Inishmore

FIG. I-The Aran Islands, mere bare ribs exchange. Our production is largeof rock, lying off the west coast of Ireland. ly production for sale. This all ly production for sale. This all seems so much a part of our surroundings that we seldom stop to consider that such has not always been the case and that it is by no means universally true now. Many regions enter little into trade because they have little or nothing to offer to the outside world: they make up a surprisingly large, percentage of the earth's surface. The dry deserts, the cold deserts, the rocky wastes, and areas shut off by mountains or other barriers from communication with the outside, support small, self-sufficient populations in which the rest of the world is not economically interested. An example of such an area on a small scale is Inishmore, or Aranmore, the largest of the Arans, a small group of islands lying off the mouth of Galway Bay on the west coast of Ireland. Before entering into a description of the island and its people, it would be well to note that the Aran islands are not in an out-of-the-way corner of the earth but within a day's journey of modern Dublin and but eleven hours farther from London. Lack of resources alone keeps Inishmore from progress. The photograph, Figure 2, shows an islander, a little less than the average in height but otherwise typical. He is clothed from the neck down entirely in products of island manufacture. The nautical cap on his head is a relic of a trip in a Norwegian herring schooner, but every other article of clothing is native. His woolen sweater, trousers, and socks are made from the fleece of island sheep. The moccasins, or pampooties, are made from the hide of a cow raised on the island and bound together with strips cut from the same hide. He paused in his fishing to pose rather self-consciously for this picture

Geography · Archaeological Research and Protection · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Irish and British Studies

• Lester Earl Klimm, 1902–1960

  Otis P Starkey•Annals of the Association of…•1962

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