Katie G 12/12 island of Lau

Another text I looked at and read throughout the semester was a book titled "Studies in Human Ecology" by a collaboration of authors. I read a section titled "The Relations of Men, Animals, and Plants in an island community," by Laura Thompson. While flipping through this text, the title really caught my eye and caused me to begin reading. This title expressed the existence of the relationship between the human and the non-human. This is what I really go out of our class - the sacred relationship that exists between ourselves and the land. As I began to read I noticed a section that discussed fishing and the institution of the master fisherman functioning to increase the total catch by protecting the local fishing grounds from over-fishing. (467 Thompson). The authority that has power over this particular island of Lau had a decrease of status and power. Because of this loss of power the various islands had become more disturbed causing less successful fishing expeditions (467 Thompson). I found this section interesting because the practice of power was a benefit in this sense. Throughout most of the readings we have done and other research I feel like that hand of man has only conflicted with Mother Nature and continued to disrupt her. Here, on the island of Lau, the loss of power, or the hand of man has only hurt the waters more... because the waters had been manipulated for so many years by man it is almost as if the waters cannot function on their own - without the help of man.