Scholar Voices: Spooner

Indian Ocean: Cradle of Globalization
Scholar Voices
Nancy Pinto-Orton

Nancy Pinto-Orton in "Traditional Boat Building in Gujarat: An Interactive Model of a Craft Specialization" describes the shipbuilding and ship repair communities of Gujarat.

Constructed with labor intensive hand tools from native teak, a well-constructed craft can last 50 years. Gujarat has a coast with a substantial tidal range, which facilities the construction and repair of boats on the beach.

Techniques include steaming wood to conform to hull shape as well as locally specific joinery methods.
Boats range from small flat-bottomed fishing craft to one hundred-foot cargo vessels equipped with diesel engines that traveled from India to the Persian Gulf.

The Interactive Model illustrates the relationship between the mechanical factors of construction such as hull design, and the social factors such as community and religion. Dr. Pinto-Orton found that boat building unites Hindu and Muslim in the community.

Nancy Pinto-Orton, Traditional Boat Building in Gujarat: An Interactive Model of a Craft Specialization [Adobe Acrobat pdf file, requires Acrobat 4.0 or higher]

Reading List:

Begley, Vilma and R. DePuma (eds) 1991. Rome and India: The Ancient Sea Trade. Madison: Univ. of Wis. Press.
Begley, Vimla (ed) 1996. The Ancient Port of Arikamedu. Vol.1 Pondicherry:Centre d'Histoire et d'Archeologie.
Boussac, M. F. and J. F. Salles (eds) 1995. Athens, Aden, and Arikamedu: Essays on the Interrelations between India, Arabia and the Eastern Mediterranean. New Delhi: Manohar.
Casson, L. 1989. Periplus Maris Erythraei. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.
Deloche, Jean 1994. Transport and Communication in India Prior to Steam Locomotion. Vol II: Water Transport. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
DeRomanis, F. and A. Tchernia (eds) 1997. Crossings: Early Mediterranean Contacts with India. New Delhi: Manohar.
Ghosh, Amitav, 1993. In an Antique Land. New York: Knopf. Janaki, V. A. 1980. The Commerce of Cambay. Baroda: Dept. of Geography, M. S. University of Baroda.
Ray, H. P. and J.-F. Salles (eds) 1996. Tradition and Archaeology: Early Maritime Contacts in the Indian Ocean. New Delhi: Manohar. Whitehouse, David and Andrew Williamson. 1973. "Sassanian Maritime Trade" Iran 11: 29-49.

For connections preceding the Early Historic Period, see:

Asthana, Shashi 1976. History and Archaeology of India's Contacts with Other Countries, from Earliest Times to 300 B.C. Delhi: B. R. Publishing.
Oppenheim, A.L. 1954. "The Seafaring Merchants of Ur." Journal of the American Oriental Society 74:6-17.
Possehl, G. 1996. "Meluhha," in The Indian Ocean in Antiquity. Edited by J. Reade, pp. 133-208. London: Keegan Paul International and the British Museum.

For Shipbuilding, Ethnographic Accounts of Ships/Boats, Crafts, and the Geography of Ports see:

Bealer, Alex W. 1972. Old Ways of Working Wood. Barre, Mass.: Barre Publishing Co., Inc.
Greenhill, Basil 1971. Boats and Boatmen of Pakistan. Newton Abbot, Devon: David and Charles.
Hornell, James 1942. "Hero Memorial Stones of Kathiawar." Antiquity 26 (64):289-300. Paris, Admiral 1841-43. Essai sur la Construction Navale des Peuples Extra-Europeens. Paris: Arthur Bertrand.
Shah, Haku and E. Fischer 1970. Rural Craftsmen and Their Work. Ahmedabad: National Institute of Design.
Sinclair, Robert 1967. "Port-Hinterland-Foreland-Maritime Space Relationships of the Port of Detroit." Festschrift Leopold G. Scheidl: 356-374. Vienna: F. Berger.
Steffy, J. Richard 1994. Wooden Ship Building and the Interpretation of Shipwrecks. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.
Villiers, Alan 1969. Sons of Sinbad. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Wadia, R. A. W. 1957. The Bombay Dockyard and the Wadia Masterbuilders. Bombay: R. A. Wadia, Thakar Nivas.
Wailes, Bernard (ed) 1996. Craft Specialization and Social Evolution: In Memory of V. Gordon Childe. University Museum Symposium Series, Vol. VI. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Weigend, Guido. 1958. "Some Elements in the Study of Port Geography" Geographical Review 48: 185-200.

Journals

The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater Exploration. London: Academic Press.
Wooden Boat for traditional vessel design and building.

Nancy Pinto-Orton

Widener University

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