Water Beings: From Nature Worship to the Environmental Crisis

26.05.2023 11:00 - 12:00English

Welcome to book launch with Veronica Strang.

Author Veronica Strang and the cover of her book

Early human relationship with water were expressed through beliefs in serpentine aquatic deities: rainbow-coloured, feathered or horned serpents, giant anacondas and dragons. Representing the powers of water, these beings were bringers of life and sustenance, world creators, ancestors, guardian spirits and law makers. Worshipped and appeased, they embodied people’s respect for water and its vital role in sustaining all living things.

Yet today, though we still recognise that “water is life”, fresh- and saltwater ecosystems have been critically compromised by human activities. In her book, Veronica Strang explores water beings, and what has happened to them in different cultural and historical contexts.

She demonstrates how and why some – but not all – societies have moved from worshipping water to wreaking havoc upon it, and asks what we can do to turn the tide.

In this book launch, Strang will meet doctoral researcher Saumya Pandey for a conversation on her new book Water Beings: From Nature Worship to the Environmental Crisis.

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Event info.

Bergen Global
Jekteviksbakken 31, Bergen

26.05.2023
11:00 - 12:00
English
‘TransOcean’ funded by ERC (No. 802223) and led by Edyta Roszko Add to calendar 26.05.2023, 26.05.2023
Veronica Strang
Fellow, Academy of Social Sciences

Veronica Strang is a cultural anthropologist who has conducted ethnographic research in Australia, the UK and New Zealand. Her work is concerned with human-environmental relations, materiality, cultural landscapes, and societies’ engagements with water.

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Saumya Pandey
Doctoral researcher, CMI

Saumya Pandey is a doctoral researcher working on sediments of the Himalayan river systems. Her research project follows world’s second most sought-after resource, sand, which is central to future-oriented economic structuring.

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Bergen Global is a joint initiative between the University of Bergen and Chr. Michelsen Institute that addresses global challenges.