The Sound of the Sea
Author Cynthia Barnett’s New Book Shows Our Connections When environmental journalist Cynthia Barnett was growing up in Florida, one of her favorite seashells was the lightning whelk, an impressively large spiral with chocolatey stripes that is a common find on Gulf beaches. For years, a specimen she and her husband found at Cedar Key has topped her family’s Christmas tree. But it was not until she began researching her newest book, “The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans” (W.W. Norton & Company, 2021), that she understood the full significance of the whelk, which was used by Native Americans of the Gulf Coast for centuries for making food, tools and ceremonial objects, as well as for trading to other indigenous groups throughout the Southeast. In one astounding instance, a burial featuring 20,000 beads fashioned from lightning whelk shells was found at the great mound city
BETSY HANSEN
By Amanda Hagood
Barnett at the keyboard in her study in Gainesville, where she is also Environmental Journalist in Residence at the University of Florida.
C ity O f G ulfpOr t M eetinGs City Clerk’s Office • October 2021
October 5, 2021
Council Meeting – 6:00 pm (In person and Zoom)
October 6, 2021
Planning and Zoning Board – 6:00 pm
October 12, 2021
Senior Citizens Advisor y Committee – 8:00 am Senior Center – 5501 27 th Ave. S.
October 13, 2021
Board of Adjustment – 6:00 pm
October 19, 2021
Council Meeting – 6:00 pm (In person and Zoom)
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of Cahokia, outside present day St. Louis. “I never knew the importance of the lightning whelk’s life and afterlife for Native American people,” she recalls. “I was moved by those stories of true native Floridians – and humbled by all that I didn’t know about a natural object with which I thought I was familiar.” Readers will find many more extraordinary stories in the book, which spins a natural and cultural history of 13 different seashells. Like an oceanic current, the book drifts far and wide between remarkable places – such as the 11th-century Maldives, where the tiny money cowrie became one of the first global currencies; and 19th century London, where Abigail and Marcus Samuel began the enterprise that became Royal Dutch Shell by selling shells in their East End curio shop. Buoyed by Barnett’s deft prose, and fascinating portraits of scholars, adventurers, writers, and hobbyists whose lives have been caught up in a search for shells, the book is as
theGabber.com | September 30, 2021 - October 6, 2021
