Actions for The Sea [electronic resource]: A Cultural History

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The Sea [electronic resource]: A Cultural History

Author
Mack, John
Published
London : Reaktion Books, Limited May 2011 Chicago : Chicago Distribution Center [Distributor]
Physical Description
320 p. ill 21.600 x 013.800 cm.
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Summary
Annotation There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea, wrote Joseph Conrad. And there is certainly nothing more integral to the development of the modern world. In The Sea: A Cultural History, John Mack considers those great expanses that both unite and divide us, and the ways in which human beings interact because of the sea, from navigation to colonization to trade. Much of the worlds population lives on or near the cost, and as Mack explains, in a variety of ways, people actually inhabit the sea. The Sealooks at the characteristics of different seas and oceans and investigates how the sea is conceptualized in various cultures. Mack explores the diversity of maritime technologies, especially the practice of navigation and the creation of a society of the sea, which in many cultures is all-male, often cosmopolitan, and always hierarchical. He describes the cultures and the social and technical practices characteristic of seafarers, as well as their distinctive language and customs. As he shows, the separation of sea and land is evident in the use of different vocabularies on land and on sea for the same things, the change in a mariners behavior when on land, and in the liminal status of points uniting the two realms, like beaches and ports. Mack also explains how ships are deployed in symbolic contexts on land in ecclesiastical and public architecture. Yet despite their differences, the two realms are always in dialogue in symbolic and economic terms.Casting a wide net, The Seauses histories, maritime archaeology, biography, art history, and literature to provide an innovative and experiential account of the waters that define our worldly existence.
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ISBN
9781861898098
1861898096 (Trade Cloth)
Audience Notes
Trade Reaktion Books, Limited
View MARC record | catkey: 19432436