Cognitive Maps of Time and Tide Among Medieval Seafarers

Cultural biographies, cognitive landscapes and dirty old bits of boat:‘theory’ in maritime archaeology

“…At its most fundamental level, maritime archaeology may thus need to develop theories capable of dealing with such diametrically-opposed perceptions, in so much as it is capable of doing this (Cooper, 1975;Frake, 1985;Gell, 1985;Noble & Hogbin, 2001). Work upon such areas helps give a radical new spin to long-running debates such as those about Pleistocene voyages to Australia (Bednarik, 1997;Bednarik, 1998;Bednarik et al, 1999): 'we'-land-based, fundamentally fearful of the sea-perceive these voyages as virtually impossible: cultures that perceive of both sea and land together as a largely undifferentiated whole arguably would not (Broodbank, 1989;Cherry, 1990).…”

Trees and seas of information: Alien kinship and the biopolitics of gene transfer in marine biology and biotechnology

“…These are assemblages that might be seen profitably through the lens of maritime anthropology. Drawing on early work in the traditions of economic anthropology and cognitive anthropology (Barth 1966;Frake 1985), maritime anthropology has explored how fishers think about the nature of property in ocean resources. Contrary to liberal economists who hold that the seas are a common resource inviting overexploitation owing to an assumed "natural" selfishness driving human action (see Hardin 1968 on the "tragedy of the commons"), maritime anthropologists have argued, using case studies, that people understand ownership in relation to ocean resources in ways more to do with local systems of cultural meaning and with such global processes as colonialism and capitalism (Befu 1980;Boxburger 1989;Durrenberger and Palsson 1987;McCay 1992;McCay and Acheson 1987;Olson 1997;Palsson 1991;Walley 1999).…”

Their Body is Different, Our Body is Different: European and Tahitian Navigators in the 18th Century

“…As Charles Frake (1985) and Edwin Hutchins (1996) have argued, navigational instruments were computational devices in which generations of voyaging experience were embedded, and which required delicate calibration to local conditions. It took long practice and precise co-ordination to use them effectively.…”