Traditional cultures editorial: Mobility and innovation in traditional coastal cultures

Abstract

It may come as a surprise to know that before the modern era, the past weighed much less heavily on the present than it does today. Traditionalism, a mindset that pays obeisance to the past, is in fact more characteristic of our own times than earlier coastal cultures. The kind of nostalgia associated with modernity prevents us from confronting coastal problems with the pragmatism characteristic of our ancestors (Gillis in Nostalgia by the sea, 26:27-31, 2010, [1]). What is striking is just how flexible and innovative they were.