Hulhumalé, Maldives“My most peaceful moments are on the water,” Thoiba Saeedh, an anthropologist, said just before a motorboat took us skimming across the glassy Indian Ocean towards the tiny island of Felidhoo in the Maldives. The speedboat carved a wake between sand-fringed, palm-covered islands—some with resort villas lining wooden jetties—as a pod of dolphins butterflied through the gentle swell and flying fish launched themselves improbably into the air.

Twenty-five hundred years of maritime living have shaped the culture and identity of the people of the Maldives, a country of 1,196 low-lying islands arranged into a double chain of 26 coral atolls, so flat they scarcely breach the horizon.

Outsiders may know the islands for two things: beach holidays, and the likelihood the Maldives