Undercurrents of Power

Do not overlook the term aquatic culture in the title of this wonderful book from Kevin Dawson. It describes many cultural activities of interest to a range of historians, including recreational swimming and surfing; bathing and water-based rituals; underwater diving for shellfish, sea turtles, and pearls; fishing; harpooning; canoeing and canoe building; shipwreck salvaging; and lifeguarding. Dawson deftly explores all of these topics in a series of swift, thematic chapters that move throughout the entire early modern Atlantic world (1444–1888). “Situating canoeing and swimming beneath a broad arc of time and space while examining them through an Atlantic lens,” he writes, “we can logically conclude that slaves recreated and reimagined African traditions in New World waterscapes” (p. 251). Dawson draws from leading Atlantic world scholarship, such as the work of W. Jeffrey Bolster, as well as scholars of Oceania—who use water to link, not divide, peoples and cultures. Undercurrents of Power explores an impressive range of archival material (and includes dozens of spectacular, pertinent images) to make a convincing case about the importance of waterscapes in the African diaspora. “Many Africans were fishing-farmers and farming-fishermen who wove terrestrial and aquatic experiences into amphibious lives,” Dawson argues, “interlacing spiritual and secular beliefs, economies, social structures, and political institutions—their very way of life—around relationships with water” (p. 2

Diaspora · Fishing · Geography · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Recreation · Scholarship · Sociology · Swift · Fish Biology and Ecology Studies · Fish Ecology and Management Studies · Gender Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law