The role of artisan technology and indigenous knowledge transfer in the survival of a classic cultural landscape: The marais salants of Guérande, Loire-Atlantique, France

Journal of Historical Geography

Volumn 25, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 216-234

  Thompson, Ian B ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTISANAL MINING; CULTURAL LANDSCAPE; ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT; LANDSCAPE PROTECTION; TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE;

FRANCE;

EID: 0033117581     PISSN: 03057488     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1006/jhge.1999.0115     Document Type: Article

References (29)

1. D. Warren and B. Rajasekaran, Putting local knowledge to good use, International Agricultural Development 13 (1993) 8.
2. J. Gras, Les Bas-Pays Guérandais et leur environnement géographique, in Marais salants: contribution à l'étude écologique de la presqu'le Guérandaise, Special Issue of the Bulletin de la Société Naturaliste de l'Ouest France, 1980;
3. A. Vigarié, Milieu naturel et occupation humaine dans les Marais de Guérande, Cahiers Nantais 14 (1978) 13-48.
4. L. Figuier, La fabrication du sel dans les marais salants de l'ouest de la France, 1876 (reprinted by La Bibliothèque des Métiers and the Groupement de Producteurs du Sel de Guérande undated, no publisher);
5. P. Lemmonier, Les salines de l'ouest, logique technique, logique sociale (Paris 1980).
6. Figure 2 is constructed from the Plan d'Occupation du Sol, Commune de Guérande, complemented by fieldwork.
7. The place name Guérande derives from the Breton 'Gwen Ran', meaning 'pays blanc' or 'white country'.
8. M. Dolivet, Les Marais Salants du Bassin de Guérande, Bibliographie (Direction Régional de l'Environnement, Nantes 1992) is a very comprehensive bibliographie coverage of all aspects of the marais salants.
9. The most detailed review of the early phases of development is provided by G. Buran, De l'origine des marais salants guérandais, Bulletin de la Société Archéologique et Historique de Nantes et de Loire-Atlantique 126 (1990) 9-62 which contains some 259 references and footnotes.
10. G. Buron, Notes de toponymie guérandaise, Bulletin de la Société Archéologique et Historique de Nantes et de Loire-Atlantique 122 (1986) 23-58;
11. Idem., Les noms des salines, Mélanges offerts à Léon Fleuriot (Rennes 1992) 281-306.
12. Idem., Pour une analyse du paysage salicole guérandais, Annales de Bretagne et des Pays de l'Ouest 104 (1997) 7-46.
13. G. Buron and M. Simonnin, paludiers et marais salants dans l'oeuvre de Mathurin Meheut (Musée Intercommunal des Marais Salants, Batz-sur-Mer 1992) is a remarkable collection of paintings, watercolours and annotated sketches produced by Meheut during visits to the marais between 1913 and 1968, a fundamental source of ethnographic detail.
14. See also J. Morlent, Guérande et ses environs (Paris 1990), re-edition of a volume first published in 1819 which gives an evocative traveller's account of activity in the marais in the early nineteenth century.
15. The Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Redon is a manuscript which charts land transactions on the part of the abbey from the ninth to eleventh centuries. The entries testify to the purchase of salines in the marais salants in the ninth century. The original manuscript is held in the abbey but a nineteenth-century copy was published by A. de Courson, Cartulaire de Redon en Bretagne (Paris 1863).
16. A four-colour facsimile is also in press entitled Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Redon Xle-Xle siécles (Paris 1998).
17. Vigarié op. cit., 26-32.
18. P. Boireau, La gestion des eaux pluviales dans les marais salants situés sur la commune de la Turballe (Unpublished Mémoire de Mâtrise, Université de Nantes 1995) 39.
19. G. Dunoyer de Segonzac, Les chemins du sel (Paris 1991) 88-100.
20. J. Hémery-Poisbeau, Saliculture en presqu'île Guérandaise: salines et techniques de récolte, in Marais salants: contribution à l'étude écologique de la presqu'île Guérandaise, Spécial Issue of the Bulletin de la Société Naturaliste de l'Ouest France, 1980.
21. For a full account of paludier society and the mediation between 'natural' laws and social organisation, see P. Lemmonier, Paludiers de Guérande: production du sel et histoire économique (Paris 1984). This latter book includes a very complete glossary of the vernacular terms associated with the salt industry.
22. A variety of local work opportunities became available from the mid-nineteenth century onwards in the construction industry, notably the excavation of the port basin at St Nazaire and the building of railway lines to Guérande and Le Croisic.
23. The period from 1969 was one of feverish speculative activity involving a proposal to build a major east-west road across the marais and the construction of a marina which was only ended in 1977 followed a concerted campaign of grass roots opposition in which the paludiers played a leading role. For a robust denunciation of the impact of the coastal tourist boom in the 1960 and 1970 decades in Brittany, see J. Lescoat, La Bretagne ou l'environnement (Paris 1996).
24. J. Péreon, Paludier de Guérande (Paris 1996) 24.
25. G. Delbos and P. Jorion, La transmission des savoirs (Paris 1990).
26. Intermarriage between paludier families was the norm and undoubtedly bolstered the traditional system and reinforced the retention of indigenous knowledge.
27. H. Dahm and A. Lawrence, Les marais salants de Guérande et du Mes, Le Courrier de la Nature 148 (1994) 22-7;
28. I. B. Thompson, The modernisation of an ancient artisan activity and its role in environmental conservation: the Marais Salants of Guérande, Loire-Atlantique in N. Croix (Ed.), Environnement et nature dans les campagnes (Rennes 1998) 229-39.
29. It should be noted that not all paludiers are members of the GPS. In 1996, 147 of the total of approximately 210 paludiers were active members. The Salins du Midi company also has substantial interests in the marais and is a source of tension vis-à-vis the cooperative.