Whale's Experience of Modernity

Professor Frank Zelko (Associate Professor of History, University of Vermont) will be presenting "The Whale's Experience of Modernity: From Blubber to Baleen to Oceanic Guru to Ecosystem Service Provider" as the second talk this fall in the History Workshop series, "Capitalism in Crisis: Development, Sustainability, & Inequality in Global Perspective."

They might not be aware of it, but whales have been dramatically affected by modernity. Like many animals, their lives are heavily determined by a primate species that has come to dominate the planet. For most of their long history, whales had little interaction with this terrestrial biped and it presented few dangers. In the blink of an evolutionary eye, however, these primates learned to hunt and kill the world's largest cetaceans in the remotest parts of the world's great oceans. In more recent decades, however, many of them came to think that this was not such a great idea. Some even felt it was immoral. Frank Zelko will explore the changing attitudes toward whales throughout the past century, focusing in particular on the rise of the anti-whaling movement.

Event Sponsor
History, Mānoa Campus

More Information
History Workshop, 956-7407, histwork@hawaii.edu

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