Maritime awareness or identity? An approach to the relationship of humans with the sea

Abstract

This article addresses the Peruvian society's relationship with the sea. It parts from the hypothesis that this relationship cannot be explained from the intelligible universe alone but also from the sensory world. To this end, it analyzes the correlation and influence between the concepts of maritime awareness (understood as knowledge about the sea) and maritime identity, employing a Likert scale to rank the knowledge tests of a sample of 262 individuals. The results of the analysis showed a weak positive correlation between the two variables and a 12.2% influence of the knowledge on maritime identity. Based on this, it is concluded that maritime identity explains more adequately the relationship of humans with the sea.