Welcome to the website for the first
SOAS SPONGES CONFERENCE
Island of Hydra, Greece
Friday 18 – Sunday 20 May 2018
Join our Facebook page :: www.facebook.com/SOASSponges
Access the PDF – Book of Conference
Proceedings :: Book
Contents
Shadow theatre play :: "Karaghiozis the Sponge Fisher"
Excerpt from Yánnis Yérakis :: “The
Sponge Fishers – Kalymnos 1903”
[Please note :: Our next SOAS Sponges
Conference will be held in Tunisia in Spring 2020]
PROGRAMME OF EVENTS
FRIDAY
EVENING 18 MAY
THE
FIRST FILM SHOWING
Film show – THE SPONGE FISHERS - by Manos Zacharias [in Greek]
The film’s director, Manos Zacharias, a most eminent figure
in Greek cinematography, will be present at the showing.
[www.humanite.fr/grece-les-multiples-vies-gauche-de-manos-zacharias-566615]
VENUE:
The
Sea Captains' School, Harbourside, Hydra
TIME:
20.00
:: ADMISSION IS
FREE AND OPEN TO ALL.
THE
CONFERENCE – FIRST DAY
SATURDAY
MORNING 19 MAY – 10.00am
VENUE: The Municipal Council Chamber [behind
the Clock Tower]
Titles of
papers [in order of presentation]. Abstracts are appended at the end of this
document.
1.
On the status of Spongia
officinalis (the sponge by definition), and implications for conservation.
A review of the current position
Roberto Pronzato and Renata Manconi
[University of Genova / University of Sassari]
[Abstract]
[PDF
of full paper] [Sound recording of paper – pending]
2. The hidden
divers: sponge harvesting in the archaeological record of the Mediterranean
basin
Emilio Rodríguez-Álvarez [School of
Anthropology, University of Arizona]
[Abstract]
[PDF
of full paper] [Sound recording of
paper – pending]
3. Sponges of economic
value from Singapore
Lim Swee Cheng [National University of Singapore]
[Abstract]
[PDF of full
paper] [Sound
recording of paper]
4. The global commerce in sponges, 1815-1945
William G. Clarence-Smith [SOAS, University
of London]
[Abstract]
[PDF
of full paper] [Video recording of paper]
4a.
Supplementary paper: The
Cuban sponge economy, 1850s-1980s
William
G. Clarence-Smith [SOAS, University of London]
[Abstract]
[PDF
of full paper]
5.
Prospecting for sponges: Philippine waters and the rise of economic zoology,
1881-1916
Anthony Medrano [History and South Asian
Studies, Harvard University] [Video presentation]
[Abstract]
[PDF of
full paper] [Video recording of paper]
SATURDAY AFTERNOON 19 MAY – 2.00pm
6. On The sponge fishing activity and community of
the island of Kalymnos by Evdokia Olympitou
Gelina Harlaftis
[Institute for
Mediterranean Studies / FORTH & Ionian University]
[Abstract]
[PDF
of full paper] [Video recording of paper]
7.
Sexing the sponge: Luxury, trade and the female body
Joyce Goggin [Universiteit van Amsterdam]
[Abstract]
[PDF of
full paper] [Sound recording of
paper – pending]
8.
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef: Archival curio of 20th century sponger culture
Hannah Hjerpe-Schroeder [Emory University,
Atlanta, Georgia]
[Abstract]
[PDF
of full paper] [Sound recording of paper]
9.
Stories of sponges: survival and prosperity in the island society of Symi in the
South-Eastern Aegean, 1850-1950.
Theofania Angelopoulou [University of Crete]
[Abstract]
[PDF of full paper – pending]
10.
Shallow-water sponge community restoration in the Florida Keys. A successful
research-outreach partnership
Shelly L. Krueger, Florida Sea Grant, University of Florida IFAS Extension,
Monroe County [Video presentation]
[Abstract]
[Full paper not submitted]
SATURDAY EVENING 19 MAY – 7.30pm
A SHADOW
THEATRE SHOW: A public performance of “Karaghiozis sfoungaras” [Karaghiozis
the Sponge Diver], by eminent shadow theatre practitioner Jason Melissinos of
Athens.
[Video
recording of paper :: "Karaghiozis
the Sponge Fisher"]
VENUE: The Harbourside, next to the
Museum.
