"The Sound of the Sea" Presented by Cynthia Barnett via Zoom and Watch Party at the Library

Description

Live via Zoom or attend live watch party in Meeting Room A. Registration is required.

The human fascination with seashells is primal. Archeological evidence suggests that Neanderthals collected cockle shells on the coast of what is modern Spain, perhaps giving preference to those they found beautiful. Native Americans built “great cities of shell” along the coasts, later carted off for road fill. Another generation burned with “shell fever” in Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s time. In her program The Sound of the Sea, environmental author Cynthia Barnett will introduce the long, rich and surprisingly profound relationship between humans and seashells. Traveling from Florida to the Bahamas to the Maldives, West Africa, and beyond, Barnett explores the ancient history of shells as global currency, their use as religious and luxury objects, and the remarkable marine mollusks that make them. For eons, shells and their makers have reflected humanity’s shifting attitudes toward and precarious place in the natural world. While shells reveal how humans have altered the climate and the sea—down to its very chemistry—they are also sentinels of hope for alternative energy and other solutions that lie beneath the waves. With her engaging account of an aspect of nature and culture long hidden in plain sight, Barnett illuminates the beauty and wonder of seashells as well as the human ingenuity and scientific solutions they represent for our warming world.