Kihnu, Manilaid and Ruhnu: on Human-Nature relations on Estonian islands of the Gulf of Riga

International audienceThis article aims to examine the Human/Nature relationships in coastal and island contexts, based on ethnographic field surveys conducted over the past four years on the islands of Kihnu, Manilaid and Ruhnu (Estonian part of the Gulf of Riga). It seeks to decipher the particular social-ecological system that has settled on these three islands, whose communities live with the sea on a daily basis. It will address both the food uses of the marine environment, their translation into the organization of communities (inclusion in the landscape, establishment of specific marine cosmogonies and cosmologies), but also the symbolism and representations related to the sea (intangible heritage)