TIME: 7.30pm :: ADMISSION IS FREE AND OPEN TO
ALL.
SATURDAY EVENING 19 MAY – 9.30pm
THE CONFERENCE DINNER: A small gathering at a
local restaurant. Venue: Anita’s Taverna [Hydroussa]
TIME: 9.30pm
AN EVENING
CONCERT:
The meal will be accompanied by a musical performance by the wonderful SOAS
REBETIKO BAND from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.
[Niko Cotsoglou – bouzouki; Utkan Kocak – bouzouki; George Stamatis – guitar
and vocals; Ed Emery – tzoura and vocals]
The programme
will include items related to fishing, sponges, and maritime matters.
THE CONFERENCE – SECOND DAY
SUNDAY MORNING 20 MAY – 10.30am
11. Brief
contribution from Mr Manolis Tsakiris, of the Hydra Ecolological Society.
12. An oral
history of the sponge-fishing industry of the Island of Hydra, Greece
Ed Emery [SOAS, University of London]
[Abstract]
[PDF of
full paper] [Video recording of paper]
12a.
Supplementary paper: Restoration of sponge beds in the Florida
Keys
13. Towards
a history of sponge harvesting in the Mediterranean: a focus on the Kalymnos
fishery between the two wars
Maďa Fourt [1], Daniel Faget [2], Thierry Pérez [1]
[Abstract]
[PDF of full
paper] [Video recording of paper]
1. Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie marine et
continentale, UMR CNRS 7263 / IRD 237 / Aix Marseille Université /
Université d’Avignon. Station Marine d’Endoume
2. Temps, Espaces, Langage, Europe Méridionale et Méditerranée, UMR CNRS
7303 / Aix Marseille Université.
14. Sponges versus foams: Nature and
human artefact
Axel Thallemer [National University of
Singapore]
[Abstract]
[PDF of
full paper] [Sound recording of
paper – pending]
______________________________________________
SUNDAY EVENING 20 MAY
THE
SECOND FILM SHOWING
FILM SHOW: A film
showing of sponge-related films. Kindly hosted by the Hydra Cinema Club.
Including:
*** KALYMNOS, dir. Nikos Maro,
a Greek-language film about sponge-fishing in Kalymnos [20 mins]
*** IRME, dir. Mert
Gokalp, Univ. of Wageningen. Turkish-language film about sponge-fishing in
Turkey [17 mins].
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mkROP5wWjM&t=562s
**** SHORT : The pumping / filtering
action of seabed sponges
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTZ211cIjX8
*** SHORT : Jim Cantonis – Florida Sea
Grant
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtB-qTXnjZI
*** “Greek Sponge Divers of Tarpon
Springs Florida” [1932]
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR68ZqgLKzc
*** "Mechanikos" :: The sponge
diver’s dance from Kalymnos [4’18”]
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFYKjCMLT4Y
*** “I sfoungaradhes” [Οι
σφουγγαράδες] [3’08”]
Song by Stratos Payioumtzis (1930s) about Greek sponge
divers. With historical photos.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWRidwFo_i8
*** Pecheurs d'éponges -
Σφουγγαράδες [1962] [10’24”]
hwww.youtube.com/watch?v=CUY2ufuLozU
__________________________________________
VENUE: The
Municipal Council Chamber [behind the Clock Tower]
TIME: 20.00 :: ADMISSION
IS FREE AND OPEN TO ALL.
LIST OF
PAPERS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER OF PRESENTERS
1.
Stories of sponges: survival and prosperity in the island society of Symi in
the South-Eastern Aegean, 1850-1950.
Theofania Angelopoulou [University of Crete] [Abstract]
[PDF of full paper – pending]
2. The global commerce in sponges, 1815-1945
William G. Clarence-Smith [SOAS,
University of London] [Abstract]
[PDF
of full paper] [Video recording of
paper]
2a.
Supplementary paper: The
Cuban sponge economy, 1850s-1980s
William
G. Clarence-Smith [SOAS, University of London] [Abstract]
[PDF
of full paper]
3. An oral
history of the sponge-fishing industry of the Island of Hydra, Greece
Ed Emery [SOAS, University of London] [Abstract] [PDF of full
paper] [Video recording of paper]
3a.
Supplementary paper: Restoration of sponge beds in the Florida
Keys
Ed Emery [SOAS, University of London] [PDF
of full paper]
4.
