« The Turbot and the Pilchard. Sea Product Consumption in Eighteenth Century South-West France. », in A. Matalas & N. Xirotiris (ed.), Fish and Seafood Anthropological Perspectives from the Past and the Present, Heraklion, Mystis, 2013, pp. 125-136

• Main Author: Duhart, Frédéric
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2013
• Subjects: History of Food Consumption; Anthropology of Food; Fishing History; Ichthyology; France du Sud-Ouest; 18th Century; Canicula; Zeus; Anguilla anguilla; Dipturus batis; Gadus morhua; Homarus gammarus; Lamna nasus; Salmo salar; Scophthalmus maximus; Turbot; Squalus acanthias
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2542601; https://zenodo.org/record/2542601

Southwest France constitutes an interesting field to study the conditions and the forms of sea product consumption in early modern Western Europe because of its geographical situation. This area is widely open to the Bay of Biscay on the west and connected to the Mediterranean Sea by various roads and a canal from the east. The distances between certain interior parts of Southwest France and the Atlantic or Mediterranean coast were accentuated by bad transport conditions. Even in these inland areas, however , some sea products were consumed. In this paper, I would like to underline the complexity of this regional consumption of seafood, studying its modalities in the lit-toral areas and in the inland towns and countries. Such analysis takes into account the local fishery conditions, the forms of regional fresh and preserved sea product trade, the culinary seafood uses and the social implications of sea product consumption. Finally , differences between lower class and elite forms of sea product consumption prove as important as geographical contrasts. Species mentioned in this work, freshwater (*) and migratory (**): Acipenser naccarii**; Acipenser sturio**; Alosa alosa**; Anguilla anguilla**; Argyrosomus regius; Austropotamobius pallipes*; Barbatula barbatula*; Barbus spp.*; Boops boops; Cancer pagurus; Cerastoderma edule; Chlamys varia; Clupea harengus; Conger conger; Crangon crangon; Cyprinus carpo*; Dicentrarchus labrax; D. punctatus; Dipturus batis; Donax trunculus; Ensis spp.; Esox lucius*; Engraulis encrasicolus; Eutrigla gurnardus; Gadus morhua; Galeorhinus galeus; Gobius niger; Homarus gammarus; Lamna nasus; Lampetra fluviatilis**; Liza ramada; Lophius piscatorius; Melanogrammus aeglefinus; Merlangius merlangus; Merluccius bilinearis; Merluccius merluccius; Mugil cephalus; Mullus spp.; Mytilus edulis; Mola mola; Muraena helena; Ostrea edulis; Pagellus bogaraveo; Palaemon longirostris; Palinurus elephas; Paphia aurea; Pecten jacobaeus; Petromyzon marinus**; Pollachius virens; Pomatoschistus minutus; Raja clavata; Ruditapes decussatus; Salmo salar**; Salmo trutta fario*; Sardina pilchardus; Scomber scombrus; Scophthalmus maximus; Scophthalmus rhombus; Scyliorhinus canicula; Solea solea; Sparus aurata; Sphyrna zygaena; Squalus acanthias; Squatina squatina; Torpedo marmorata Trachurus trachurus; Thunnus alalunga; T. thynnus; Umbrina cirrosa and Zeus faber.