22 March - World Water Day 2006: Water and Culture

Floating fruit market, Viet Nam © Thomas Cluzel

In the 1500s, Europeans explored the east coast of the mainland of North America, trading with the indigenous populations they met. By 1618, the European traders had made their way to the Great Lakes that connect the United States of America and Canada, and in 1634, the fur trade had expanded to include the Canadian territories. From there, the St. Lawrence River provided the means for colonists to settle throughout the eastern part of Canada. Via the river, the fur trade increased, as did the economic status of the traders and the number of settlements in the area.

This is just one example of how waterways have, through commerce and the trade of goods and services, been a motor for cultural change and exchange. From a historical perspective, commerce by rivers has been both national (communities on the Amazon River, for example, frequently traded with each other, transporting their goods to and from each site via canoe, and the Greater Tokyo basin contains no fewer than seven major rivers, along which inter-city trade has been conducted for centuries) and international (the Rio Grande, for instance, is located between Mexico and the United States, and trade is still conducted there by ferry, which carries people and products from one side of the river to the other).

Cultural exchange is next to impossible without some form of trade or commerce: for instance, different goods were introduced into different societies through commerce, providing a means for the traders to better know their foreign counterparts. Cloth, food, spices, paper - all these products teach the buyer something of the culture of the places where they were produced, be it the climate, the natural resources, the technological advancements that have been made there or the lifestyle. This trade allows for the exchange of ideas, ideals, beliefs and cultures.

The Italian city of Venice is another well-known example of how water provided a means of commercial and cultural exchange. Throughout the 14^th and 15^th centuries, Venice was a major international city, a meeting place for people from all over Europe and abroad. Christianity and Islam met there, artists from Florence and Rome shared ideas and improved their techniques (the Renaissance took form in Florence, but many of the ideas that evolved during that time were the fruit of cultural exchanges from other European cities and other influences), and commerce was established along the banks of the River Po, the major vein of the city. One of most prosperous cities in the world at the time, Venice's economic status was upheld mainly through the trade made possible by its waterways. Throughout Venice, the main means of transportation was via gondola along one of the numerous canals that shaped the life and livelihood of the city: even today, the image of a gondola instantly brings to mind Venetian culture.