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During the decades of 1960–1980, Richard S. Felger and Mary B. Moser researched the botanical knowledge of the Seris (Comcaac), a hunter-gatherer and fishing people living in the arid desert of northwestern Mexico. They recorded and published an extensive body of species-specific data so rich in biological and ethnographic detail that it is possible to reconstruct a quickly eroding, annual dietary cycle; such a comprehensive account is a precious resource to study transitions in the community diet. In this article, we focus on Seri sweets and sweeteners, represented by 16 fruits, four agave species, one perennial halophyte, pollen paste (beebread), and honey. We rely on archival research to explore various data sources, situating ethnobiological questions in a socio-historical context to provide information on the spatial distribution of resources and the community's livelihood, which can be correlated with specific political zeitgeist. We examine how the swift integration of the Seri society into the state-mediated market in the early-mid twentieth century introduced greater use of exogenous sweeteners and displaced local food items, resulting in culinary acculturation that affected the community's health and well-being. Through understanding the process, we aim to present local foods in ways that are comprehensible to younger Seris in order to foster efforts toward food sovereignty in their community.

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In the mid-twentieth century, the Seris (Comcaac), a small mobile hunter-gatherer and fishing people of northwestern Mexico, became almost entirely sedentary. They had for centuries survived in the isolated desert and coast along the eastern central Gulf of California, an area of rich biodiversity. The move to permanent settlements facilitated access to non-traditional foods that began to markedly impact their traditional diet of desert and marine resources, including mollusks. Although fish and sea turtles continued to be an important part of that diet, consumption of mollusks declined significantly, accompanied by a gradual loss of knowledge of their names and related ecological information, a loss evident among younger Seris today. This paper explores the role of mollusks in the Seri culture and associated changes that have taken place over the past century. Published accounts, oral tradition, historical records, and current investigation describe how the Seris adopted a sedentary lifestyle, and the impact that the change has had on their traditional diet, ecological knowledge, subsistence practices, and health.