Towards a history
of sponge harvesting in the Mediterranean: a focus on the Kalymnos fishery
between the two wars
Maďa Fourt [1], Daniel Faget [2], Thierry Pérez [1] [Abstract]
[PDF of full
paper] [Video recording of paper]
1. Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie marine et
continentale, UMR CNRS 7263 / IRD 237 / Aix Marseille Université /
Université d’Avignon. Station Marine d’Endoume
2. Temps, Espaces, Langage, Europe Méridionale et Méditerranée, UMR CNRS
7303 / Aix Marseille Université.
5.
Sexing the sponge: Luxury, trade and the female body
Joyce Goggin [Universiteit van Amsterdam]
[Abstract]
[PDF of
full paper] [Video recording of paper – pending]
6. On The sponge fishing activity and community of
the island of Kalymnos by Evdokia Olympitou
Gelina
Harlaftis [Ionian University] [Abstract]
[PDF
of full paper] [Video recording of
paper]
7.
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef: Archival curio of 20th century sponger culture
Hannah Hjerpe-Schroeder [Emory University,
Atlanta, Georgia] [Abstract]
[PDF
of full paper] [Sound recording of
paper]
8.
Shallow-water sponge community restoration in the Florida Keys. A successful
research-outreach partnership
Shelly L. Krueger [Florida
Sea Grant, University of Florida] [Abstract]
[PDF of full paper – pending]
9. Sponges of economic value
from Singapore
Lim Swee Cheng [National University of Singapore] [Abstract]
[PDF of full
paper] [Sound
recording of paper]
10.
Prospecting for sponges: Philippine waters and the rise of economic zoology,
1881-1916
Anthony Medrano [History and South Asian
Studies, Harvard University] [Abstract]
[PDF of
full paper] [Video recording of
paper]
11.
On the status of Spongia officinalis (the sponge by definition), and
implications for conservation. A review
Roberto Pronzato and Renata Manconi
[Universitŕ di Genova] [Abstract]
[PDF
of full paper] [Video recording of paper – pending]
12. The
hidden divers: sponge harvesting in the archaeological record of the
Mediterranean basin
Emilio Rodríguez-Álvarez [School of
Anthropology, University of Arizona] [Abstract]
[PDF
of full paper] [Video recording of paper – pending]
13. Sponges
versus foams: Nature and human artefact
Axel Thallemer [National University of
Singapore] [Abstract]
[PDF of
full paper] [Video recording of paper – pending]
______________________________________________
LIST OF ABSTRACTS
______________________________________________
[Return
to top]
Stories
of sponges: survival and prosperity in the island society of Symi in the
South-Eastern Aegean, 1850-1950.
Theofania Angelopoulou [University of
Crete]
[PDF of full paper – pending]
ABSTRACT: Reflecting
specific cultural contexts that emerged in
the topography of the Aegean archipelagos, this paper examines
the activity of Fotis and Jacobs Mastorides as an illustration of the
historical progress of the society
of the Island of Symi actively participating in the
development of the sponge industry. In a landscape blighted by poverty and
migration, the islanders are forced to react to the market. They import
technologies (scaphandro), take social action, change working practices and
establish laws in order to keep the natural sponge economy sustainable even for
their remote society.
CV: PhD in
progress: Material Culture in the Aegean insular societies of the 17th and 18th
cent.: University of Crete. MSc Cultural Informatics, Cultural Heritage
Management, Prehistoric Archaeology in Aegean. University of Crete, 2001.
My research so far focuses on Cultural
Informatics/ Digital Humanities which is about the organization and management
of cultural information. I am equally interested in material culture, networks
and global history, geography, information theory and philosophy.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________________________________________
[Return
to top]
The global trading, industrialisation, and
consumption of sponges, 1840s-1930s
William
G. Clarence-Smith [SOAS, University of London]
ABSTRACT: Commercialisation, industrial processing, and consumption have
attracted less attention than extraction, artisanal processing, and
conservation of sponges. And yet, the upper levels of the commodity chain
altered greatly from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. New production zones
arose, making the trade in sponges truly global. Commercial systems were
transformed by the advent of the telegraph and steamer, and by the provision of
cheap credit. Novel industrial methods were applied to preparing sponges for
the market, while potential substitutes were explored. And new or greatly
expanded uses drove the boom in the consumption of sponges from the 1840s to the
outbreak of World War II, which ended with the triumph of plastic.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________________________________________
The
Cuban sponge economy, 1850s-1980s
William G. Clarence-Smith [SOAS, University of London]
ABSTRACT: Cuba became a major producer
of sponges in modern times, and yet there exists no general history of the
commodity’s role in the country’s history. Information is scattered here and
there in published texts, while original documents gather dust in the archives.
