Fishing: How the Sea Fed Civilization

by Brian Fagan

Overview

An archaeologist examines humanity’s last major source of food from the wild, and how it enabled and shaped the growth of civilization.

In this history of fishing—not as sport but as sustenance—archaeologist and best-selling author Brian Fagan argues that fishing was an indispensable and often overlooked element in the growth of 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 movement. It frequently required a search for new and better fishing grounds; its technologies, centered on boats, facilitated movement and discovery; and fish themselves, when dried and salted, were the ideal food—lightweight, nutritious, and long-lasting—for traders, travelers, and conquering armies. This history of the long interaction of humans and seafood tours archaeological sites worldwide to show readers how fishing fed human settlement, rising social complexity, the development of cities, and ultimately the modern world.

“A tour-de-force . . . Achieves its goal of putting fishing on par with hunter-gathering and agriculture in the history of human civilization.” —Leon Vlieger, Natural History Book Service 

“A valuable book as well as an interesting one . . . Fagan succeeds in providing an admirable primer for the enthusiast and a welcome tool for the historian.” —Economist

“A unique panoramic survey of the field.” —Laurence A. Marschall, Natural History

“Gently scholarly, elegant . . . A compelling picture of how fishing was so integral in each society’s development. A multilayered, nuanced tour of “fishing societies throughout the world” and across millennia.” —Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300231885
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	08/11/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	356,880
File size:	15 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Brian Fagan was born in England, did fieldwork in Africa, and taught at the University of CaliforniaSanta Barbara. He is the author of Fish on Friday, The Little Ice Age, The Long Summer, and the New York Times bestseller The Great Warming.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Author's Note xv

1 Bountiful Waters 1

Part I Opportunistic Fishers 15

2 Beginnings 21

3 Neanderthals and Moderns 32

4 Shellfish Eaters 45

5 Baltic and Danube After the Ice 54

6 Rope-Patterned Fisherfolk 64

7 The Great Journey Revisited 74

8 Fishers on the Pacific Northwest Coast 87

9 The Myth of a Garden of Eden 99

10 The Calusa: Shallows and Sea Grass 114

11 The Great Fish Have Come In 125

Part II Fishers In The Shadows 141

12 Rations for Pharaohs 147

13 Fishing the Middle Sea 160

14 Scaly Flocks 172

15 The Fish Eaters 184

16 The Erythraean Sea 196

17 Carp and Khmer 209

18 Anchovies and Civilization 223

Part III The End Of Plenty 237

19 Ants of the Ocean 243

20 The Beef of the Sea 257

21 "Inexhaustible Manna," 270

22 Depletion 284

23 More in the Sea? 295

Glossary of Fishing Terms 305

Acknowledgments 309

Notes 311

Index 333

Editorial Reviews

A tour-de-force. . . achieves its goal of putting fishing on par with hunter-gathering and agriculture in the history of human civilisation.”—Leon Vlieger, Natural History Book Service

“Fishing is a valuable book as well as an interesting one. It shows vividly how human civilisations have depended on harvests from the sea. . . Fagan succeeds in providing an admirable primer for the enthusiast and a welcome tool for the historian.”—Economist

“A unique panoramic survey of the field.”—Laurence A. Marschall, Natural History

"Gently scholarly, elegant. . . . A compelling picture of how fishing was so integral in each society's development. A multilayered, nuanced tour of 'fishing societies throughout the world' and across millennia."—Kirkus Reviews

“Fishing’s role in the development of civilization has not received the kind of merit that history bestows upon hunting and farming. . . Highly recommended for readers interested in archaeology, anthropology, ecology, and environmental science.”—Jeffrey Meyer, Library Journal

“Fagan admits that his accomplishments as a fisherman are modest, but he is a first-rate archaeologist and the author of forty-six books . . . Fagan’s work reminds us that sometimes even the most sophisticated archaeological studies miss very big things.”—Tim Flannery, New York Review of Books

“Fagan takes a formidable topic and makes it accessible to the general reader. . . . What Mark Kurlansky did in Salt, Brian Fagan does in Fishing.”—Tavi Prugno, Cape Cod Chronicle

