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‘Man can’t give birth, woman can'tfish’: gender dynamics in the small-scale fisheries of BangladeshApurba Krishna Deba, C. Emdad Haqueb & Shirley Thompsonb

a Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship, Governmentof Manitoba, Western Region-Brandon, 1129 Queens Avenue,BrandonMBCanadaR7A 1L9,b Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,MB, CanadaR3T 2N2,Published online: 06 Feb 2014.

To cite this article: Apurba Krishna Deb, C. Emdad Haque & Shirley Thompson , Gender, Place& Culture (2014): ‘Man can’t give birth, woman can't fish’: gender dynamics in the small-scale fisheries of Bangladesh, Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, DOI:10.1080/0966369X.2013.855626

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‘Man can’t give birth, woman can’t fish’: gender dynamics in thesmall-scale fisheries of Bangladesh

Apurba Krishna Deba*, C. Emdad Haqueb and Shirley Thompsonb

aManitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship, Government of Manitoba, WesternRegion-Brandon, 1129 Queens Avenue, Brandon, MB, Canada R7A 1L9; bNatural ResourcesInstitute, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada R3T 2N2

(Received 5 May 2012; final version received 2 June 2013)

Going beyond the myths prevalent in the socio-cultural embeddedness of ruralBangladesh, this article examines the diverse visible and invisible roles of fisherwomenin small-scale fisheries. This research considered two ethnic groups situated in twodifferent ecosystems: the floodplain freshwater ecosystem is represented by new-entrant Muslim fishers ‘Maimal’ and the coastal ecosystem is represented by caste-based Hindu fishers ‘Jaladas’. From the basic ontological worldview of human dignity,moral individualism, and the social recognition of women’s rights, we argue thatfisherwomen’s roles need to be recognized, focused, and valued to develop a horizontalunderstanding that is a prerequisite to the process of democratization, and the properfunctioning of a just society. In the rural societies, a host of attributes, such as the deep-rooted socio-cultural constructions of the motherly myth, extreme tolerance, familyteaching, religious antagonism, poverty, lack of education, internalization of asubordinate position, lack of supportive institutions, and fear of loss of societalpatronage, profoundly undermine the capacity of women to aspire and raise their voice.Fisherwomen are accrued an inferior social position although they perform uniqueroles in the areas of childcare, household upkeep, livelihoods, and psycho-socialsupport for the seafaring fishers. Conducive to the ecotone of marine fisheries, thisarticle also portrays how a rigid patriarchal form of society is seasonally transformed tomatrifocality when fishermen are away for fishing for half the year.

Keywords: small-scale fishery; fisherwomen; matrifocality; rituals; livelihoods;Bangladesh

Introduction

Impossible! Man can’t give birth, woman can’t fish. Are we in the doom age? (SalamMunshi,53, Muslim fisherman, Volarkandi, Hakaluki Haor)

A fishing operation may be viewed as an open-theater drama where women play critical rolesstaying behind the screen. They usually remain unobserved by the frontline audience; thequeen tackles the regiments alone when the king is outside. (Pronoti Jaladas, 50, caste-basedHindu fisherwoman, Thakurtala)

These two quotes provide contradictory views on the gender roles of fisherwomen in

Bangladesh. The fisherwoman reflects on the importance of women’s roles in the critical

circuits of coastal artisanal fishery, while the fisherman admits his dominant patriarchal

view of society. The gendered constructions of roles are crucial in understanding the

functioning of artisanal fisheries and the social reproduction of small-scale fishers in the

Bengal society. Generally speaking, women in Bangladesh suffer from a host of social

q 2014 Taylor & Francis

*Corresponding author. Emails: apurba.deb@gov.mb.ca; apurba_deb2003@yahoo.com

Gender, Place and Culture, 2014

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2013.855626

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opprobrium, and are relegated below men in society. Most rural women face threefold

obstacles emanating from: (1) the patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal socio-cultural

construct and women’s unconditional loyalty to that construct, (2) the prejudice and

tyranny rooted in religious traditions, and (3) limited control over economic resources and

the decision-making process. Such a socio-culturally embedded system maintains a rigid

division of labor that controls women’s status and rights, mobility, sexuality, roles, and

responsibilities in the wider society. In such a society where livelihoods, family well-being

and economic dispossession of the rural class overlap with many other elements of

inequity and social injustice, developing a strong sense of gender-based equality is

important (Kabeer 2011).

