Fishing : how the sea fed civilization

Fagan, Brian M.2017

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Summary

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. Its 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, travellers, and conquering armies.