Social and cultural characteristics of fishing peoples

The paper focuses on interrelationships between characteristics of the environment and technology of marine fishing and aspects of the society and culture of fishermen. Specifically, aspects of the work environment such as resource variability, relative isolation of the workplace, workplace hazards and spatial constraints, control over productive factors, and common property characteristics of the resource are related to social and cultural attributes such as migration and seasonal labor, sexual division of labor, workgroup structure, status of women, ownership of productive equipment, and insulation of fishing communities. It is argued that it is essential to understand the interrelationships between these various variables prior to making any decisions which would affect the fishery.