We noticed that the main focus of the research on women’s and children’s work in

developing countries has been on peasants (Nieuwenhuys 1989), and women’s role in the

small-scale fisheries has been widely ignored in anthropological research. Weeratunge and

Snyder (2009), in their review of gendered employment in the fisheries sector of Africa

and Asia-Pacific, claimed that considering women’s dominant roles in the fisheries post-

harvest sector, the long-held notion that ‘fisheries is a male domain’ can be challenged.

Very little is known about the roles of women in the operational wings of small-scale

fisheries in Bangladesh. For the balanced, equitable, and sustainable development of the

small-scale fisheries sector and a better understanding of how the sector functions, the

roles of all social groups, including women, must be recognized and valued (Hapke 2001a,

2001b; Siason et al. 2002; Benett 2005; Neis et al. 2005; Williams 2008). For this research,

we considered two ethnic fishing communities situated in two different ecosystems: the

floodplain freshwater ecosystem represented by new-entrant Muslim fishers, the ‘Maimal’,

and the coastal ecosystem represented by hereditary Hindu fishers, the ‘Jaladas’.

Without a thorough understanding of the supportive roles of fisherwomen in a

patriarchal society, we believe that gender mainstreaming of the fisheries-dependent

communities cannot be achieved and the desired socio-political spaces for the women

cannot be created. Taking a culturally appropriate emic lens, this article examines:

(1) the unappreciated roles of fisherwomen in the operations of small-scale fishery so

that an acceptance of their roles, along with a horizontal understanding of their

contributions, can be developed across the wider patriarchal society, and

(2) how the fisherwomen, in the absence of their sea-faring male counterparts, equip

themselves for being in-charge of the seasonally transformed patriarchy to

matrifocality, and the socio-cultural determinants behind such transformations.

That said, this article considers an actor-oriented approach prior to delving into

method, results, and discussions.

Women in small-scale fisheries: conceptual considerations

Gender is a socio-cultural construct for understanding the disparity in power and social

positions as a function of biological differences. To appraise a particular community or

society, understanding its gender relations within the milieu of socio-cultural, economic,

religious, and political contexts is necessary. It is the wider society and its structure that

define the gender relations and roles, and establish the type of behavior that is appropriate

or inappropriate for the male and female therein (Bates and Fratkin 2003). Fishers are

distinct from rest of the peasantries in many ways, and the peculiarities of fishers make

them ‘akin to social experiments’ (Thompson 1985). As Kalpana Ram rightly argues,

fishers in small-scale fishing villages in southeast Asia participate in the construction of a

2 A.K. Deb et al.

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peculiar culture that cannot easily be understood and justified using the single lens of caste,

religion, class, gender, patriarchy, peasantry, and proletarianism (Ram 1992).

Anthropologists agree that the male-dominated fishing domain is unswervingly supported

by, and linked to, the intra-household allocation of tasks and responsibilities with a great

degree of interdependence and complementarities which are broadly determined by social

relations and norms (Chapman 1987; Hapke 2001a, 2001b).

For the particular purpose of accentuating the widely unappreciated roles of

fisherwomen, we take an actor-oriented approach which was advocated by Goffman

(1959) more than five decades ago (also see Barth 1966; Gerrard 1995). The approach

expands on the basic premise that women undertake different roles and responsibilities

depending on their own constructions, perspectives, and interpretation of the situations

they live in. This approach is triggered by our drawing heavily on fisherwomen’s grounded

experience at the local level, which allows flexibility to go beyond the gender division of

labor in small-scale fisheries. Some intrinsic and extrinsic factors, such as the socio-

cultural and cognitive structures, dynamics of social transformations and representations,

formal and informal institutional values, and personal opportunities of the fisherwomen,

help in shaping their positions in the society, and create space for them, albeit slowly. For

this article, following our inquiry and analysis of the relevant socio-cultural, economic,

political, and geographical/ecological embeddedness that shapes gender inequities, we

adopt a livelihood approach (Ellis 2000) to highlight the important roles and

responsibilities of the fisherwomen.

