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Uses Of The Albatross: Threatened Species And Sustainability, Graham Barwell

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

Since first encounters with albatrosses in the early modern period, western cultures have reacted with amazement and wonder at the birds’ flight, while taking a more pragmatic attitude towards them as creatures whose worth can be measured in their use value. In 19th and early 20th century western discourse the birds featured as objects of sport, as saviours of various kinds – whether as food for hungry sailors or victims of shipwreck in the southern oceans, as messengers, or as lifebuoys – as well as predators, and as objects to be collected for scientific inquiry. In non-western traditions, such as …