A boom period stretched, with ups and downs, from the 1850s to the late 1930s.
Sponges of medium quality, often more suited to industrial than personal uses,
formed the mainstay of Cuban output. Prices were thus generally lower than for
Mediterranean sponges, and tariff protection on the American market became a
mainstay for Cuban producers, from the end of Spanish rule in 1898 to the
revolution of 1959. From 1938, however, disease nearly destroyed the industry.
Recovery was slow and partial, albeit stimulated by a brief period of very high
prices during the Second World War. Moreover, the emergence of effective
synthetic sponges after the Second World War, mainly substituting for natural sponges
of lower quality, hit Cuba harder than its Mediterranean rivals. A second
opportunity resulted from a blight in Mediterranean waters, in the late 1980s.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________________________________________
[Return
to top]
An oral history of the sponge-fishing
industry of the Island of Hydra, Greece
Ed
Emery [SOAS, University of London]
ABSTRACT: The Island of Hydra had an important role as a base for sponge-fishing,
correlated with its history as a provider of merchant ships and ships of war.
The trade extended across the Mediterranean to North Africa. Sponges were
treated locally and traded internationally. The trade came to an end in the
1960s. This paper is based on interviews with islanders whose families were
active in various aspects of the sponge-fishing industry.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________________________________________
[Return
to top]
SACOLEVE
: Spatial and temporal adaptation of a traditional Mediterranean fishery facing
regional change: combining history and ecology to study past, present and
future of sponge harvesting
Maďa Fourt [1], Daniel Faget [2], Thierry
Pérez [1]
ABSTRACT: The
production of Mediterranean bath sponges collapsed during the past century as
it is shown by Tunisian catches which fell from 108 tons in 1920 to 9 tons in
1988. Another illustration is given by the well-known sponge fishing island of
Kalymnos which lost about 90% of its active fishermen population in a century
between 1858 and 1967. For what reasons a Mediterranean traditional fishery
once prosperous has dramatically declined? What part of the decline can be attributed
to the lessening of the bath sponge stock and what to a decreasing number of
fishermen? How can this sponge fishery collapse be related to changes in uses,
overfishing, disease outbreaks triggered by climate events? How did sponge
fishermen adapt to Regional Changes in the past? What is the future of such a
fishery? What kind of guidelines can we provide for this fishery facing the
on-going Regional Change? To answer these questions, SACOLEVE looks through
ecological and historical windows into past evolution of the sponge fishery,
chosen here as a model of traditional fishery which suffered good number of
upheavals over the last three centuries. The overreaching aim of this program
is to propose a management strategy for traditional fisheries that will allow
attaining eco-durable practices in the current environmental, socio-economic
and geopolitical contexts.
________________
Financial support by the Labex “Objectif
Terre – Bassin Méditerranéen (OT-Med)”, the National Center for Scientific
Research through the “Mistral/Biodivmex program”, and the “Projet Exploratoire
Premier Soutien (PEPS) blanc 2016”.
1. Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité
et d’Ecologie marine et continentale, UMR CNRS 7263 / IRD 237 / Aix Marseille Université
/ Université d’Avignon. Station Marine d’Endoume
2. Temps, Espaces, Langage, Europe
Méridionale et Méditerranée, UMR CNRS 7303 / Aix Marseille Université.
E-mails:
______________________________________________
[Return
to top]
Sexing the
sponge: Luxury, trade and the female body
Joyce
Goggin [Universiteit van Amsterdam]
[Sound
recording of paper – pending]
ABSTRACT:
This paper will address the economics and potentials of
the sponge market in the past, while looking forward to the present, in order
to explore the cultural history of the sponge with reference to scholarship
that focuses on how women have been construed as prime consumers of luxury
goods since the (early) modern period. I will, therefore, open my discussion
with the demand for sponges in northern Europe for cosmetic purposes beginning
in the 18th century, in relation to discourses on women, vanity and
rapaciousness. Moving forward, I will discuss how, in the 19th century, Richard
Carlile attempted to persuade women of the convenience of the sponge – his
favoured method of contraception – in Every Woman’s Book: Or, What is Love
(1828), based on the analogy commonly drawn between the vagina and the sponge.