There are many instances worldwide that women are actively involved in different

aspects of fishing (see Weeratunge and Snyder 2009, www.spc.int/coastfish for a

synthesis). Thompson, Wailey, and Lummis (1983, 183) argue that in most fishing

societies, the division of labor seems in one respect sharp: ‘work ashore may be left to the

women, or shared, but work at sea is reserved for the men’. This proposition can be

challenged (see Brenda 2004). Often, the use of the Western lens of labor analysis in

fishing overlooks the interrelatedness of gender beliefs and complex local structures.

Generally viewed as nonproductive roles, we emphasize that fisherwomen’s observances

of special rituals that are framed by the immediate ecological characteristics, local culture,

and religious directives have a profound impact on the psychological well-being of the

sea-faring fishers. Such observance of rituals by fisherwomen, depending on the context,

can exhibit enabling and empowering roles, and be supportive of livelihood functions.

Recognizing the distinctiveness in ecosystems, it is logical to ask whether a general

framework is sufficient to analyze the roles of fisherwomen living in the floodplain and

coastal ecosystems of Bangladesh. It is difficult to be affirmative to answer this because of

two reasons: First, the difference in the fundamental aspect of freedom, social power, and

inequality between men and women applies to both the coastal and floodplain fishing

communities. Second, unlike the peasantries in general and the floodplain Muslim

fisherwomen specifically, the distinction we observe in the case of coastal Hindu

fisherwomen is that their roles reach the wider public domain. Thus, we are led to question

the way anthropologists have focused on the sexual codification of peasantry women’s

work in relation to private–public dualism, since only a few of them (e.g. Firth 1966; Ram

1992) redefined the broader questions of production relations in the fishing villages.

Quite unlikely in a peasantry setting, fisherwomen of the coastal villages, whose male

counterparts are absent from their land-based functions, take on additional responsibilities

in production relations and livelihood functions. Many socially determined values and

barriers of rural patriarchal societies are liquidated to the extent that fisherwomen can

adjust through subsistence patterns to a given physical environment. This implies that the

Gender, Place and Culture 3

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ecological relationships are intricately linked to cultural adjustments and livelihood

adaptations. Such a scope of fisherwomen’s added responsibilities means that they are

adept in adapting with different forms of social relations to attain an inconceivable degree

of female autonomy.

The transformation from male-authority to matrifocality in the same rural Bengal

society should theoretically be accompanied by an ideological shift from fisherwomen’s

unproductive roles to significant productive roles and capabilities. Such accommodative

societal values are not ‘simply free-floating cultural constructions’, they are necessary as a

coping mechanism for livelihood resilience, and the continued persistence of small-scale

fishery operations itself provides a ‘necessary buffer against the fluctuating fortunes’ (Ram

1992). This is an emerging area of anthropological query. We want to delimit our

arguments on the seasonal transformation of values by pointing out that fisherwomen’s

separation from the central role of fish catch in the natural water bodies such as, sea, river,

and wetlands yields some positive outcomes. Such separation reinforces other forms of

socio-economic and political empowerment processes that would help to negotiate with

forces of productions, to renew social relations with the wider society, and to reconstruct

the socio-cultural meanings of their world.

