The land viewed from the sea

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Periodical article

Title:	The land viewed from the sea
Author:	Mack, John
Year:	2007
Periodical:	Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa (ISSN 1945-5534)
Volume:	42
Pages:	1-14
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:	Madagascar Indian Ocean islands
Subjects:	maritime history History, Archaeology Madagascar--History Islands of the Indian Ocean--History
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1080/00672700709480447
Abstract:	The author addresses the question of why Madagascar was occupied only as late as the early/mid first millennium AD. He shows that the oceanographic conditions of the western seas of the Indian Ocean provide one area of explanation. The nature of a trading system reliant on moving goods round, rather than on exploiting terrestrial resources itself, is another. Lastly, boats themselves, and the knowledge which goes with being on the seas, engenders a commonality - that sociability comes from shared bodily experience of the rhythms of the sea. This may in its turn cut across terrestrial forms of identity formation. The answers to the problems of the peopling of Madagascar have more to do with the understanding of the nature of maritime cultures than the characteristics of the island itself. Bibliogr. [ASC Leiden abstract]