In so doing, I will have occasion to discuss the history of the equation of
female genitalia with the sponge, evident in such anatomical terms as “urethral
sponge,” which describes the cushion of tissue surrounding the urethra,
situated against the pubic bone and vaginal wall. And finally, I will explore
how such perceptions have played out in contemporary markets and cultural
contexts, drawing on examples such as the menstrual sponge, the “Today”
contraceptive sponge, and the “Sponge-worthy” episode of Seinfeld, the
popular 1990s television series.
CV: Joyce Goggin is a senior lecturer in literature at the University of
Amsterdam, where she also conducts research on film and (new) media. She has
published widely on gambling and finance in literature, painting, film, TV, and
computer games. She is currently researching and writing on finance and
securitisation, 17th-century Dutch theatre, LEGO and fan labour. Her recent
publications include “Crise et comédie: Le systčme de John Law au théâtre
néerlandais”, (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2017), “Trading and Trick
Taking in the Dutch Republic: Pasquin’s Wind Cards and the South Sea Bubble”,
(Western Michigan University, 2017), and a co-edited volume entitled The
Aesthetics and Affects of Cuteness (Routledge 2016).
E-mail:
[email protected]
______________________________________________
[Return
to top]
On the sponge fishing activity and
community of the island of Kalymnos by Evdokia Olympitou
Gelina Harlaftis [Ionian
University]
ABSTRACT:
Evdokia Olympitou (1962-2011),
an ethnographer, was an Assistant Professor in the Department of History of
Ionian University. Her book, published in 2014 by the National Hellenic
Research Foundation (in Greek) on the sponge fishing activity and maritime
community of the island of Kalymnos is by far the best study written on the
subject combining ethnography and history. The aim of this paper is to present
and discuss her methodology and analysis which I consider important not only
for sponge fishing but also for the examination of a Greek island maritime
community. The study evolves around seven axes. Olympitou sets the framework of
the administrative environment of Kalymnos during the 19th and 20th centuries
within the Ottoman, Italian and Greek dominion providing social analysis of the
new town of Pothia in a comparative perspective. She analyses sponge fishing as
a main industrial activity of the island; the ways of fishing, the ships, the
shipowners, traders, sponge divers and seamen, fishing fields and sea routes in
a quantative and qualitative way. She provides the history of sponge fishing
technology and the effects modernization had in the prosperity of the island.
She analyses how the maritime community dealt with risk at sea, putting the
exaggerated divers’ problems in a wider perspective. She makes an inspired
analysis of the women of Kalymnos, “women hard like men”. And she explores the
perception of sponge fishing in art, literature and movies.
CV: Gelina Harlaftis, Director of the Institute of Mediterranean Studies of
the Foundation of Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) since 2017, is
Professor of Maritime History in the Department of History of the Ionian
University. She graduated from the University of Athens and completed her
graduate studies in the Universities of Cambridge (M.Phil.) and Oxford
(D.Phil.). She was President of the International Maritime Economic History Αssociation (2004-8). In 2009 she was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls
College, Oxford University, and in 2008 an Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., International
Visiting Scholar in the Business History Program, Harvard Business School. She
has published 25 books with English, Canadian and Greek publishing houses and
more than 50 articles in edited volumes and international peer-reviewed
journals.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________________________________________
[Return
to top]
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef: Archival curio of 20th
century sponger culture
Hannah
Hjerpe-Schroeder [Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia]
ABSTRACT: Despite its relatively mediocre box office pull and similarly average
reviews, the 1953 feature film Beneath the 12-Mile Reef captures and
preserves the unique social economy of Greek spongers in Tarpon Springs,
Florida in a way that popular culture has long since forgotten. Embedded in
this somewhat sensationalised Romeo and Juliet story, between a Greek
sponger from Tarpon Springs and a white “Conch” girl from Key West, lies
valuable cultural archival material including accurate depictions of
contemporary sponging techniques and equipment, the inherent dangers of
sponging aquaculture and employment, consequences of over-sponging, and the
reality of anti-Greek sentiment in South Florida at the time. The third film to
be shot in cutting edge CinemaScope format, Beneath the 12-Mile Reef was
produced during the tenure of 20th Century Fox’s president, Spyros Skouras, a
Greek immigrant. While critically overlooked for its “hackneyed and banal”[1]
narrative progression, this film requires a closer analysis of its
documentation of aquatic economy and Greek cultural community that, aside from
two somewhat anachronistic sponge-markets in Key West and Tarpon Springs, have
been lost in the production of artificial sponges.