Methodologies

Field investigations were carried out in two fishing villages of Bangladesh (Figure 1), one

coastal and one floodplain, during January 2005 to September 2006, followed by series of

small group discussions with key informants during January–February 2010. The coastal

fishing village, ‘Thakurtala’ (78 households, population 650 – male 300, female 350), is

located in the Moheskhali Island (Cox’s Bazar district) along the Bay of Bengal (Figure 1)

and represents hereditary Hindu fishers, ‘Jaladas’ (literally, slaves of the water). The

floodplain fishing village, ‘Volarkandi’ (184 households, population 1240 – male 640,

female 600), is located in the northeastern region of the country (Figure 1) and is

surrounded by Hakaluki haor, largest freshwater wetland system in Bangladesh.

Inhabitants are new-entrant Muslim fishers, locally called ‘Maimal’.

This research demanded a nuanced ethnographic engagement. Initially, a survey was

conducted among 78 coastal (Hindu) and 60 floodplain (Muslim) fishing households.

Subsequently, 45 coastal and 27 floodplain key informants were interviewed and 42 focus

group discussions were organized. We arranged meetings and interviews with

fisherwomen in a culturally appropriate manner in their suitable time. Participant

observation, as a tool, was used extensively to silently observe what women do and share.

Socially, the community itself is indicative of the ‘social low-classness’ under the

existing social structures of Bangladesh. Muslim floodplain ‘Maimal’ fishers symbolize

lowest status (‘Atraf/Azlaf’ group), while Hindu coastal fishers, belonging to ‘Jaladas’

caste groups, fall under ‘acquired irreversible birth-ascribed pollution’. Fishers maintain

their own ‘Samaj’ (traditional morally defined social institution for collective actions) and

‘Shalish’ (village judicial system) through which village leaders exercise adjudicating

power (‘Khomota’) conferred on them by villagers. A committee influenced by the priest

(‘Imam’) of the local mosque maintains normative order in ‘Volarkandi’. The village

chief, ‘Sarder’, coupled with one or more ‘Mukkhya’ (literally, chief adviser to the

‘Sarder’) and ‘Mannyamaan’ (literally, respected persons), regulates the day-to-day socio-

religious activities in ‘Thakurtala’. Women have no portfolio in these social institutions.

OldMuslim fisherwomen observe ‘purdah’ (veil) for social respectability and religious

reasons; only married Hindu women maintain the ‘ghomta’ (covering the head with shari)

4 A.K. Deb et al.

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when they travel outside the village. Marriage is a socio-religious and economic contract,

and is settled through a series of ceremonies. ‘Virginity’ of young girls, ‘chastity’ for

married women, and birth of a son to become a ‘socially glorified mother’ are some of the

fundamental social and familial frames.

Economically, most of the fishers are extremely poor and food insecure (see Deb and

Haque [2011] for details). Fishing is a seasonal activity, and many fishers have very little

to do during lean fishing seasons. Small-scale fisheries involve multi-species (around 250

freshwater species, 450 marine species, 60 species of shrimps); gillnets, set bag nets, and

longlines, with varied specifications, are widely used in both the ecosystems.

Results and discussions

‘Born to serve’: fisherwomen’s role in the domestic chore

Fisherwomen in the small-scale fisheries contribute in three fundamental ways: first,

through their direct productive roles; second, as biological reproducers of members of

Figure 1. Map ofBangladesh showing the floodplain and coastal study areas.Key: (1)Hakaluki haorof Moulavibazar district, Sylhet division representing floodplain zone and (2) Moheskhali Islandrepresenting coastal ecosystem. Source: http://geology.com/world/bangladesh-satellite-image.shtml.

Gender, Place and Culture 5

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ethnic collectivities for sustaining fishing activities; and third, through carrying out special

responsibilities in the absence of their male husbands and sons at home. It is the mother

who provides crucial social reproduction roles for the boys and girls, and transmits down

the ideological discourses, cultural attributes, and gendered knowledge. Here is a

comment:

He (husband) is gone for about seven months in the southwest sea; by the time he comeshome, I become pregnant . . . He leaves me, and by the time he returns, I have my baby . . .Hedoes not even know the pains and suffering that I bear alone, along with all my dailyhousehold activities. I am born to serve. (Mandira Jaladas, 27, Thakurtala)

The socio-cultural construction of the women’s roles in domestic chores is ‘they are

born to serve men so long as they are physically sound’. This means that women have been

trusted with more responsibilities and burdens than men for caring and sustaining familial

well-being, as well as social and emotional needs. Table 1 provides highlights of the daily

activities commonly carried out by fisherwomen. This list is not an exhaustive one, and

omits many other activities which are unusual in rural villages.

Invariably in the rural fishing societies, these laborious jobs of managing family meals

are taken for granted as part of the prevailing ‘mother myth’.1 The invaluable dedication

associated with the practice of feeding the family is a powerful narrative in most of the

known culture; however, such caring work is implicated in subtle but pervasive ways in

relation to gender inequalities. The absence of basic facilities such as electricity and water

supply makes their daily activities laborious and very long. On average, women perform

17–29 laborious activities on a daily basis; they work 7–17 hours a day depending on the

number and age of members, and fishing seasons (Table 1, Figure 2). Not only that,

following each event of natural calamity, fisherwomen play untiring roles in reviving,

restoring, and reconstructing daily life along with food preparation and the means of

production. Here are some comments:

You know about Goddess Durga; Adinath temple is her home . . . SHE has ten hands; SHEuses those for salvation of humanity from the clutch of devils. Fisherwomen, with two hands,

Table 1. Distribution of fisherwomen’s daily time (in hours) in domestic chores.

Domestic chores Coastal Floodplain

Food preparation (collection from wild sources, chopping, cleaning, cooking,serving, washing dishes, storing food, borrowing, or buying food; childrenalso assist)

2–5 1–4.5

Family care (washing clothes of all members in the ponds, sundry clothes,bath for the children, breastfeeding children, preparing and servingmedicine, nursing of sick and diseased persons, preparation of special foodfor children and elderly, taking care of children’s education, sleepingarrangements, weaving quilts, cleaning lice, etc.)

2–4.5 2–3

Maintenance of house and yards (cleaning using broomsticks; fixing floorsusing a paste made of water, clay and, cow dung)

0.5–2 0.5–1

Fetching water (drinking water from tube well, washing water from ponds orbeels, at least 2–3 times a day)

0.5–2 0.5–1

Firewood collection (gathering dry leaves and dry tree branches, choppingwood, storing, making ‘cow-dung’ sticks)

1–2 0.5–1.5

Livestock raising (monitoring numbers, providing fodder, collection offodder, animal care, selling and buying small animals) and homesteadgardening

1–2 1–3

Source: The range of time calculated is based on day-long participatory observations in the floodplain and coastalfishing villages in different months of 2006, 2010.

6 A.K. Deb et al.

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serve for the family in a similar way as the spirited Goddess mother does. (Madhuri Jaladas,48, Thakurtala, Figure 2)

I forgot when I could enjoy a sound rest. (Sukriti Jaladas, 55, Thakurtala)

What I do is not important; I do everything on earth except committing murder foreverybody’s food in the family. (Anguri Jaladas, 40, Thakurtala)

Intensive case studies revealed that, as victims of household-based preferential

treatment, girl’s nutritional status is worse than that of boy’s in poor households. In some

families, especially during food deficit seasons, young girls and the mother are expected to

sacrifice food for their male counterparts (brother and husband) who usually undertake

laborious jobs outside, and are considered to require extra physical energy. Boys tend to

get preference in meals as the ‘future provider of food and keeper of homestead land’.

Girls are expected to leave the homestead after marriage, and hence, they are not

considered as ‘permanent’ in the family. Especially during reproductive months, though

the female body is supporting a fetus or breast feeding an infant, the majority of the

fisherwomen remain malnourished. In general, in all considerations, to be born as a woman

is considered an enduring curse.

Figure 2. Depicting the multiple work of fisherwoman; literally her 2 hands serve the purpose of 10hands (as evidenced in the religious scripture of Hinduism about Goddess Durga) (redrawn from asketch developed by fisherwomen of Thakurtala, 15 February 2010).

