While reading this week’s chapters, I found it very interesting how the discovery of the Americas relates to mermaids. Because the concept of mermaids had already been well established in the Medieval period, when explorers ventured west, they brought their beliefs along with them. Those beliefs led to “mermaid sightings” that then led to images of mermaids being physically distributed more and more through maps. The interaction between the images on those maps and the motivation to explore the world is fascinating. The author explains that “representations [of mermaids] only further primed explorers to find mermaids” (Scribner, p. 19) which encouraged cartographers to keep including mermaids. It makes me wonder how many discoveries that we discussed in school were made because the person initially wanted to find mermaids. 

At the same time, it is intriguing to me that putting mermaids on these maps also indicated a new environment filled with unknown animals, people, etc. In this way, it seems to me that mermaids had an important and impactful role in the colonization of the Americas. There were more motivators during this time than just seeing mermaids, however to the public, it was probably something that made a difference in whether or not they supported these ventures. Mermaids in this sense represent exploration and new opportunities. They were a physical manifestation of the new environments that the Western countries were uncovering.

I also found it interesting that Scribner mentions that the way that each country understood mermaids was a representation of the way that they tried to understand the new worlds that they were discovering. It shows how culture plays an important role in a person’s relationship with the environment. I question if the way that different cultures viewed the mermaid impacted the way they interacted with the ocean. For instance, if a culture feared the mermaid, did they see the ocean as something to conquer?