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Book Review
| Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp. By Megan Kate Nelson. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2005. xvii + 262 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95.
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| The Okefenokee Swamp is located in extreme southeast Georgia and northeast Florida, with the main portion in Georgia. For most people, the term "swamp" conjures up a place of stagnant water, darkness, mystery, disease, and death. The Okefenokee is not a true swamp because it is the headwaters for the St. Marys and Suwannee rivers; it is more properly described as a swamp-marsh complex. An interesting feature of the Okefenokee is the instability of peat areas when you walk on them. Hence, the name "Okefenokee," which is translated from aboriginal dialect to mean "land of the trembling earth." |
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Nelson presents a sweeping cultural history of the Okefenokee from 1732 to the present. In her analysis, she describes her theory of how the Swamp's ecosystem shaped local cultures though a process she describes as "ecolocalism." She argues that "the swamp provoked people to develop a constellation of competing ideas rooted in beliefs about land use and value and shot through with convictions about race, gender and class distinctions" (p.3). The area she writes about is the six-hundred-square mile Okefenokee and its "hinterlands," which she defines as a forty-mile radius surrounding the Swamp. |
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The Okefenokee has been well documented through history, and Nelson does a fine job of pulling the research together to underscore her theory. At times, she has to stretch to justify some happenings, and she does a much better job of explaining the first part of her "ecolocalism" theory than the last. She spends too much time on activities beyond the hinterlands and struggles at times with the definition of ecology. There is no mention of Okefenokee fire ecology, which has played a huge role in human activity in the Swamp. However, she presents an excellent, detailed review of human influence in the Swamp from the Creeks and Seminoles to present-day federal government ownership. |
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The writing could be crisper and the illustrations are much sparser than they could be. There are multiple errors in the book that only a "swamper" or forester would detect, such as her wrong definition of turpentine boxers and misidentification of key Okefenokee researchers. |
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Despite these minor failings, Nelson has done a wonderful, long-awaited service in telling a complete cultural history of the Okefenokee. It will be the leading reference for many years and is suitable for the lay audience, historians, and scientists. |
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Bob Izlar grew up on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp and has been studying and writing about it for forty-two years. He is director of the University of Georgia Center for Forest Business. |
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