CV: Hannah Hjerpe-Schroeder is a doctoral student at Emory University in
Atlanta, Georgia. Her research focuses on the literature and culture of Caribbean
island nations, and of the Caribbean diaspora. Having grown up in Key West,
Florida and having received a master’s degree from Trinity College Dublin in
Irish Literature, she has always had a keen fascination with the unique
cultural productions of, and connections between, island nations.
[1]
NY Times Review, 1953
E-mail:
[email protected]
______________________________________________
[Return
to top]
Shallow-water sponge community restoration in the
Florida Keys. A successful research-outreach partnership
Shelly L. Krueger, Florida Sea Grant, University
of Florida IFAS Extension, Monroe County [VIA VIDEO]
[PDF of full paper – pending]
Abstract: Sponges are the dominant features of the nearshore
hard-bottom habitats of the Florida Keys, where >60 sponge species provide
ecosystem services and essential fish habitat. Unfortunately, a series of
harmful cyanobacteria blooms in the
early 1990s, 2007 and 2013 caused massive sponge die-offs, resulting in
decimation of the sponge communities in Florida Bay. 22 of the 24 most common shallow-water
sponge species experienced >90% mortality rate. Recovery is protracted because sponge
larval duration is short (6-8 hours) and currents within Florida Bay do not
transport larvae far from the parent sponges. To accelerate sponge
recolonization in Florida Bay, a research-outreach partnership was created
between the University of Florida, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission and several non-profit organizations to scale-up community sponge
restoration using local volunteers. Eight transplant species were propagated at
four nurseries and nine research sites with the goal to restore >15,000
sponges in Florida Bay. Community
involvement is an important component to engender stakeholder support, and
increasingly, research grants are requiring an outreach component. Florida Sea
Grant assists scientists to share their research with non-scientists and
facilitate volunteer events to propagate and transplant >15,000 sponges for
ecosystem restoration in Florida Bay.
CV: Shelly
Krueger is the Florida Sea Grant agent for the University of Florida Institute
of Food and Agricultural Sciences in Monroe County, Florida and a PhD student
at the University of Florida in the Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences to research
sponge aquaculture. Shelly Krueger has a BS from the Georgia Institute of
Technology and a MS from Savannah State University in Marine Sciences. Shelly
was a 2009 Knauss Fellow and spent one year in Washington DC at the NOAA
National Marine Fisheries Service and was a research technician III at the
University of Georgia Marine Extension Shellfish Research Lab.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________________________________________
[Return
to top]
Sponges of economic value from Singapore
Lim Swee Cheng [National University of
Singapore]
ABSTRACT: The remarkable Neptune's Cup sponge that was discovered from
Singapore in 1820 captured the world's imagination with its large and peculiar
cup/wine glass form. It was highly sought after by private collectors and the
museums in Europe, and was probably the most famous export from Singapore two
centuries ago. However this sponge disappeared for over a century, probably due
to over-harvesting. The other sponge species with economical value were the
bath sponges. According to Willimott in 1939, there was an undeveloped
sponge-fishing industry providing sponges for cleaning of paint work on cars
and train carriages, and even as toilet (bath) sponges. However, the Fisheries
Department of Singapore determined that the local bath sponges were only as
good as the lowest quality of Bahamas and Cuban sponges with the help of
experts in London. The last known report of the sponge industry was in 1948 in
a newspaper article on the only person exporting bath sponges collected by
local fishermen that were not very abundant. This was the last account of bath
sponge industry that did not take off. This study aims to provide a concise
social, cultural and historical records of these two sponges from Singapore.
CV: Lim Swee
Cheng has studied the sponge fauna in Singapore and Southeast Asia for over 10
years. He recently updated the South China Sea sponge inventory. He has
embarked on a part-time Ph.D program this year at the National University of
Singapore working on the taxonomy and systematics of the demosponges living at
the abyssal depth of Clarion Clipperton Zone (Pacific Ocean) and resolving
their phylogenies with morphological and molecular data.
