Quote:
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Originally Posted by John Aubrey
Someone could write a book or at least a monograph on the subject of how walrus ivory was:
1)First identified as an article of interest,
2) How it became a desirable commodity in Central Asia and Persia/India,
3 Who who the groups and ethnicities were who formed the trading network for it.
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It's an old trade, medieval or older. I don't know any modern papers/books, but the topic has been covered:
Arabic and Chinese Trade in Walrus and Narwhal Ivory
Berthold Laufer and Paul Pelliot
T'oung Pao , Second Series, Vol. 14, No. 3 (1913), pp. 315-370
Article Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4526349
Supplementary Notes on Walrus and Narwhal Ivory
Berthold Laufer
T'oung Pao , Second Series, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Jul., 1916), pp. 348-389
Article Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4526501
... and perhaps there is something in Laufer's book, Ivory in China (freely available at
http://archive.org/details/ivoryinchina21lauf ).