“man the fisher”: salmon fishing and the expression of community in a rural Irish settlement

Abstract

This article treats the relation of fishing to the expression of communal relations in Teelin, a small coastal settlement in county Donegal, Ireland. Beyond presenting the ethnographic aspects of an as yet undescribed type of maritime pursuit, this paper offers (1) an explanation of the cultural prominence of a part-time economic activity and (2) an analysis of the implications of this fishing activity for the character of ongoing local interaction. While thus principally concerned with fishing, the argument is relevant to the analysis of any such collective pursuit.For several hundred years a fishing/farming community, the people of Teelin make their living today in a variety of ways, many of which are typical t o similar small-farmer settlements throughout the west of Ireland. One feature of the local economy that is of less wide distribution is the estuarine salmon fishery. From April to August the attentions and/or efforts of most locals are turned toward their estuary, to whose waters schools of salmon return in that season to spawn. Typically sold rather than eaten, the salmon is pursued by various techniques in Donegal Bay and along the coast. Most often, however, "he" (as the salmon is called) reaches the protected waters of the estuary, where 16 or so open rowboats, each crewed by 3 t o 6 men, wait patiently for a sign of "his" coming. The fish are netted in a purse seine, the extent of the catch varying widely from boat to boat and netthrow t o net-throw. Even with the high prices currently paid for salmon, only a few households earn substantial profits in this pursuit. Thus, while monetary gain is most certainly a motive for individual fishermen, the cultural prominence of the fishery rests on more than its economic function.This paper analyzes the significance of the summer salmon fishery of Teelin, a small coastal settlement in county Donegal, Ireland. Although not of great economic importance to most Teelin families, the salmon pursuit is the subject of considerable cultural attention, providing a source of communal and personal identity. An explanation for the disproportionate cultural strength of the fishery is sought in its contribution to the maintenance of the local community as a bounded social entity in a region where historical disincorporations have made the existence and nature of such communities problematic. The ways in which the interactional and experiential aspects of this fishery contribute to Teelin's "local culture" are examined as a sample case of the relation between any such socially definitive activity and the structure of a local system of social relations or ideology. [community, European ethnography, maritime anthropology, Ireland, ideology]

Working on Water: Introduction

“…In this same time period and subsequently, specialized as well as mainstream anthropological journals and book presses continued to publish research not just on coastal populations but specifically on the details involved in working on and in water, ranging from community building and communication patterns among fish harvesters to the risks involved in fishing in deep sea ocean environments (e.g., Alonso Población ; Andersen ; Binkley ; Taylor ). Indeed, over the years, a significant number of articles and book reviews in the Anthropology of Work Review have dealt with studies of seafood harvesting and other water work, in particular focusing on how populations whose livelihoods have been tied economically and culturally to forms of marine life have responded to radical economic and social changes (e.g., Askins ; Gerkey ; Seeley et al ).…”

Place-based fishing livelihoods and the global ocean: the Irish pelagic fleet at home and abroad

“…1 The exception here is the literature on salmon fisheries in Ireland (see for example Taylor 1981Taylor , 1987Britton 2014 …”