Wetland Cultures

Traditional cultures have a long and vital association with wetlands as sacred places imbued with spiritual and ceremonial significance that provide physical sustenance and sources of materials in paludiculture. Ancient Greek and Roman cultures denigrated wetlands as places of disease, terror, horror, the hellish and the monstrous. Judeo-Christian theology was syncretized with them into the mainstream denigration of wetlands. Wetlands are a marginalized community, an oppressed minority and non-binary, queer bodies of water.

Engages into the cultural dimensions of the human-wetlands relationship Discusses how major civilisations have seen wetlands and integrated these within their development trajectories Places an emphasis on understanding the cultural nuances of conservation and human-nature interface

Auteur

Rod Giblett is Honorary Associate Professor of Environmental Humanities in the Writing and Literature Program at Deakin University, Australia. He has a rich publication history and research focuses on wetland cultural studies, psychoanalytic ecology, conservation counter-theology and Thoreau and Benjamin studies.

Contenu

1. Introduction to Wetland Cultures, Past and Present.- 2. Wetland Aboriginals in Queensland.- 3. Marsh Arabs in Iraq.- 4. Malarial Greeks and their Dispersion.- 5. Paludal Romans and their Dispersion.- 6. Fen Britons.- 7. Bog Irish.- 8. Marais Acadians in Canada.- 9. A Marsh Writer in Canada and the Future of Wetland Cultures.