Abstract

RIGONAT, María Cecilia. Valuation processes of the marine environment as a therapeutic resource. A historical look. Mar del plata. Argentina. Cultura representaciones soc [online]. 2022, vol.16, n.32, e0001991.  Epub Apr 21, 2023. ISSN 2007-8110.

The article aims to account for the various views on the marine environment as a therapeutic resource that converged and converge in Mar del Plata, an Argentine city located on the Atlantic Ocean. The methodology used points to the interpretation of the underlying discourse in texts from various sources (scientific articles, advertisements) relating them to the national and international context, and at the same time it is aware of some undertakings labeled within thalassotherapy that materialized in the mentioned city. The appreciation of the sea and its environment as a source of physical and emotional well-being is part of a broader context that envisions Nature as a provider of the necessary resources to mitigate diseases. The analysis carried out allows us to glimpse a period that spans from the end of the nineteenth century to the first decades of the twentieth century in which the idea of the marine environment associated as beneficial to health was installed, towards the middle of the twentieth century, with the consolidation of mass tourism of “sun and beach” that image is relegated. However, with the turn of the century, a new resignification of the sea and its surroundings is appreciated, associating it with spiritual, physical and mental harmony.

Keywords : Argentina; Mar del Plata; thalassotherapy; marine environment valorization; nature.