Names, knowledge, and formats: Transformations of oceanic literacy

Area of Science:

• Maritime History
• Oceanography
• Ethnoscience

Background:

• Academic literature often overlooks traditional knowledge systems.
• Acoustic sounding is typically considered the primary method for understanding underwater topography.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate that traditional fishermen possessed substantial empirical knowledge of underwater topography before acoustic sounding.
• To analyze how this knowledge was transformed when reformatting for national fisheries maps and international legal contexts.
• To explore the impact of knowledge reformatting on the human-ocean relationship and oceanography.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of a mid-twentieth-century collection of Norwegian coastal fishermen's place names and terms.
• Examination of the reformatting process of traditional knowledge into national fisheries maps.
• Investigation of the role of this knowledge in the 1951 Norwegian fisheries case at the International Court of Justice.

Main Results:

• Fishermen's vocabulary reflects advanced knowledge of underwater geography and navigation.
• Reformatting knowledge for maps and legal settings altered its original context and meaning.
• The transformation of traditional knowledge has significantly impacted maritime activities and ocean use parameters.

Conclusions:

• Traditional maritime communities held sophisticated empirical knowledge of the marine environment.
• The process of reformatting knowledge is crucial in understanding how the ocean is perceived and utilized.
• Knowledge transformation significantly influences human-ocean interactions and the scientific objectification of the ocean.