Author(s)

C. Westerdahl

Abstract

The definition of maritime culture will be discussed in this paper. The noun mare, and its adjective derivates marinus or maritimus in Latin indeed refer only to the sea. To the author, however, this is only formalist semantics. The only reasonable starting point for a humanistic approach would be the cultural contents of the definition. In this case the salient question would be whether the conditions of the Swedish lake Vanern do resemble the conditions of the salt water coasts and archipelagoes so much that they can be compared with them, or not. The scale of lakes in general would be important. A definite answer to the question is not sought, rather a discussion. The perspective is the Braudelian longue durge. The source material of the analysis will be multidisciplinary, place names, folklore, wrecks and other remnants, the social background of fishing by way of s

Keywords