What do these peoples of many nations and tribal affiliations, whom global maritime and naval historian Barry M. Gough had good relations with, believe as a resource and spiritual symbol?
Barry M. Gough Barry Morton Gough (born 17 September 1938, Victoria, B.C.) is a global maritime and naval historian based on Canada's Pacific coast. Gough has made in the British Columbia and western North American context a number of monographic contributions to ethnohistory, cross-cultural relations, patterns of missionary acceptance among Northwest Coast peoples, frontier–borderland studies and environmental history. Within the perspective of seapower worldwide, he has worked to explore the maritime dimensions of British Columbia history and to recast and reaffirm the imperial foundations of Canadian history.
Kota people (India) Kotas, also Kothar or Kov by self-designation, are an ethnic group who are indigenous to the Nilgiris mountain range in Tamil Nadu, India. They are one of the many tribal peoples indigenous to the region. (Others are the Todas, Irulas and Kurumbas.) Although all groups lived closely by and had intimate interactions, elaborate taboos were developed to maintain social distance and prestige. Todas and Kotas have been subject to intense anthropological, linguistic and genetic analysis since the early 19th century. Study of Todas and Kotas has also been influential in the development of the field of anthropology. Numerically Kotas have always been a small group not exceeding 1,500 individuals spread over seven villages for the last 150 years. They have maintained a lifestyle as a jack of all trades such as potters, agriculturalist, leather workers, carpenters, and black smiths and as musicians for other groups. Since the British colonial period they have availed themselves of educational facilities and have improved their socio-economic status and no longer depend on the traditional services provided to make a living. Some anthropologists have considered them to be a specialized caste as opposed to be a tribe or an ethnic group.