Global literature review - Culture and social relations

The cultural dimensions of dried fish encompass shared knowledge and practices, associated with a given community, pertaining to the production and use of dried fish products. We identify five major approaches to the study of dried fish preparation and consumption as cultural practice.

First, from a cultural ecology perspective, fish drying may be taken as an adaptive requirement in environments that provide uneven access to fresh fish, either due to the seasonal availability of fish or to the need to exploit fish in combination with inland resources. In this sense, cultural preference for dried fish can often be traced historically to specific environmental conditions in which fish preservation originally offered a means of avoiding food shortage [1].

Second, the Indigenous knowledge and practices associated with traditional dried fish preparation and consumption may be documented using ethnographic or ethnoscientific methods. A variety of articles documenting traditional methods of preparing fermented fish products have been published in journals such as the Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge [2] and the Korea-based Journal of Ethnic Foods [3].

Third, the role of dried fish in modern contexts may be explored as cultural heritage, by investigating how communities embrace connections of dried fish with history, place, and custom. Research taking this approach has tended to focus primarily on European fish - such as surstromming (Swedish fermented herring), whose consumption helps construct a traditional rural identity in opposition to modern, urban values [4]; and bacalhau (Portuguese salt cod), which is embedded in collective identity narratives and may be seen as a form of cultural capital [5]. A related approach takes dried fish as part of foodways, systems of culturally-significant practices through which identity is negotiated through local foods, such as fermented fish in Thailand [6] or smoked tuna in Indonesia [7].

Fourth, dried fish may be approached as a subject within world food history, recognizing the role of dried fish as culturally important commodities within global trade systems. A particularly significant historical dried fish product is the fermented fish sauce garum, a central element of ancient Greco-Roman cuisine, which was celebrated for its flavour and supposed medicinal value in addition to serving as a major trade commodity [8]. In some settings, garum finds itself at the intersection of food history and gastronomy: taking an experiential approach to food history, a medieval Roman banquet reconstructed at the Ashmolean Museum in 2017, for example, featured a menu consisting largely of salt fish and garum-flavoured dishes [9], while a team of Danish food scientists has recently developed a series of modern, experimental garums [10].

Fifth, taste for fish may be considered as a cultural attribute. The idea of culturally informed “acceptability” figures prominently in research on product development and consumer preference, as reflected in studies exploring topics such as the contrast in acceptability criteria for spice-cured sprats in Estonia and Thailand [11], regionally distinct tastes for salted cod in different parts of Spain [12], local quality appreciation criteria for lanhouin (fish-based condiment) in Benin [13], or fermentation leading to improved acceptability of poor-tasting fish in Nigeria [14].

Although we recognize the importance of dried fish in many communities to well-being and commensality - the practices and social relations of eating together - we found little direct attention to these cultural aspects in the literature under review. As an additional area of importance for future research, we note that dried fish has been identified as a culturally appropriate food among migrants and refugees [15] or Indigenous groups [16], representing a dimension of cultural food security.

As Belton and colleagues have pointed out, much of the literature on fisheries focuses on fishers rather than onshore processors, such that women's labour tends to be invisible [17]. Yet worldwide, the preparation of dried, smoked, and fermented fish is almost universally conducted by women, the economic value and status of whose labour is often low [18].Women rarely participate in offshore catch directly, though they will mend nets or may harvest low-value, inland species or shellfish, or in some instances can be financial managers and boat owners; women are almost always involved in fish processing, though men may participate also; and in some countries women may run wholesale or retail businesses, sometimes independently of a processing operation [19].

Several studies of women's labour in fisheries identify technical or material barriers to economic inclusion or productivity. Syampaku and Mifimisebi, contrasting the gender balance at each node in Zambian fish value chains, suggest that women lack access to higher-profit segments due to their poor access to capital [20]. Osarenren and Ojor argue that Nigerian fish processors are constrained by a lack of capital, cost of storage, and price fluctuation [21]. Simasiku et al. describe Namibian processors as confronting challenges related to cold storage facilities, poor weather, and packaging [22].

Whereas studies such as the above prioritize targeted interventions such as microcredit as avenues to economic inclusivity, Rabbanee et al. model application of a more holistic “sustainable livelihood” approach, demonstrating that dried fish processors in Bangladesh draw regularly on valuable “asset portfolios” that extend beyond fish - including poultry, weaving, and handicrafts - which provide significant lean season income [23]. Broader social and economic structures may also shape women's participation in fish processing and marketing: looking at the Lake Victoria fishery, Medard et al. observe that women processors' status has declined as a result of market consolidations and restructurings, which led to the exclusion of women who previously held positions of power in small-scale production and trade networks [24]. Cole et al., applying a social-ecological systems approach to the Barotse Floodplain fishery in Zambia, argue that gender inequality contributes to a maladaptive path dependency they describe as a “social-ecological trap” [25].

While several studies examined in this review claim to apply a gender lens, very few recognize the critical perspectives on gender taken in social science and feminist theory. One notable contribution to gender ideologies in dried fish value chains is Aswathy and Kalpana's study of gender in a Muslim fishing village in Kerala, which describes how women engaged in fish drying and vending tactically negotiate the competing ideological expectations of feminine domesticity and women's entrepreneurship, set against a context of rapid socio-economic change - industrialization of the fishery and male migration since the late 1980s [26]. Keough addresses the history of women's gender identity in fishing communities in Newfoundland prior to the 1950s, when women engaged in salting labour and maintained a strong and important role within the household enterprise - a gender role that has, Keough argues, persisted even as the fishing industry become more industrialized, and women's labour less essential [27].