Culture consists of the social behaviour and norms in human societies transmitted through social learning. [1] Fish play many roles in human culture, from their economic importance in the fishing industry and fish farming, to recreational fishing, folklore, mythology, religion, art, literature, and film.
Culture consists of the social behaviour and norms found in human societies and transmitted through social learning. Cultural universals in all human societies include expressive forms like art, music, dance, ritual, religion, and technologies like tool usage, cooking, shelter, and clothing. The concept of material culture covers physical expressions such as technology, architecture and art, whereas immaterial culture includes principles of social organization, mythology, philosophy, literature, and science. [1] This article describes the roles played by fish in human culture, so defined.
Throughout history, humans have utilized fish as a food source. Historically and today, most fish protein has come by means of catching wild fish. However, fish farming, which has been practiced since about 3,500 BC in China, [2] is becoming increasingly important in many nations, and by 2016, more than 50% of the seafood brought to market was produced by aquaculture. [3] Overall, about one-sixth of the world's protein is estimated to be provided by fish. [4] Fisheries provide income for millions of people. [4] [5]
Fish have been recognized as a source of beauty for almost as long as used for food, appearing in cave art, being raised as ornamental fish in ponds, and displayed in aquariums in homes, offices, or public settings. Some smaller and more colourful species, and sometimes painted fish, serve as ornamental fish in ponds and aquariums, and as pets. [6]
Angling is fishing for pleasure or competition, with a rod, reel, line, hooks and bait. It has been practised for centuries, providing pleasure and employment. [7]
Medaka and zebrafish are used as research models for studies in genetics and developmental biology. The zebrafish is the most commonly used laboratory vertebrate, [6] offering the advantages of similar genetics to mammals, small size, simple environmental needs, transparent larvae permitting non-invasive imaging, plentiful offspring, rapid growth, and the ability to absorb mutagens added to their water. [8]
Fish feature prominently in literature and film, as in books such as The Little Mermaid , The Incredible Mr. Limpet and The Old Man and the Sea, [9] and in animated films such as Finding Nemo [10] and Shark Tale. Large fish, particularly sharks, have frequently been the subject of horror films and thrillers, most notably the novel Jaws , which spawned a series of films of the same name. [11] Piranhas are shown in a similar light to sharks in films such as Piranha . [12] In comic books, characters themed around fish are often portrayed as villains. [13]
Izaak Walton's 1653 book The Compleat Angler celebrates the practice of recreational fishing in prose and verse. [14] The folk singer-songwriter Ewan MacColl's 1960 The Fish Gutters' Song speaks of the "fisher lassies" who travel from Scotland to Yarmouth in Norfolk "tae gut the herrin'" where they can find work. [15]
Fish themes have symbolic significance in many cultures and religions. In-and-Out Fish Design is a constant theme in the prehistoric and historical art of Iran, which demonstrates two swinging fishes named Kar-Mahi. Ahura Mazda sets these fishes on guard of roots of the tree of life, named Gukaran, so they are eternal sentries of worldly life, in Persian culture. [16]
In ancient Mesopotamia, fish offerings were made to the gods from the very earliest times. [17] Fish were also a major symbol of Enki, the god of water. [17] Fish frequently appear as a filling motif on cylinder seals from the Old Babylonian (c. 1830 BC – c. 1531 BC), usually in close proximity to malevolent forces, such as demons. [17] Neo-Assyrian (911 BC – 609 BC) cylinder seals sometimes show fish resting on tables, which may be altars. [17] The Assyrian King Sennacherib is recorded as having thrown a golden fish into the sea along with another golden object to accompany an offering of a golden boat to Ea (the East Semitic equivalent of Enki). [17] Starting during the Kassite Period (c. 1600 BC – c. 1155 BC), healers and exorcists dressed in ritual garb resembling the bodies of fish. [17] This continued until the early Persian Period (550 BC – 330 BC). [17] During the Seleucid Period (312 BC – 63 BC), the legendary Babylonian culture hero Oannes, described by Berossus, was said to have dressed in the skin of a fish. [17] Fish were sacred to the Syrian goddess Atargatis [18] and, during her festivals, only her priests were permitted to eat them. [18]
