Seasonal and gendered patterns in subsistence fishing and shellfish gathering: insights from Mfumbwi (Zanzibar) for archaeological interpretation and contemporary fisheries management

The village of Mfumbwi (Jambiani, Zanzibar Island) is home to maritime fishers and shellfish gatherers who use traditional methods to harvest marine fauna for subsistence. This study examines the extent to which seasonality and gendered patterns of behavior affect the marine subsistence record of Mfumbwi using an extensive ethnographic maritime subsistence dataset (MS-1819) collected between June 2018 and June 2019. As we show, seasonality driven by the wet-dry monsoonal climatic regime of Zanzibar intersected with local gender ideologies in interesting and significant ways, affecting men and women differently. Further, the roster of marine species harvested varied between men and women, most likely reflecting different ecozones frequented by each gender. However, the seasonal availability or accessibility of specific taxa harvested by either men or women may also be influenced by the behavior of individual taxa, which may or may not be climatically driven. Further, various biological and cultural variables affecting maritime subsistence patterns in Mfumbwi may have skewed the MS-1819 data as they were collected. This study lays the foundation for future studies using modern socio-ecological datasets that holds significance not just for current conservation and cultural heritage management efforts, but also for archaeological studies of maritime subsistence on the Swahili coast and other regions of the Indian Ocean World, highlighting as it does some of the varied and intersecting factors affecting subsistence activities.