FORUM Magazine Summer 2006

FORUM Magazine Summer 2006

A Cultural Sea Change
By Michael Jepson
For thousands of years, people have settled along Florida's shores to seek sustenance. Early fishing cultures like the Calusa Indians occupied the coast before the arrival of European explorers. Later, American pioneers and immigrant groups, including Spaniards, Greeks, Bahamians, and many others, established villages and lived on what they could harvest from the water. Now, as maritime anthropologist Michael Jepson points out, the working folks are being pushed out to make way for higher-income migrants from the North. This gentrification of the coast—one of many byproducts of Florida's population boom—represents a major shift. Instead of being valued as a place where the food is plentiful, Florida's seacoast is being valued for the view.
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