| Different ideas have been expressed about the reality of shellfish collectors. Shellfish collecting has been viewed by some as a strategy people under protein stress use to minimize risks, arguing that in terms of procurement effort shellfish resources are inferior. Another is the view that because shellfish resources are abundant and easily accessible, they are dependable, and likened shellfish collecting to shopping in a supermarket. To understand which of these views better explains the nature of shellfish collecting activity and shellfish collectors reality, this thesis uses an ethnoarchaeological approach to study the behavioral patterns of modern urban Dar-es-Salaam collectors.;By looking at the ongoing behavior of contemporary urban Dar-es-Salaam shellfish collectors, in which the effects of many variables are observed simultaneously and in a controlled manner, I examine how ecological and cultural variables influence the behavioral patterns of urban shellfish collectors. Urban Dar-es-Salaam collectors in response to the complex ecological and cultural factors are found to use traditional reciprocity and employ flexible work schedules as strategies to minimize risks.;A comparative analysis of the results from the study of urban Dar-es-Salaam collectors, who are migrant poor women and collect shellfish primarily for cash and secondarily for food to the results of the Anbarra, a hunting and gathering community of Australia and collect shellfish primarily for food and secondarily for cash, and to the watermen, who are commercial shellfish collectors of the east coast of the United States of America, reveal that shellfish collectors are more similar in behavior than they are different. It is also established that the shellfish collecting activity is strenuous and hazardous, while shellfish resources in comparison to other protein sources are found to be inferior in taste to the extent people resort to collecting shellfish resources as a means to minimize risks associated with uncertain economies. Shellfishing as a primary subsistence activity is found is always embedded within a larger more complex economy and that it interacts in characteristic ways with other components of that economy. |