In the Book of Jonah, a work of Jewish literature probably written in the fourth century BC, the central figure, a prophet named Jonah, is swallowed by a giant fish after being thrown overboard by the crew of the ship he is travelling on. [20] [21] [22] The fish later vomits Jonah out on shore after three days. [20] [21] [22] This book was later included as part of the Hebrew Bible, or Christian Old Testament, [23] [24] and a version of the story it contains is summarized in Surah 37:139-148 of the Quran. [25] Early Christians used the ichthys , a symbol of a fish, to represent Jesus, [18] [19] because the Greek word for fish, ΙΧΘΥΣ (ichthys), could be read as an acronym for "Ίησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ" (Iesous Christos, Theou Huios, Soter), meaning "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour". [18] [19]
In the dhamma of Buddhism, a pair of golden fish symbolize happiness as they have complete freedom of movement in the water. [26] Among the deities said to take the form of a fish are Ikatere of the Polynesians, [27] the shark-god Kāmohoaliʻi of Hawaiʻi, [28] and Matsya of the Hindus. [29]
The astrological symbol Pisces is based on a constellation of the same name, visible in the northern hemisphere. There is another fish constellation visible in the southern hemisphere, Piscis Austrinus. [30]
Fish with magical abilities appear in fairy and folk tale traditions all over the world. Legends of half-human, half-fish mermaids are common in European folklore, retold in the stories of Hans Christian Andersen. In British folk tales, mermaids both predict and bring ill fortune. [31] The international classification of the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index includes number 303, "The Twins or Blood Brothers", as in the Spanish fairy tale The Knights of the Fish , and the Albanian heroic tale The Twins . The story runs that a poor fisherman captures a fish three times; on the third occasion, the fish resigns to its fate and convinces the fisherman to cook and give part of its flesh to his wife, his dogs and his horses. Twin boys are born to the fisherman and his wife, two hounds to the dogs and two foals to the horses; in some versions it is triplets. [32] As another example, tale number 507, "The Monster's Bride", varies the theme of Grateful Dead , as in the Armenian fairy tale of The Golden-Headed Fish . The hero (a fisherman's son, a prince) releases a fish back into the ocean. Some time later, he meets a strange companion and together they liberate a princess from a curse. At the end of the tale, the companion reveals he was the fish. [33] Among the numerous other tales are number 554, "The Grateful Animals"; [34] number 555, "The Fisherman and his Wife"; [35] and number 675, "The Fool Whose Wishes Always Come True" or "The Lazy Boy". [36]
Fish have been frequent subjects in art, reflecting their economic importance, for at least 14,000 years. They were commonly worked into patterns in Ancient Egypt, acquiring mythological significance in Ancient Greece and Rome, and from there into Christianity as a religious symbol; artists in China and Japan similarly use fish images symbolically. Teleosts became common in Renaissance art, with still life paintings reaching a peak of popularity in the Netherlands in the 17th century. In the 20th century, different artists such as Klee, Magritte, Matisse and Picasso used representations of teleosts to express radically different themes, from attractive to violent. [37] The zoologist and artist Ernst Haeckel painted teleosts and other animals in his 1904 Kunstformen der Natur . Haeckel had become convinced by Goethe and Alexander von Humboldt that making accurate depictions of unfamiliar natural forms, such as from the deep oceans, he could not only discover "the laws of their origin and evolution but also to press into the secret parts of their beauty by sketching and painting". [38]
The serpent, or snake, is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. The word is derived from Latin serpens, a crawling animal or snake. Snakes have been associated with some of the oldest rituals known to humankind and represent dual expression of good and evil.
