Island studies : critical concepts in geography : volume I : navigating an island world to utopia : until 1516 [Introduction]

Abstract

Humankind is a versatile species, commuting (literally and figuratively) with water in multiple ways, but in the end, so far usually preferring to settle on dry land. For the moment, only fiction displays large swathes of humanity living in cities on or under water. But humanity has shown itself to be remarkably adaptive to water. The Bajau and Moken of southeast Asia live most of their lives on boats; many Bangladeshis settle in tidal and river floodplains, some now at risk from sea-level rise; Stiltsville, Florida, USA, boasts a few remaining structures rising out of Biscayne Bay mirroring the oil rigs around the world on which people live for weeks; English cities including Cambridge and London sport multiple houseboats; elsewhere in Britain, and in the Netherlands, amphibious houses are springing up, touted as a solution to perennial flooding and unaffordable urban rents; and some 4,000 Uros, who are a pre-Incan people, still live on floating islands in Lake Titicaca, Peru. From ancient indigenous to futuristic, people have long sought to move from land to water or simply to live in between. Hence, an ever-present human fascination with the awesome power of bodies of water and waterways; and with the island tracts that defy and puncture them – or are created as artificial land or as dwellings and structures bestowing a modicum of stability amongst the waves and currents.