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Freshwater Fish in England - A Social and Cultural History of Coarse Fish from Prehistory to the Present Day (Paperback)
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Freshwater Fish in England - A Social and Cultural History of Coarse Fish from Prehistory to the Present Day (Paperback)
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Discovery Miles: 10 560
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Much has been written on marine fishing and for the migratory eel
and salmon. Less attention has focused on the obligate freshwater
species, primarily the native pike, perch, cyprinids and introduced
species of which the most significant is carp. Their exploitation
by man has changed from food to sport more dramatically in England
and the British Isles than in Europe. They have also been used as
elite statements, symbols of lineage, in religion and art. Much of
the early evidence is confined to fish bones from archaeological
sites and indicators of diet from isotopic analyses of human bones.
From the Medieval period these data sources are increasingly
complemented and ultimately superseded by documentary sources and
material culture. The bones are relatively few from prehistoric
contexts and mostly food waste. In the Mesolithic the bones are
largely marine from middens on Scottish coasts, while early farmers
apparently ate few fish of any type. Examples from European
prehistoric sites demonstrate other cultural attitudes to fish.
Both marine and freshwater fish bones are more numerous from Roman
sites. There are regional and site type differences, but Roman
influence appears to have increased fish consumption, though
obligate freshwater species remain relatively few. The first
evidence is seen for fishponds, probably ornamental. Angling was a
noted sport elsewhere in the Empire, but there is no evidence in
Britain. In Saxon England the exploitation and management of
waterways and the beginnings of the privatization of the landscape,
included enclosure of waters as fish stores. This previewed an
elite practice of the Medieval period in which landscape features
and documentary evidence demonstrate the importance of pond systems
among a small section of elite medieval society and for whom these
fish were an important part of feast and fast food and gift
exchange. However quantitatively marine fish had dominated the fish
supply from the late 10th century. The first documentary evidence
for freshwater angling in England appears in the Medieval period,
revealing an established sport through an oral tradition. The
arrival of the common carp, in the 14th century, marks a change in
pond culture, it soon became the favourite fish. By the early
modern period freshwater fish are in slow decline on the table,
though landscape water features evolve in style. The popularity of
angling is reflected in the growing commercialisation of tackle and
angling books initially marketed at gentlemen of means. The
industrialisation and urbanisation of the 18th and 19th centuries
created a new landless, 'working class' with whom coarse fishing
became synonymous and came to represent a social divide with fly
fishing viewed as more elite. Freshwater fish were never to revive
as a table fish, but were ever popular as sport. Record carp have
become the quest for many specimen anglers practicing
catch-and-release, more prevalent in Britain than Europe. The
development of coarse angling reflects social and cultural changes
in society in England at many levels.
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