• Find People
  • Campus Map
  • PiratePort
  • A-Z
    • About
    • Submit
    • Browse
    • Login
    View Item 
    •   ScholarShip Home
    • Dissertations and Theses
    • Master's Theses
    • View Item
    •   ScholarShip Home
    • Dissertations and Theses
    • Master's Theses
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of The ScholarShipCommunities & CollectionsDateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsTypeDate SubmittedThis CollectionDateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsTypeDate Submitted

    My Account

    Login

    Statistics

    View Google Analytics Statistics

    A CULTURAL HISTORY OF RIVER HERRING AND SHAD FISHERIES IN EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA: THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD THROUGH THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

    Thumbnail
    View/ Open
    Thesis (14.71Mb)

    Show full item record
    Author
    Heath Jr., Charles L.
    Abstract
    This thesis focuses on the cultural exploitation of four anadromous fish species of the Family Clupeidae, in the Genus Alosa: the blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis). the alewife (A. pseudoharengus), the American shad, (A. sapidissima), and the hickory shad. {A. mediocris). in eastern North Carolina. The study assesses anadromous Alosa fisheries in the prehistoric and historic periods from a combined anthropological. archaeological, ethnohistorical and historical perspective. The research combines oral interview data collected by the author with information gathered from previously published sources. The findings are interpreted in the context of adaptive strategies, as originally conceptualized and proposed by John Bennett. Anadromous Alosa fisheries provided an important seasonal subsistence and trade resource to prehistoric (circa 3,000 B.C. to AD. 1650) and historic (circa. AD. 1584 to 1950) period cultures in eastern North Carolina. The significance as a subsistence resource was later paralleled by capital intensive commercial fisheries during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Four natural characteristics of Alosa account for the vitality as a major subsistence and trade resource: (I) predictability {in time and space), (2) availability (in massive spawning runs), (3) accessibility (ease of access and harvest with minimal effort), ( 4) storability (short-term and long-term preservation by smoke-drying or salt-curing). The seasonal exploitation of shad and river herring through time reflects the aggregation of conscious choices by individuals in response to the range of natural resources available in the region. Such choices gradually developed into regional, culture-wide adaptive strategies that evolved from a great fishing tradition of the past century into the last vestiges of shad and river herring fisheries that are seen today. The decline of the subsistence fishery tradition has been paralleled by a dramatic decline in Alosa stocks in North Carolina waters. The reasons for the biological decline relate back to the concept of adaptive strategies, whereby the human population in the region shifted from low­energy to high-energy production practices (e.g., fisheries, agricultural, industrial) over time. High­energy cultural processes increase pressure on Alosa stocks through the destruction of spawning habitat and overfishing. The evolution from low-energy to high-energy production has led to both resource degradation and the displacement of segments of the population who traditionally relied on the fishery resources (e.g., commercial and subsistence fishermen).
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10342/8793
    Subject
     River herring; Blueback herring; Alewife; American shad; Hickory shad; Fisheries; Cultural history 
    Date
    1997-08
    Collections
    • Master's Theses

    xmlui.ArtifactBrowser.ItemViewer.elsevier_entitlement

    East Carolina University has created ScholarShip, a digital archive for the scholarly output of the ECU community.

    • About
    • Contact Us
    • Send Feedback