on fieldwork in Kiribati, eastern Micronesia, and the application of Optimal Foraging Theory, this paper adds support to recent ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological, and archaeological case studies for the sustainable use of mollusks.

In the mid-twentieth century, the Seris (Comcaac), a small mobile hunter-gatherer and fishing people of northwestern Mexico, became almost entirely sedentary. They had for centuries survived in the isolated desert and coast along the eastern central Gulf of California, an area of rich biodiversity. The move to permanent settlements facilitated access to non-traditional foods that began to markedly impact their traditional diet of desert and marine resources, including mollusks. Although fish and sea turtles continued to be an important part of that diet, consumption of mollusks declined significantly, accompanied by a gradual loss of knowledge of their names and related ecological information, a loss evident among younger Seris today. This paper explores the role of mollusks in the Seri culture and associated changes that have taken place over the past century. Published accounts, oral tradition, historical records, and current investigation describe how the Seris adopted a sedentary lifestyle, and the impact that the change has had on their traditional diet, ecological knowledge, subsistence practices, and health.

Shells are often seen as portable souvenirs, and both domestic and international tourists bring shells home. While part of this activity concerns individual tourists collecting a small number of shells on the beach, another part concerns large-scale commercial trade. Each year the Indonesian beach resort of Pangandaran is visited by several million tourists, most from within Indonesia. Here, I focus on the commercial trade in large-sized shells for decorative purposes and, using an anthropological approach, gain insight into the trade in marine mollusk shells of the area. A number of the large-shelled species are rare and over-exploited, and receive different levels of protection. By comparing three pairs of similar species, in which one species is legally protected (i.e., on Indonesia's protected species list) and the other is not, I attempt to gauge how rarity and protection affects trade. Protected species were as openly displayed as non-protected species, and more shops offered the protected than the unprotected species. The Indonesian shell trade involves a complex and organized network of collectors, transporters, middlemen, and sellers. Traders indicated that they purchased shells from middlemen, who obtained them from eastern Indonesia; no shells were collected in the Pangandaran area. The main buyers of these large shells are domestic Indonesian tourists. Pangandaran is a trade hub for shells to meet the demands of an urban consumer market in Java. While protected, there is no social stigma in buying these shells, nor do traders that display them run the risk of prosecution, indicating a lack of support for protective and regulatory measures.

This article is a qualitative, ethnographically informed exploration of the relations between the Miyagi Oysters (Crassostrea gigas) and the diverse social actors of northeastern Japan (Tōhoku), namely local sea farmers, domestic immigrants, and tourists, in the aftermath of the 2011 “triple disaster” (the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and related nuclear plant meltdown). I contend that the processes of post-disaster reconstruction have been significantly informed by the specific frames of human-oyster relations as they are developed in the sea farming bays of the municipality of Ishinomaki (Miyagi Prefecture). Individuating four fields of interest (environmental purity, experientiality, emic timeframes, and authenticity), I analyze the ongoing transformations prompted by the disaster on discourses of locality and self-representation and the interactions among local producers and non-local actors (visitors, volunteers, entrepreneurs) with the cycle of life of the Crassostrea. Within the interactions between locals and non-locals, the discursive characteristics of oyster sea farming in Miyagi are negotiated, shared, and contested through instances of transformative resilience during the progressive shift from “classic” modes of production towards the economies of domestic tourism, and the overlapping of local, bottom-up initiatives with organized top-down structures.

Fort McMurray Métis Elders and land users have observed a decrease in the population density of freshwater mussels (known locally as clams; Unionidae) in the lower Athabasca region (LAR) in recent decades. A community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, braided with Indigenous Knowledge, is used as a guiding framework to facilitate partnerships and create safe, ethical spaces across diverse knowledge systems to address questions about freshwater mussel health in a locally relevant and culturally appropriate way. Opportunities for Elders and land users to travel along the Athabasca and Clearwater rivers in search of freshwater mussels allowed for the renewal of personal and cultural relationships to place that was braided with the study of parameters relevant to Western science. Our search revealed the presence of fat muckets (Lampsilis siliquoidea), with a limited number of giant floaters (Anodonta grandis), in our study area. However, delineating the types of species present is only the beginning of our work to understand freshwater mussel health in the LAR. We present a methodological discussion that demonstrates the importance of prioritizing Indigenous Knowledge to answer questions that may not have been considered within Western knowledge systems and shows how diverse ways of knowing can be braided to create new learnings together. “Learning together,” in practice, means recognizing that each person has knowledge and skills to contribute, which also involves shared decision making. We maintain that by “learning together,” complex problems can be understood in ways that are more meaningful and insightful than they would be if Indigenous communities, government scientists, or research consultants studied them alone.