A apanha de algas na ilha da Ínsua (Caminha) nos séculos XVII - XIX. Singularidades e conflitos.

Resumo

Seaweed gathering along the northwestern coast of mainland Portugal constituted, from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, an extremely important activity. This is well documented for the region located between Viana do Castelo and Oporto, but much less is known for other regions along the northwestern coast. In the Braga District Archive there is a valuable set of unpublished manuscripts about the Franciscan monastery of Ínsua (an island located in the mouth of the River Minho) and about seaweed gathering on the island in the past. By analysing these documents and studying the present macroalgal flora of the island, it was possible to conclude that seaweed gatheringon Ínsua in the 17th to 19th centuries was not free to all, as it was on the mainland coast, but rather relied on permission granted by the monastery’s guardian. Gathering was not allowed on Sundays and holidays. Women were not allowed to gather seaweed and men were required to leave the island before nightfall. Seaweed was exchanged for collectors’ donations to the friars. Seaweed was collected from the shore at low tide, and Fucus and Ascophyllum nodosum plants were likely cut from the rocks. Seaweed gathering was a constant source of intense conflict and struggle between the Franciscans, their neighbours and the fortress garrison. The main factors determining the particularities related to seaweed gathering at Ínsua include the long presence of the Franciscan community on the island, the right to all the island’s natural resources ceded by the Crown to the Franciscans and elevated economical importance of seaweed for the agrarian societies of the northwestern coast. Other factors involve the following: i) the great abundance of seaweed on the island may have fostered greed; ii) most of the community abandoned the island for a monastery in Caminha in 1619 and only one friar lived on the island in 1793, making for a possible sense of emptiness and absence – the neighbours, therefore, considered it unjust that the island’s wealth stay in the hands of the Franciscans; iii) economic difficulties arose, since the endowment by the Crown remained unchanged for more than a century; and iv) collectors were clearly fortunate that seaweed gathering on the mainland coast was free of charge.