Sponging and the Island of Kalymnos: Rural, Industrial, Global

This chapter discusses how sponge fishing became the basis of the economy on the Aegean island of Kalymnos after the scaphander diving suit was introduced in 1864, creating various gendered forms of indebted subjectivity. As sponging grew into a mono-industry from the 1860s to the 1990s, most of the rural population became involved in financing the industry or in fishing and processing sponges. The most severely impacted, the chapter shows, were the divers, many of whom lost their lives or returned from fishing expeditions paralyzed, and their wives, who bore the burden of care and maintained the domestic economy.