The Sea: A Cultural History

Description

'There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea' wrote Joseph Conrad. In The Sea: A Cultural History, John Mack considers the ways in which human beings interact because of the sea, navigate their course across it, live on and around it: the variety of ways in which people 'inhabit' the sea, whether they sail on it or live beside it, on promontories, estuaries and ports which abut the sea. The Sea moves beyond conventional boundaries, using histories, maritime archaeology, biography, art history and literary sources to provide an innovative and experiential account of 'the great blue yonder'.

John Mack is Professor of World Art Studies at the University of East Anglia.

"'I am a part of the sea and the sea is part of me, ' muses a Torres Straits elder, and John Mack brings readers to just such recognition of their own places in the world. In his able hands, seas become places and not merely The Great Between. They have their own histories, and demand sophisticated technologies of exploration, exploitation, and intellectual fathoming. Through many years of museum scholarship, Mack has perfected a grand, sweeping vision matched by delight in deepest detail, and here he tells compelling stories about 'ships as societies, ' 'sea gypsies, ' and the hundred named 'seamarks' in open water known to residents of Mabuiag Island. Welcome aboard!"- Allen F. Roberts, University of California, Los Angeles --Allen F. Roberts