ABSTRACT
As Chapter 1 pointed out, the Mediterranean has been variously portrayed as a region of homogeneity or one of heterogeneity. Braudel (1972, p. 14) characterised the Mediterranean as ‘the sum of its routes in which the essence of the region is the product of intellectual and commercial intercourse’ – a functional definition. Branigan and Jarrett (1975, pp. 3–4) emphasised the unifying influence of ‘the landlocked sea … on the countries which border it or come within its scope’. The homogeneous features which unify the various parts of the region were then, and still are now, the Mediterranean Sea and climate, the Mediterranean coastal landforms and vegetation and, perhaps, the Mediterranean agricultural and rural way of life. Although the agrarian way of life is vanishing and in places has been replaced by tourism, agriculture still plays an important role in the Mediterranean, as we shall see in Chapter 13. On the other hand, the area is characterised by ethnic, cultural and religious diversity; it is very heterogeneous in its political regimes and political alignments and in its economic and social features.
