Water Beings

Veronica Strang is a cultural anthropologist and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Her research explores human relationships with water, and her previous books include The Meaning of Water (2004) and Water: Nature and Culture (Reaktion, 2015).

"Early human relationships with water were expressed through beliefs in serpentine aquatic deities. This looks into the vast human history of water worship and of our broken relationship with all things aquatic." - Outdoor Swimmer"Water Beings is an especially good resource for researchers of nature religions and their historical precursors, though the book would also be of interest to environmental historians and philosophers of religion . . . a fascinating read that twists and turns along every bend in the river." - Nova Religio"worthy of high praise . . . anthropologically and archaeologically stunning as well as artistically rewarding . . . This interdisciplinary visual story is a wondrous homage to water" - Shé Mackenzie Hawke, Visions for Sustainability Journal"The book has an encyclopedic quality providing the reader with a comparative analysis of the different roles water serpentine beings have taken through human history . . . A cultural anthropologist, Veronica Strang draws on research by anthropologists, archaeologists, and material culture specialists to detail shifts in human-water relations as well as water’s more constant meanings and values over the course of millennia." - Water Alternatives Book Review"This beautifully crafted non-fiction traces how humanity plunged from worshipping water to wreaking havoc on it. Strang’s study ranges from the ancient serpentine deities that represented the power of water as a bringer of life to today’s exploitation and pollution of our most precious resource." - Sally McDonald, The Sunday Post, Scotland"A far-ranging and gorgeously illustrated study, Water Beings explores humanity's enduring but always transforming connections to the wellsprings of life. A profound and entertaining book for a time when reimagining humanity’s future has never been more vital." - Caspar Henderson, author of The Book of Barely Imagined Beings"With passion, rigour and creative depth, Veronica Strang eloquently takes readers across the world to further our understanding of water's natural, cultural, and symbolic qualities. Water beings are brought to life alongside relational beliefs and practices. This is a magnificent work that reflects a rich human/water/culture relationship, and explores possibilities to avoid a climate crisis future." - Sandy Toussaint, Professor of Anthropology, The University of Western Australia"A spellbinding anthropological itinerary through the winding ways of serpentine water beings as they have manifested through history and across cultures. Luminously illustrated, ingeniously researched, and beautifully narrated, Strang’s book is a treasure, a store of revelatory stories about how materiality, meaning, and myth have intertwined to create the aqueous spirits and deities that have accompanied human being and becoming." - Stefan Helmreich, Elting E. Morison Professor of Anthropology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology