La communauté salicole du bas-pays guérandais ou les interrelations entre l'homme et son environnement naturel
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Strasbourg 2Disciplines:
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Abstract EN:
The running of salt-marshes as it is executed in the peninsula of guerande (loire atlantique, france), presents a remarkable adaptation of mankind to nature. Benefiting from the presence of a natural clayey substratum, the paludiers (salt-makers) took advantage of this unsuitable soil for agriculture to shape nearly 2000 hectares (500 acres) of salt-marshes. Owing to an ingenious system of canals, the sea-water naturally enters salt-marshes according to tides. A spring tide enables salt-makers to feed the vasiere (slime-pond), that represents the basis of all salt-marshes. This water reserve guarantees the continuous feeding of the marsh for 15 days. Then the water, more and more concentrated, flows down slowly through several basins till the harvest ponds, where salt lastly cristallizes. Though revealed by their economic activity, the remarkable adaptation of manking to the environment can as well be expressed by various aspects of their culture, and notably by their housing, furniture and traditional costume. Regarding these three examples, the use of locally available materials shows the patent concern of the salt-makers community for freeing themselves from outside influences. In this nearly autarkic spirit, the development of the paludiere culture in guerande's area gave birth to a strong community identity, within which appear cultural symbols, relatively unvarying till the beginning of the 20th century. On the one hand, these symbols are the fruit of an historical syncretism, and on the other hand they are the result of an observation of nature. That is why these symbols are related to salt-making, and particularly to meteorological and astronomical conditions that ensure its everlastingness. My work hypothesis firstly consisted in making sure of the existence of such symbols, and secondly in finding their different expressions as much in salt-markers's handicrafts and vocabulary as in the salt-marsh microtoponymy.
Abstract FR:
La saliculture, telle qu'elle est pratiquee dans la presqu'ile guerandaise (loire atlantique, france), presente une remarquable adaptation de l'homme a son environnement naturel. Profitant d'un substrat argileux naturel, impropre a l'agriculture, les paludiers (palus, udis, marais) ont su eriger pres de 2000 hectares de marais salants. Un ingenieux systeme de canaux permet l'alimentation reguliere du marais en eau de mer. A chaque grande maree, la mer vient ainsi remplir les vasieres qui constituent le premier bassin de toute saline. Cette reserve d'eau garantit l'alimentation continue de l'exploitation pour 15 jours. Puis l'eau, de plus en plus concentree, traverse plusieurs surfaces d'evaporation avant de parvenir dans les bassins de recolte ou le sel cristallise enfin. Cette magnifique adaptation de l'homme a son environnement s'exprime egalement, outre l'activite economique, a travers d'autres aspects culturels et notamment l'habitat, le mobilier et le costume traditionnels. Pour ces trois exemples, l'usage exclusifs de materiaux disponibles localement met en evidence le souci constant des paludiers de s'affranchir au maximum des dependances exterieures. Cet esprit quasi autarcique a ainsi donne naissance a une profonde identite communautaire, aux symboles culturels homogenes, dont la transmission est demeuree relativement stable jusqu'au debut du xxe siecle. Si ces symboles sont d'une part le fruit d'un syncretisme historique, ils sont egalement le resultat d'une observation de la nature. C'est la raison pour laquelle ces symboles ont trait a l'exploitation salicole, et particulierement aux conditions meteorologiques et astronomiques qui la rendent possible. Mes recherches consistaient des lors, a titre d'hypothese, de m'assurer de l'existence de tels symboles et, deuxiemement, de degager leurs differentes expressions a travers quelques exemples de l'artisanat paludier, du vocabulaire salicole, mais egalement de la microtoponymie du marais salant.