%0 Journal Article
%T The Catalan FishermenĄ¯s Traditional Knowledge of Climate and the Weather: a Distinctive Way of Relating to Nature
%A Eliseu Carbonell
%J International Journal of Intangible Heritage
%D 2012
%I National Folk Museum of Korea
%X Research among fishermen on the coast of Catalonia, Spain, shows that, despite its importance in the past, traditional knowledge about climate, the weather and the sea is no longer being passed on to the next generation. The central argument of this paper is that this is due not only to technological developments, but also because this information is actually being lost. Constant attention to the natural world and to changing weather conditions was a characteristic of traditional fishing communities, but as traditional fishing is disappearing because of environmental damage, this aspect of our intangible heritage is disappearing too. However, ethnographic research shows that there are still groups of fishermen who are concerned with the survival of their profession and with the preservation of traditional knowledge about climate and the environment. The main part of this paper consists of a brief compilation of information about climate lore, collected from middle-aged fishermen at the port of Arenys, near Barcelona, in Spain. The preservation of this form of intangible heritage has also become a way of preserving a particular attitude towards nature that may help us to address some of the environmental challenges that mankind is now facing.
%K traditional fishing
%K Catalan
%K artisanal fishermen
%K maritime ethnology
%K climate change
%K communalism
%K weather conditions
%K climate lore
%K coastal environment
%K environmental colonialism
%K meteorology
%K ethno-climatology
%K Arenys
%K Catalonia
%U http://www.ijih.org/fileDown.down?filePath=7/dtl/95efb1f3-027b-4a3c-aa45-10367b67914a&fileName=IJIH_Vol.7-4.pdf&contentType=volumeDtl&downFileId=171