Fishing : how the sea fed civilization / Brian Fagan.

By:

Fagan, Brian M

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9780300215342
0300215347

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

History.

LOC classification:

SH421 .F34 2017

Contents:

Bountiful waters -- Part I. Opportunistic fishers. Beginnings ; Neanderthals and moderns ; Shellfish eaters ; Baltic and Danube after the ice ; Rope-patterned fisherfolk ; The great journey revisited ; Fishers on the Pacific Northwest Coast ; The myth of a Garden of Eden ; The Calusa : shallows and sea grass ; The great fish have come in -- Part II. Fishers in the shadows. Rations for Pharaohs ; Fishing the Middle Sea ; Scaly flocks ; The fish eaters ; The Erythraean Sea ; Carp and Khmer ; Anchovies and civilization -- Part III. The end of plenty. Ants of the ocean ; The beef of the sea ; "Inexhaustible manna" ; Depletion ; More in the sea? -- Glossary of fishing terms.

Summary: "Before prehistoric humans began to cultivate grain, they had three main methods of acquiring food: hunting, gathering, and fishing. Hunting and gathering are no longer economically important, having been replaced by their domesticated equivalents, ranching and farming. But fishing, humanity's last major source of food from the wild, has grown into a worldwide industry on which we have never been more dependent. In this history of fishing--not as sport hut as sustenance--archaeologist and writer Brian Fagan argues that fishing rivaled agriculture in its importance to civilization. It sustainably provided enough food to allow cities, nations, and empires to grow, but it did so with a different emphasis. Where agriculture encouraged stability, fishing demanded travel, trade, and movement. It required a constant search for new and better fishing grounds; its technologies, centered on boats, facilitated journeys of discovery; and fish themselves, when dried and salted, were the ideal food--lightweight, nutritious, and long-lasting--for traders, travelers, and conquering armies. In Fishing, Fagan tours archaeological sites worldwide to show readers how fishing fed the development of cities, empires, and ultimately the modern world."--Dust jacket.

Holdings ( 1 )
Title notes ( 3 )

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Shelving location	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	NMC Library	Stacks	SH421 .F34 2017	1	Available		33039001427532

Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-331) and index.

"Before prehistoric humans began to cultivate grain, they had three main methods of acquiring food: hunting, gathering, and fishing. Hunting and gathering are no longer economically important, having been replaced by their domesticated equivalents, ranching and farming. But fishing, humanity's last major source of food from the wild, has grown into a worldwide industry on which we have never been more dependent. In this history of fishing--not as sport hut as sustenance--archaeologist and writer Brian Fagan argues that fishing rivaled agriculture in its importance to civilization. It sustainably provided enough food to allow cities, nations, and empires to grow, but it did so with a different emphasis. Where agriculture encouraged stability, fishing demanded travel, trade, and movement. It required a constant search for new and better fishing grounds; its technologies, centered on boats, facilitated journeys of discovery; and fish themselves, when dried and salted, were the ideal food--lightweight, nutritious, and long-lasting--for traders, travelers, and conquering armies. In Fishing, Fagan tours archaeological sites worldwide to show readers how fishing fed the development of cities, empires, and ultimately the modern world."--Dust jacket.