Gender, Place and Culture 7

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‘Making them seafaring’: fisherwomen’s unsung roles in the organization of fishing

What else can I do when I know that my husband might be lost forever from my life after hegets on the boat . . . . So, I pray to God for his safe return every day, every hour, everymoment . . . . If you were in my situation, tell me, what would you do? (Sumati Jaladas, 40,Thakurtala, Moheskhali Island)

Fishing communities can’t exist and function properly without a distinct set ofrituals . . .There are sets of rituals from birth to death. (Shuvo Jaladas, 55, Thakurtala)

Fisherwomen’s roles in fishing-related occupations were found to cover three major

categories: (1) preparation for fishing, (2) fishing operations, and (3) post-harvest activities

(Table 2). In almost all economic and cultural activities, a clear line of demarcation is

apparent, though it shifts dramatically across time, class, caste, and ecosystems.

What the fisherwomen perform is not decided independently by them, but it is the

wider society and embedded ‘male supremacy’ of the patriarchal institutions that decides.

Despite the host of tasks carried out by fisherwomen, there is little or hardly any social

recognition of them. In an interesting group discussion attended by both fishermen and

fisherwomen of the coastal study village, we recognized a pattern of logic and power

display:

F: Please tell us what are the main steps involved in fishing? (Both groups respond)*

M þ W: Arranging and observing pre-voyage rituals, active fishing in the sea, net weavingand repairing, fish and shrimp processing in the yard, marketing, negotiation withmoneylenders and planning.

F: OK, who fishes in the sea?

M: Only we do.

W: We also catch fish, crab, and shrimp fry from shallow intertidal areas and mangroves.

M: That’s not fishing at all; if you are not on a boat in the deep sea, how come it becomes aform of fishing . . . .

W: Fishing means catching fish, irrespective of size and location in the sea; at the end of theday, something in the basket is good enough . . .

F: Now tell us, except the case of active fishing, who does what?

W: We do most of the things including rituals, processing, vending . . .

M: Yes, they do most of those . . .

F: So, as you say, they are engaged in many important activities other than fishing in the sea.Do you still think that women are not active in fishing operations?

M: No, they can’t fish... they don’t know the techniques . . . they do the pretty ‘side works’.

W: We also know a lot of those techniques . . .

M: No, no. Still women can’t fish. Nobody will believe they can fish like us . . .

*F, facilitator; M, fishermen; W, fisherwomen; date of group discussion: 15 February 2010,Moheskhali Island.

With irrefutable logics of fisherwomen, the fishermen group was about to be silenced,

but their patriarchal dominion tempted them to declare: ‘No, no. Still women can’t fish and

don’t do anything significant . . . ’. The fisherwomen group, as obvious in a patriarchal

society, did not argue further regardless of how stubbornly, inadequately, and defensively

the male group behaved.

The fisherwomen’s role in the maintenance of their distinct culture is invaluable. Our

analysis will be by and large confined to the rituals of Hindu caste-based fisherwomen.

Fisherwomen are not usually allowed to participate openly in the observance of rituals in

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Table

2.

Gender

rolesin

fishingoccupationsin

theMuslim

floodplain

(F)andHinducoastal(C)fishingvillages.

