Article ID: CBB001422374

Making Sea Cucumbers Out of Whales' Teeth: Nantucket Castaways and Encounters of Value in Nineteenth-Century Fiji (2015)

unapi

This article explores the social biographies of sea cucumbers and whales' teeth, challenging a prevalent tendency among scholars to endow objects with abstract essences. It focuses on encounters of value in which the meanings of material possessions fluctuated across cultural and ethnic boundaries. Such moments of contradiction and coalescence had profound environmental and social consequences and suggest new ways that environmental historians might understand the roles of cultural arbitrage and expropriation in the making of the world system. To illustrate these crucial issues, this article discusses the experiences of David Whippy and William Cary, two Nantucket castaways in nineteenth-century Fiji, and it investigates long-term connections that emerged among Nantucket, Fiji, and the broader ecosystems and cultures of the Pacific Ocean region during the 1800s. Both men were involved in the export of sea cucumbers (genus Holothuria) from Fiji to China and the importation of sperm whales' teeth to Fiji from various parts of the Pacific. The histories of these two commodities offer potent testimonials about cultural and ecological changes during the nineteenth century.

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Authors & Contributors
Robby Zidny
Petraglia, Michael
Arch, Jakobina
Miguel Suárez Bosa
Eilks, Ingo
Crassard, Rémy
Concepts
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
Trade
Environmental history
Nature and its relationship to culture; human-nature relationships
Whales
Sea travel
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century
17th century
Early modern
16th century
Places
Europe
Pacific Ocean
North America
China
Africa
Levant and Near East
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