E-mail:
[email protected]
______________________________________________
[Return
to top]
Prospecting for sponges: Philippine
waters and the rise of economic zoology, 1881-1916
Anthony
Medrano [History and South Asian Studies, Harvard University]
ABSTRACT:
In 1841, Richard Owen’s scientific naming
of the Venus' flower basket (Euplectella aspergillum) made a
place for the Philippines in the world of sponges, with Victorian collectors
paying sizeable sums for prized specimens. But it was not until the end of the
century that the archipelago’s sponge beds were effectively opened to the
exploits of science and commerce. At the heart of this imperial opening was the
rise of economic zoology and the Philippine work of two scientists: Casto de
Elera (1852-1903) and Alvin Seale (1871-1958).
By charting the careers of de Elera and Seale between 1881 and 1916,
this paper explains why these scientists and their pioneering sponge research
were central to transforming Philippine waters in the age of economic zoology,
and it shows how this ocean history laid the foundation for today’s
pharmaceutical industry and biodiversity knowledge. Indeed, sponges (phylum
Porifera) represent one of the world’s richest frontiers for biomedical
research and development. But it is their unique ability to process organic
matter into food for coral reefs that have rendered sponges essential to the
production of the Coral Triangle, an ecological zone that includes the
Philippines and is considered to be the planet’s greatest marine biological
hotspot.
CV:
Anthony Medrano is a Ziff Environmental Fellow at
Harvard University. His research looks at the transregional movement of people,
biota, ideas, and practices in the 19th and 20th centuries. He draws on
environmental history and the history of science to recast Asia in the modern
period. His current book project examines the “ocean” in Indian Ocean history
and explains why fish and the people who studied them were central to the
emergence of modern Asia. His second and ongoing project explores how insects
shaped Indian Ocean history. He completed his PhD in History at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017.
E-mail:
[email protected]
______________________________________________
[Return
to top]
On the status of Spongia
officinalis (the sponge by definition), and implications for conservation. A review of the current
position
Roberto
Pronzato and Renata Manconi [University of Genova / University of Sassari]
[Sound
recording of paper – pending]
ABSTRACT: Spongia officinalis
is, and will remain, the oldest nominal species of the phylum Porifera being
the only still valid among those originally described by Linnaeus in 1758. As
for the biogeographic pattern of this bath sponge, records are known at the
global scale, but the real geographic range of this species is probably
restricted to the Mediterranean Sea. Over 570 taxa have been described under
the genus Spongia, but only 41 species are surely valid. An irreversible
depletion of Mediterranean bath sponge banks due to the synergy of over-fishing
and diseases has brought several populations on the brink of extinction, since
the mid-80 of the twentieth century. S. officinalis have undergone a
major population decline. Since 1999 the situation has evolved dramatically and
some of the few populations for which sure historical data are available are
definitely extinct in the Mediterranean. This could be considered the beginning
of a final catastrophe. Mariculture techniques allow at present to perform in
situ culture of sponges to face, theoretically, such population depletion. For Spongia
officinalis, only the 'domestic' variety could survive, by farming, the
wild populations.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________________________________________
[Return
to top]
The hidden divers: sponge harvesting in
the archaeological record of the Mediterranean basin
Emilio
Rodríguez-Álvarez [School of Anthropology, University of Arizona]
[Sound recording of paper – pending]
ABSTRACT: The aim of
this study is to enhance the visibility of divers in the archaeological records
of the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean. Direct evidence of diving in
antiquity is rather scarce, and this has contributed to hide their presence in
the scholarship, failing to recognise the important roles divers played in
their communities. Although references to divers and the use of sponges have
been preserved in several texts, no attempts have been made to correlate these
narratives with the archaeological record.
This research
intends to transcend these limitations by applying a new theoretical framework
derived from the principles of Middle Range Theory and Behavioural Archaeology.
Their respective emphases on the importance of the ethnographic record and
experimental archaeology have allowed to reinterpret and correlate several
artefacts to the work of divers in antiquity. The indirect evidence of their
work, for example, in the use of sponges in arts, medicine or personal hygiene,
points out at an extensive use of this commodity that had to be provided by
divers. This is the first step to a more accurate understanding of the
important role divers and sponges, as a commodity, played in the trade and
economy of the Mediterranean in antiquity.
CV: Emilio
Rodríguez-Álvarez is a PhD candidate in Mediterranean Archaeology at the
University of Arizona. He has studied in the University of Santiago de
Compostela (Spain) and University of Reading (UK) prior to his doctorate
program in the United States. After being accepted in the American School of
Classical Studies at Athens he lived two years in Greece doing research for his
dissertation on ceramics and developing a research methodology for assessing
low visibility social actors in the archaeological record. His research interests
include ceramology, social class in archaeology, archaeological theory, and
maritime landscapes.
More
information on publications in https://arizona.academia.edu/EmilioRodr%C3%Adguez%C3%81lvarez.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________________________________________
[Return
to top]
Sponges versus foams: Nature and human artefact
Axel Thallemer [National
University of Singapore]
[Sound recording of paper
– pending]
Abstract: Natural sponges have been used as tools by humans and even animals since
long times. Design has evolved as purpose-driven form giving from hand axe to
computer mouse and beyond by bettering tools for progress of mankind. Industrial
design – opposite to styling – can be based on research through natural
sciences. Looking at paragons in nature, here marine soft sponges, can lead by
heuristic in analogy to new microstructures and by the help of
additive-generative fabrication to hard or soft “metamaterials”.
Innovation today most
likely starts from specifically designing “new” [instead of existing] materials
made to fit to their prospective application while taking their respective
manufacturing technologies, ecological and economical context into account.
This can yield lightweight structures for conserving resource and energy in
aerospace and mobility applications or scaffolds for biomedical purposes.
Representational heuristics exemplify the ideation of new lattice structures from
natural sponges from the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Philippines to artificial
soft and hard foams. Semi-finished products are juxtaposed to functional
components with differentiated internal structures. The latter are showing a
microstructural architecture through interdependence of structure and
processing as well as resulting properties and performance. A visual
exploration in purposefully designed materials versus solid matter.
CV: Prof. Dipl.-Ing.(Univ.) Axel Thallemer is Full Professor with tenure
at National University of Singapore and Deputy Head of Research for Industrial
Design. In his fifteen years of employment by industry he designed at research
and development center of Porsche, followed by founding and being Head of Festo
Corporate Design, afterwards freelance consulting in industrial context.
Previous professorships were in Munich, Hamburg and Austria (Dean and Chair of
Industrial Design at Linz University, scientifically repositioning under the
brand “scionic®”), currently there are some 16 additional visiting
professorships and circa 35 patents. Life Fellow of The RSA in London, founded
1754 and i/IDSA, ICED/IEEE as well as ICoRD reviewer.
E-mail: [email protected]
______________________________________________
[Return
to top]
In addition to
the main conference programme, we also had the following associated events:
FILM SHOWS: A film
showing of various sponge-related films, shown at the Sea Captains’ School, by
kind permission of the director, Evangelos Danopoulos. And at the Municipal Council
Chamber. Organised by the Hydra Cinema Club.
SHADOW
THEATRE SHOW: A performance of “Karaghiozis sfoungaras”
[Karaghiozis the Sponge Diver], by Jason Melissinos of Athens.
[Video
recording of paper :: "Karaghiozis
the Sponge Fisher"]
AN EVENING
CONCERT:
An evening meal and a musical performance by the SOAS Rebetiko Band [School
of Oriental and African Studies, London] on Saturday 19 May. The programme
included items related to the history of the Greek sponge-fishing industry.
AN EXHIBITION of diving
artefacts and memorabilia by Hydra resident Kostas Argitis.
_________________________
Conference
chair:
William Clarence-Smith [SOAS, University of London]
Conference
organiser:
Ed Emery [SOAS, University of London]
For all
inquiries regarding the conference, please write to
E-mail: [email protected]
_________________________
CONFERENCE
PHOTOGRAPH:
_________________________
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
* Conference
organised by the Interdisciplinary Animal Studies Initiative [IASI], School of
Oriental and African Studies [SOAS], University of London.
* We are
grateful to the Mayor and Municipality of Hydra for their support in the
organisation of this conference. And also to Evangelos Danopoulos at the
Captains’ School, and to Lakis Christidis and
the Hydra Cinema Club. Special thanks to Panagiotis Rappas, to Katerina
Maragou, to Kostas Argitis, to Panagiotis Gavalias, and to Dimitris Voulgaris
at the Dimos.
_____________________________________________________________
Last updated:
2 June 2019