ABSTRACT
The relationship between the physical resources and cultural use of the Straits has been an important and dynamic element in the historical and contemporary geography of the region. As the preceding two chapters have shown, the geology, morphology, vegetation and soils of the Straits region have provided an enormous range of opportunities for human exploitation. Minerals, hydrocarbons, the fishing industry and aqua-culture exemplify contemporary patterns of resource exploitation in the region. In the past, precious metals and jungle products were part of the currency of trade. It is clear, then, that the ways in which the Straits, their currents, coasts, inlets, mangroves and sheltering places have been used reflect a number of different factors. Technology, in particular, has always been of key importance-how has human ingenuity and innovation in fields ranging from boatbuilding and navigation to corporate organisation and the enforcement of monopolies changed the ways in which the Straits have been perceived, appraised and used? This chapter examines these relationships and seeks to show how the resources of the Straits region have been employed to develop the cultures and societies of the area. This is not to suggest a form of crude technological determinism-the immense varieties of development in the Straits refutes any such arguments-nor, indeed, to suggest any simple evolutionary model of change in the region. Change and development have been immensely complex and that complexity is illustrated here through an examination of historical patterns of exploitation in the Straits.