Frogs play a variety of roles in culture, appearing in folklore and fairy tales such as the Brothers Grimm story of The Frog Prince. In ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, frogs symbolized fertility, while in classical antiquity, the Greeks and Romans associated frogs with fertility, harmony, and licentiousness.
A fish is an aquatic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fins and a hard skull, but lacking limbs with digits. Fish can be grouped into the more basal jawless fish and the more common jawed fish, the latter including all living cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as the extinct placoderms and acanthodians. Most fish are cold-blooded, their body temperature varying with the surrounding water, though some large active swimmers like white shark and tuna can hold a higher core temperature. Many fish can communicate acoustically with each other, such as during courtship displays.
The Canary Prince is an Italian fairy tale, the 18th tale in Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino. He took the tale from Turin, making various stylistic changes; he noted it developed a medieval motif, but such tales as Marie de France's Yonec produced a rather different effect, being tales of adultery. A variant on Rapunzel, Aarne–Thompson type 310, The Maiden in the Tower, it includes many motifs that differentiate it from that tale. Other fairy tales of this type include Anthousa, Xanthousa, Chrisomalousa, Petrosinella, Prunella, and Rapunzel.
"The Three Princesses of Whiteland" is a Norwegian fairy tale, collected by Norwegian writers Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their collection of folktales and legends Norske folkeeventyr (1879). Scottish poet and novelist Andrew Lang collected it his The Red Fairy Book (1890).
"Thirteenth" is an Italian fairy tale originally collected by Sicilian folklorist Giuseppe Pitrè and published by Thomas Frederick Crane in Italian Popular Tales. It is Aarne-Thompson type 328, "The Boy Steals the Giant's Treasures".
"The Old Woman in the Wood" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 123. It is Aarne-Thompson type 442.
The Lute Player, The Tsaritsa Harpist or The Tsaritsa who Played the Gusli, is a Russian fairy tale. It was published by Alexander Afanasyev in his collection Russian Fairy Tales, as number 338. Andrew Lang included it in The Violet Fairy Book (1901).
The Mermaid and the Boy is a Sámi fairy tale first collected in the mid-19th century. It tells the story of a prince unknowingly promised to a mermaid before he was born, then obtains magical powers to transform into animals later in the story.
Go I Know Not Whither and Fetch I Know Not What is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki.
The Norka is a Russian and Ukrainian fairy tale published by Alexander Afanasyev in his collection of Russian Fairy Tales, numbered 132.
The "Tale of Two Brothers" is an ancient Egyptian story that dates from the reign of Seti II, who ruled from 1200 to 1194 BC during the 19th Dynasty of the New Kingdom. The story is preserved on the Papyrus D'Orbiney, which is currently held in the British Museum.
Biancabella and the Snake is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola.
Emelya the Simpleton or At the Pike's Behest is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki.
Little Wildrose is a Romanian fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Crimson Fairy Book.
Grateful dead is both a motif and a group of related folktales present in many cultures throughout the world.
"The Three Snake-Leaves" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 16. It is Aarne-Thompson type 612, "The Three Snake-Leaves".
The Calumniated Wife is a motif in traditional narratives, numbered K2110.1 in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. It entails a wife being falsely accused of, and often punished for, some crime or sin. This motif is at the centre of a number of traditional plots, being associated with tale-types 705–712 in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index of tale-types.
In folkloristics, "The Animal as Bridegroom" refers to a group of folk and fairy tales about a human woman marrying or being betrothed to an animal. The animal is revealed to be a human prince in disguise or under a curse. Most of these tales are grouped in the international system of Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index under type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband". Some subtypes exist in the international classification as independent stories, but they sometimes don't adhere to a fixed typing.
The Dog in the Sea, also known as The Dog and the Sailor is a northern European fairy tale classified as ATU 540, "The Dog in the Sea".
Media related to Fish in human culture at Wikimedia Commons