Research Catalog

Title

Washed away? : the invisible peoples of Louisiana's wetlands / Donald W. Davis.

Author

Davis, Donald W. (Donald Wayne), 1943-

Publication

Lafayette, LA : University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2010.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiv, 578 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (some color); 29 cm

Summary

"For persons lacking an emotional attachment to the region, it is easy to see how South Louisiana's wetlands came to be labeled a "No Man's Land", a forgotten human landscape. However, a surprisingly large and ethnically diverse population has historically lived in this "wasteland", which boasted perhaps as many as 150,000 season inhabitants in the late 1930s. These resident trapper-hunter-fisherfolk collectively give a human face to the coastal lowlands that have traditionally been studied almost exclusively for the their distinctive flora and fauna. Indeed, books, monographs, and a sizeable body of research material have been published on the marsh and estuary's terrestrial, aquatic, and avian species, but little has been written about the trappers, commercial hunters, cattlemen, oystermen, shrimp fishermen, Chinese and Filipino seine crews, oil and gas company field crews, government service employees, rum-runners, shrimp-drying communities, and others. Yet, were it not for these marshdwellers, this topographic element would have only aesthetic, not economic value. Ultimately, each wetlands group has imprinted its respective territory with its own unique cultural values, in the process giving Louisiana's near sea-level marshes its "personality". Washed Away? is the first comprehensive look at the settlement, occupation and environmental challenges of these Louisiana coastal communities"--Page 2 of cover.

Subject

• Wetlands > Gulf Coast
• Landscapes > Gulf Coast
• Landscapes > Social aspects > Gulf Coast
• Human ecology > Gulf Coast
• Coastal settlements > Gulf Coast
• Community life > Gulf Coast
• Cultural pluralism > Gulf Coast
• Coastal settlements
• Community life
• Cultural pluralism
• Geography
• Human ecology
• Landscapes
• Landscapes > Social aspects
• Manners and customs
• Social conditions
• Wetlands
• Küste
• Geographie
• Landschaft
• Humanökologie
• Gesellschaft
• Siedlung
• Gulf Coast (La.) > Social life and customs
• Gulf Coast (La.) > Social conditions
• Gulf Coast (La.) > Geography
• Louisiana > Gulf Coast
• Louisiana
• Golf von Mexiko

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 527-564) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Louisiana's organic lowlands : a landscape in motion -- The physical and cultural landscape of the Chênière Plain -- The physical and cultural landscape of the Deltaic Plain -- The human mosaic : a kaleidoscope of cultures -- Representative examples of settlements in Louisiana's coastal lowlands -- Transient settlements -- Sulphur, oil, and natural wetland transient communities -- Settlements within the swamps -- Recreation camps : the modern form of settlements.

ISBN

• 9781887366960
• 1887366962

LCCN

2010014944

OCLC

• 608491317
• 608491317
• SCSB-11112142

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library