The Salt of Highland Ecuador: Precious Product of a Female Domain

Abstract

This paper assesses the role of salt in highland Ecuadorian culture using ethnohistoric and ethnographic data. The two major propositions of the paper are that Ecuador's montane salt was (i) a precious commodity in pre-Columbian times whose consumption prevented the occurrence of iodine deficiency diseases in the northern highlands and (z) a predominantly female product-both in Ecuadorian society and cosmology. The latter proposition is based on evidence from the salt operations at Salinas of Bolivar Province, Ecuador. Using colonial documents, ethnohistorians of Latin America have documented the prominent role of salt in the society, economy, and diet of the time (Murra 1967; Oberem I974, 1978, 1980; Cardale-Schrimpff 1976; Salomon 1978; Ravines 1978; Caillavet 1979; Rostworowski 1981; Tandeter and Wachtell 1983). Furthermore, ethnographic studies from the Central Andes have spotlighted the role of salt as a traditional item of exchange transported over long distances (Varese 1968; Custred 1974; Molina 1983) and an item of production regulated by the state to the detriment of rural peoples (Varese 1968; Malengrau 1978, 1977; Orlove 1982). However, few ethnographic studies have analyzed contemporary data with the purpose of furthering our ethnohistoric knowledge (Andrews 1980, 1983; Cardale-Schrimpff 1976). This article hopes to fill the gap. Quantitative and qualitative data gathered in Salinas, Bolivar Province, Ecuador, are used to pose solutions to cultural problems regarding the uses and meanings of salt in sixteenth-century highland Ecuador. In the process, traditional cultural patterns are uncovered for highland Ecuador and Latin America in the areas of salt production organization, diet, interethnic dialogue, cosmology, and symbolism. Salt Production and Technology in Andean Ecuador Virtually all salt production in Andean Ecuador has involved the laborintensive process of boiling salt water.1 At the major site of Salinas-Bolivar Ethnohistory 35:z (Spring 1988). Copyright ? by the American Society for Ethnohistory. ccc ooI4-1801/88/$I.50. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.137 on Fri, 27 May 2016 05:56:32 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms