LEADER 04438nam 2200673 a 450 001 9910454514603321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-231-51085-3 024 7 $a10.7312/patt13806 035 $a(CKB)1000000000523157 035 $a(EBL)908538 035 $a(OCoLC)831121347 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000283985 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)12051614 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000283985 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10250774 035 $a(PQKB)11434279 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC908538 035 $a(DE-B1597)459204 035 $a(OCoLC)1013953428 035 $a(OCoLC)979573533 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780231510851 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL908538 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10183544 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000523157 100 $a20060717d2007 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe sea can wash away all evils$b[electronic resource] $emodern marine pollution and the ancient Cathartic Ocean /$fKimberley C. Patton 210 $aNew York $cColumbia University Press$dc2007 215 $a1 online resource (302 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a0-231-13806-7 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [167]-176) and index. 327 $aThe Dutch bread-man : ocean as divinity and scapegoat -- The crisis of modern marine pollution -- The purifying sea in the religious imagination : supernatural aspects of natural elements -- "The sea can wash away all evils" : ancient Greece and the Cathartic Sea -- "The great woman down there" : Sedna and ritual pollution in Inuit seascapes -- "O ocean, I ask you to be merciful" : the Hindu submarine mare-fire -- "Here end the works of the sea, the works of love". 330 $aKimberley Patton examines the environmental crises facing the world's oceans from the perspective of religious history. Much as the ancient Greeks believed, and Euripides wrote, that "the sea can wash away all evils," a wide range of cultures have sacralized the sea, trusting in its power to wash away what is dangerous, dirty, and morally contaminating. The sea makes life on land possible by keeping it "pure."Patton sets out to learn whether the treatment of the world's oceans by industrialized nations arises from the same faith in their infinite and regenerative qualities. Indeed, the sea's natural characteristics, such as its vast size and depth, chronic motion and chaos, seeming biotic inexhaustibility, and unique composition of powerful purifiers-salt and water-support a view of the sea as a "no place" capable of swallowing limitless amounts of waste. And despite evidence to the contrary, the idea that the oceans could be harmed by wasteful and reckless practices has been slow to take hold. Patton believes that environmental scientists and ecological advocates ignore this relationship at great cost. She bases her argument on three influential stories: Euripides' tragedy Iphigenia in Tauris; an Inuit myth about the wild and angry sea spirit Sedna who lives on the ocean floor with hair dirtied by human transgression; and a disturbing medieval Hindu tale of a lethal underwater mare. She also studies narratives in which the sea spits back its contents-sins, corpses, evidence of guilt long sequestered-suggesting that there are limits to the ocean's vast, salty heart. In these stories, the sea is either an agent of destruction or a giver of life, yet it is also treated as a passive receptacle. Combining a history of this ambivalence toward the world's oceans with a serious scientific analysis of modern marine pollution, Patton writes a compelling, cross-disciplinary study that couldn't be more urgent or timely. 606 $aWater$xReligious aspects 606 $aOcean$xReligious aspects 606 $aOcean 606 $aMarine pollution 606 $aPurity, Ritual 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aWater$xReligious aspects. 615 0$aOcean$xReligious aspects. 615 0$aOcean. 615 0$aMarine pollution. 615 0$aPurity, Ritual. 676 $a201/.77 700 $aPatton$b Kimberley C$g(Kimberley Christine),$f1958-$0891254 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910454514603321 996 $aThe sea can wash away all evils$92472715 997 $aUNINA