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Caribbean Fishing and Fishermen: A Historical Sketch 1
Author(s) -
Price Richard
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1966.68.6.02a00020
Subject(s) - fishing , sketch , fishing village , geography , socioeconomic status , position (finance) , ethnology , history , economy , fishery , sociology , demography , business , economics , population , finance , biology , algorithm , computer science
Fishermen occupy a unique position in modern Caribbean social structure. Research in the history of fishing technology discloses a great deal about the manner in which their specialized way of life came into being and persisted to the present, Caribbean fishing slaves—at first Amerindians and then Africans—were from the beginning a privileged subgroup within the plantation system, and their unusual socioeconomic role permitted a particularly smooth transformation to a life as free fishermen. The potential of studies of technology for tracing culture change and the importance of further studies of Caribbean subcultures as historical products are suggested.