Fishing

How the Sea Fed Civilization

By: Brian Fagan

Narrated by: Shaun Grindell

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 listeners how fishing fed human settlement, rising social complexity, the development of cities, and ultimately the modern world.

©2017 Brian Fagan (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"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)

Thought provoking

Awesome read giving a detailed assessment of fishing during the last millennium. Highly recommended especially the audio version.

FISH EATERS

Brian Fagan reveals where humanity came from, the ways in which humans populated the world, and more particularly how early humans relied on fishing. Fagan exposes a trail of archaeological details that show humans have been fish eaters from their evolutionary bipedal hunter/gatherer beginnings.

The survival of any species is dependent on nourishment. In civilization’s beginning, archaeologists surmise human ancestors became hunter-gatherers to survive. Humanity formed into groups from a survival instinct that led to communal association. Fagan’s archeological research revealed artifacts that show hunter-gatherers found fishing as an integral part of humanity’s drive to survive. He notes fragments of rock in pre-history African’ sites were honed with barbs to stop fish from wiggling free after being speared. Fish skeletons were found near the homed spear heads. Fagan finds barbed artifacts near Kenyan and Tanzanian lakes in Africa. Fagan notes, the earliest spear heads had barbs on one side while later spear heads had barbs on both sides.

Several chapters at the end of Fagan’s book recount the consequences of global warming and the insatiable demand of fish eaters that are depleting the world’s fish habitats and populations. Fagan offers interesting insights to listener/readers on the origin of fishing’s ancient, present, and future importance to humanity.

If you liked his Little Ice Age, you might like this.

I didn’t like his Little Ice Age but gave him a second chance and didn’t like this either. Only ⅓ was a history of fishing. ⅔ was prehistory (based on archaeology). The author skips from place to place with little logical development. The presentation is repetitious and somehow the author always manages to present the most boring details.