Inside or Outside Capitalism? Sealers' Lives, Food, and Clothing Onboard Sealing Vessels and On Antarctic Hunting Grounds

Abstract

Capitalism as a world historical process intimately associated with the forces of modernity and colonialism has been widely studied by historical archaeologists from different perspectives. In spite of this, most researchers agree that the formal aspects of capitalism are frequently associated with practices and relationships that encourage the experience of certain degrees of distance, rupture, and exteriority with nature, things, and people, opening the way to objectification, commodification, and individualism. The intervention of capitalist businessmen and the socio-spatial segmentation of gathering, manufacturing, exchanging, and consuming practices sometimes leads to mediated and impersonal relationships, whereby commodities lack other non-economic values. Furthermore, differential access to commodities often emphasizes social distinction and hierarchies. Over the last decades, several researchers have insisted that -even though it induces significant changes in different societies- capitalism is not a homogenous process. The analysis of specific archaeological contexts has provided numerous examples of resistance and re-signification of capitalist practices and relationships. These examples have proven useful for discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of capitalism at different scales of analysis. Following the work of anthropologists, historical archaeologists are currently discussing the implications of "other economies" that could have existed alongside the formal aspects of capitalism. In particular, some researchers are attempting to understand a relatively unexplored aspect of these "other economies," that is to say, their intimate dimension. In contrast to formal capitalism, researchers stress that intimate economies are bound to practices and relationships that foster the experience of encounters, intimacy, and permeable frontiers among nature, people, and things. Intimate economies frequently take place in small groups having a real, perceived, or pretended confidence -such as family, friends, working groups, etc. In those cases, gathering, manufacturing, consuming and exchanging might imply close relationships compromising group identity, memory, etc. Moreover, things may have not only an economic value but also an emotional one. Barter and sharing often play an important role in intimate economies. In particular, sharing may act as an integrative or coordinating process, making the economic system congruous and effective in the allocation of goods without calculating returns. Therefore, it may represent a way to create solidarities and to defy the hierarchies produced and reproduced by the formal aspects of capitalism. Since 1995, we have collaborated on a research project in historical archaeology dealing with the expansion of capitalism over Antarctica. According to official history, in 1819 sealers were the first to arrive to the South Shetland Islands: the closest Antarctic archipelago to the coasts of South America. They operated in the region in different moments of the nineteenth century, mainly looking for seal skins and elephant seal oil. American companies played a leading role in the exploitation (followed only by the British and some other nations). Sealing was part of a capitalist industry, not only producing huge profits but also employing thousands of workers. In this chapter we reflect on the lives of sealers, and how they managed to get the food and clothes they considered necessary to survive. We will focus on two different but interrelated contexts that were part of the sealing voyages bound to the South Shetlands: the life on board the vessels (through the analysis of documentary sources), and the life on the Antarctic hunting grounds (through the analysis of archaeological evidence). Bearing in mind that sealers worked for a capitalist industry, we will discuss whether at these micro-scale contexts they relied solely on the practices and relationships typically associated with the formal aspects of capitalism or not. In the latter case, we will seek to answer the following questions: What were the main features of this "other economy"? What social practices and relationships did it encourage? Did sealers participate in an intimate economy as we previously described it? Was this "other economy" parallel, contradictory, or complementary to formal capitalist exchanges? What connections did this all have with the development of the sealing industry as a whole?