“The Fishes Life”: Social and Physical Liminality in Mather’s The Fisher-mans Calling

IF 0.2 Q2 HISTORY
Daniel K. S. Walden
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

abstract:The majority of early English settlements in America were by definition coastal, but critical attention on Puritans and the environment has largely focused on the terrestrial landscape. While recent interventions have argued for an oceanic focus, such a reorientation remains blind to the unique influences of coastal environments and the cultural conflicts that happened there. Drawing largely on Cotton Mather’s maritime sermons written between 1704 and 1726, with particular emphasis on The Fisher-mans Calling (1711), this essay argues that early New England Puritan communities had a nuanced and difficult relationship to the liminal coastal, environmental, and sociocultural worlds around them. The cultural conflict, in particular, is best represented by fishermen as a distinct subset of the local population. Unlike merchant mariners and deepwater sailors, fishermen were often local citizens who consistently bridged the gap between maritime and terrestrial worlds. They were themselves liminal figures who presented unique problems around community inclusion for civic and ecclesiastic leaders. Understanding the problems fishermen posed for Puritan community leaders offers new insights into the ways environment and culture interacted in early America.
“鱼的生活”:马瑟的《渔夫的呼唤》中的社会和身体的阈限
根据定义,早期英国人在美洲的大部分定居点都位于沿海地区,但对清教徒和环境的批判性关注主要集中在陆地景观上。虽然最近的干预措施主张以海洋为重点,但这种重新定位仍然忽视了沿海环境的独特影响和发生在那里的文化冲突。本文主要借鉴了科顿·马瑟(Cotton Mather)在1704年至1726年间撰写的海上布道,特别强调了《渔夫的呼唤》(The Fisher-mans Calling, 1711),认为早期新英格兰清教徒社区与周围的沿海、环境和社会文化世界有着微妙而艰难的关系。作为当地人口的一个独特子集,渔民最能代表这种文化冲突。与商船水手和深水水手不同,渔民往往是当地公民,他们始终如一地弥合了海洋和陆地世界之间的鸿沟。他们本身就是有限的人物,他们在社区包容方面为公民和教会领袖提出了独特的问题。了解渔民给清教徒社区领袖带来的问题,可以让我们对早期美国环境和文化的互动方式有新的认识。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.30
自引率
0.00%
发文量
18
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