“Elegant and sweeping in scope, Brian Fagan’s Fishing: How the Sea Fed Civilization is a timely publication on an important yet often overlooked topic.”—Konrad A. Antczak, Historical Archaeology

“The history of fishing predates our own species. . . . This is the remarkable story that Brian Fagan tells.”—Kathryn Lang, Origins

"[Fagan's] latest book is a must read for anyone interested in maritime history. . . . There is much to admire in this book. . . . Fishing deserves a wide audience."—Christopher P. Magra, The Northern Mariner

"Brian Fagan’s compelling treatise reveals the vital role of fish and shellfish in the rise of human civilizations. A stunning achievement."—William H. Marquardt, Florida Museum of Natural History

“From simple technology and subsistence to sophisticated trawlers harvesting for global distribution, fishing has shaped economies, diets and empires. This compelling narrative is a must read for everyone interested in humanity’s journey, as seen through the use of its last remaining wild food resource.”—Sophia Perdikaris, Brooklyn College and GC CUNY

"A vastly illuminating, deep and worldwide history of fishing and marine foraging. We’ve waited a long time for an archaeologist of Brian Fagan’s breadth and leaning to show us that fishing is as important as farming in the story of mankind."—James C. Scott, author of Seeing Like a State

From the Publisher

08/01/2017
Fishing's role in the development of civilization has not received the kind of merit that history bestows upon hunting and farming. Fagan (anthropology, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; The Great Warming) aims to change that, delving into the shallow-water opportunists of prehistory to the deep-sea trawlers of today. The work begins in Africa, where our ancestors snatched catfish from shallow pools, then continues to describe the rising global sea levels that followed the Ice Age through the classical, medieval, and modern eras. Readers will discover a world history rich in fishing: from Scandinavian trappers to ancient Japanese fishers to Chinese carp fishermen. Herring, cod, the Roman fish sauce garum, sturgeons, and shellfish are all discussed. Historical ecological transformations, such as the end of the Ice Age, as well as contemporary environmental concerns, including overfishing, are addressed, as are important human migrations, such as the expansion of peoples from Asia to America. Fagan's style is academic yet accessible. VERDICT A much-needed volume for serious students of world history. Highly recommended for readers interested in archaeology, anthropology, ecology, and environmental science.—Jeffrey Meyer, Mt. Pleasant P.L., IA

Library Journal

2017-07-12
A study of global cultures that have been nurtured by the wealth from the sea.In this gently scholarly, elegant examination of fishing peoples from the Neanderthals to modern times, Fagan (Emeritus, Archaeology/Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; The Attacking Ocean: The Past, Present, and Future of Rising Sea Levels, 2013, etc.) defies the Darwinian stereotypes of fishing cultures as simple or primitive. Global warming at the end of the last Ice Age, some 15,000 years ago, compounded the problems created by rising sea levels and led to the inundation of coasts, the creation of ponds and shallows, and flourishing fish populations. Fishers do not have the same cachet as hunters and farmers, but as the seas swelled, "subsistence fishing came into its own." This necessitated the invention of new tools specifically for the endeavor, and many of these have changed surprisingly little over the centuries. Fagan proceeds chronologically, focusing in each chapter on different fishing cultures and the kinds of fish they caught, such as the canny clan of Pinnacle Point Cave, South Africa, who, more than 160,000 years ago, were attracted by the plentiful mollusks in local tide pools. While Neanderthals were big-game hunters, their diet also included a great deal of salmon. From 8000 to 2000 B.C.E., the area from the Danube to the Baltic Sea supported dense human settlements with a strong preference for marine foods—e.g., the Iron Gates peoples, who hunted the mighty sturgeon. In Scandinavia during this time, fermentation was implemented to preserve fish during cold winter months, while in the Nile delta, fish were used as the rations for the laborers to build the state. Fagan also discusses the Jomon of northern Japan, the Aleuts in Alaska and other societies in the Northwest, the Calusa Indians of Florida, and early cultures in both the Mediterranean and China, providing a compelling picture of how fishing was so integral in each society's development. A multilayered, nuanced tour of "fishing societies throughout the world" and across millennia.

Kirkus Reviews