Dates, A Global History, by Nawal Nasrallah BOOK REVIEW greenprophet.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from greenprophet.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
When hunters are wandering through the woods and the weather becomes uncooperative for birding, columnist Clellie Lynch picks up the bird-related books that have been saved for the occasion.
What Merpeople Say About Us
How changing perceptions of mermaids and mermen reveal deeper understandings of myth, religion, science, wonder and capitalism.
By Vaughn Scribner
Merpeople’s hybridity has helped them maintain a presence in both scientific and mythological camps. In many people’s minds, mermaids and mermen remain mythical creatures more suitable for bedtime stories than scientific tracts. Yet for others merpeople symbolize the outer limits of our scientific and mythological investigations.
Just as the evolution of science has not done away with lingering notions of wonder and myth, so too has our innate need to push boundaries of knowledge led humanity into strange often mind-blowing frontiers of research and self-reflection. Humanity’s interaction with merpeople demonstrates our ongoing need for discovery as much as our attempts at regulation and classification. Like the hybrid monstrosities with which humankind has always grappled, humanity maintains a tenuo