The American Animal Welfare Movement and Pacific Whaling. : RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society 2019, no. 6: New Histories of Pacific Whaling. Revised Edition: Oil, Spermaceti, Ambergris, and Teeth: Products of the Nineteenth- Century Pacific Sperm-Whaling Industry.
Nancy Shoemaker considers the four main products harvested in the nineteenth-century Pacific sperm whale trade: oil, spermaceti, ambergris, and teeth. Arguing that the first three were considered as commodities, used mainly for lighting or perfume fabrication, Shoemaker suggests that whales’ teeth c...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich, Germany
2021
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| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.5282/rcc/9171 http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/9171/ |
| Summary: | Nancy Shoemaker considers the four main products harvested in the nineteenth-century Pacific sperm whale trade: oil, spermaceti, ambergris, and teeth. Arguing that the first three were considered as commodities, used mainly for lighting or perfume fabrication, Shoemaker suggests that whales’ teeth catered to a more niche market. Used as a form of currency with Pacific Islanders in the Oceania trade, whales’ teeth also served as a blank template for cultural inscription, often being used to create engravings and household implements, and today have become extremely valuable as meaningful relics of the trade. |
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