Mermaid Technology

Mermaids are usually depicted as naked. If they carry anything, it is a comb and mirror. This shows just how alien life in the sea would be from life on land.

The basic building blocks of technology were fire, rocks, and wood. There is evidence that cooking food predates modern humans and that the extra calories gained from cooking food allowed us to develop our larger brains.

But there is no fire underwater.

Tool-making also predates humanity. These were a combination of stone and wood. Knives and scrapers were made from hard, brittle stone like flint but spears began as pointed wood with stone heads being added later. Flint is hard to come by on land or sea but the initial impulse to pick up a stone and use it is not as obvious when stones are as close as your feet. And wood just doesn't grow underwater.

The main tools that mer-folk would have to work with are shells and coral. Coral is soft enough that it could be worked with shells although there are limits on what can be made. Traditionally mer-folk have made things like necklaces and bras from sea shells but that would require drilling holes in the shells. How would this be done?

Clothing is its own issue. The first clothing was made from animal skins that had been dried and later tanned. It was worn to protect humans from the weather.

While you can make leather from many sea creatures, it cannot be done underwater. Also there is little point. Sea people would not need protection from the sun or rain and leather will not keep you warm in the water. Also, wearing clothes does not affect travel appreciably in the air but can slow you down underwater.

All of this is an intellectual exercise. Novelists depicting mermaid civilizations have to account for these things or their civilizations will feel off. If the mer-people live in set villages then the novelist has to explain why. What is the benefit of this way versus living in a constantly-moving school like dolphins? If they make things then the novelist has to know how and why.

This is a problem in some of the mermaid novels I have read. The set-up is detailed, down-to-earth. Then the lead character travels to a mermaid settlement and the tone becomes dreamy. The change can be jarring.

Granted, it is much easier to describe existing civilization than to make one up from scratch and still seem authentic. Thinking through these questions would help. How did the mermaid civilization develop and why don't they live like dolphins? If you can sell this to yourself then you can sell it to the world.