Activities

Men

Women

Boys

Girls

Rem

arks

Preparationforfishing

Organizingrituals

C,F

C–

CCoastalwomen’s

role

isquitedistinct

Boat

drying,cleaning,repairing,painting

C,F

–C,F

–Women

providerefreshmentandcompany;childrenassistin

settingandfillingplankswithnumerousingredients

Net

cleaning,drying,beating

C,F

–C,F

–Childrenbringwater,carrynets,andbeatdry

nets

New

net

weaving

C,F

CC,F

CMore

bygirlsandwomen

inthecoastalareas

Net

repairing

C,F

CC,F

C,F

Usually

under

thesupervisionoftheseniors

Net

dyingwithnaturaldyegub

FC

C,F

CWomen

preparethesolutionandobserveritualsassociated

withit

Net

storage

C,F

C,F

C,F

C,F

Insidehomeonacertainrack

Managinglabor,cash,andusury

C,F

––

–Women

tryto

employrelatives;they

controlcash

inabsence

ofmen

Fishingoperation

Net

operation

C,F

–C,F

–Castnettingbywomen

israre

Baitcollection

C,F

C,F

C,F

C,F

Onalimited

scalebywomen

andgirls

Fishcatchingforlivelihoods

C,F

–C,F

–Frequency

higher

incase

ofboysin

wetland;girlsfish

seasonally

Crabandshrimpfrycatching

CC

CC

Crabforconsumption/selling;shrimpfryforsale

tomiddlemen

Fishingforconsumption

C,F

C,F

C,F

C,F

More

women

fish

inthevicinityoffloodplainscompared

tocoast

Steering,enginemaintenance

C–

––

Thereisverylittle

use

ofengineam

ongthefloodplain

fishers

Decision-m

akingonfishing

C,F

––

–Joboftheseniorcrew

mem

ber;hemay

ormay

notconsultjunior

Post-harvestactivities

Speciessegregation,icing,fish

salting

aspaidlaborer

C,F

FC

CUsually

theretailerssegregatein

wetlands;coastalwomen

areactive

infish

dryingyardsandbig

urban

markets

Retailingsm

allfish

inlocalareas

ormarkets

C,F

CC

–Boyshelpparentsbyfetchingtubewellwater,tea,weighing,

cleaning,shoutingto

attractcustomers,shufflingfish,etc.

Wet

anddry

fish

vendingin

the

nearbyvillages

CC

CC

Veryfew

aged

fishermen,married

poorfisherwomen

andyoung

girlsdovending;laboriousforelderly;unsafe

forunmarried

girls

Fishdrying,sm

oking,salting

–C,F

–C,F

Mostly

forfamilyconsumption;men

andboysarelittle

engaged

Source:Based

onfocusgroupdiscussionswithdifferentfishersofdifferentages

andgenders,fieldobservationsandinterviews,validated

inmini-workshopsheldin

April–September

2006andJanuary2010.

Gender, Place and Culture 9

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the Muslim fishing villages. We noticed two distinct notions of ritual observance: (1)

uncertainty and luck, and (2) risk. The spatially and temporally varied abundance of fish

and the probabilistic assumption of variations in catch per unit effort are culturally

translated in terms of personal attributes such as luck, which is perceived as something

quantifiable with positive and negative labeling. Relevant goddesses are believed to

bestow good luck on fishers and boats, meaning that luck is perceived to be in one’s favor

through observing socio-culturally appropriate rituals. Interestingly, very often, a good

catch is culturally translated with the presence of the ‘lucky wife’ and ‘lucky daughter’ in

the fishing villages.

Risk is central to the observance of many rituals. Malinowski’s classical functionalist

anxiety-ritual theory paves linkages between the vastness of the marine ecosystems and

the fishers’ perceived insecurity, psychological depression, and physical vulnerability.

Some other scholars put forward the correlation between the amount of ritual behavior and

economic risks as well as personal risks (Poggie and Gersuny 1972; Poggie and Pollnac

1978, cited in Palmer 1989). The positive relationship between the frequency of rituals and

the extent of period involved in fishing trips points to the fact that a higher level of risk

associated in the sea results in added anxieties, which are lessened by extensive ritual

behavior (Firth 1966; Poggie 1980; Poggie and Pollnac 1988; Palmer 1989; Pollnac and

Poggie 2008).

Certainly, fishing in the Bay of Bengal of the Indian Ocean is highly risky, especially

for those fishers who lack the very basic safety and communication appliances such as

buoys on their small mechanized or nonmechanized boats. Observance of rituals and

submission to the God(s) presumably act as a psychological vehicle to get rid of possible

causes of danger. Since anxiety can reduce many individuals’ ability to function

effectively in dangerous and highly unpredictable situations, religion and/or superstition

may have adaptive value for the individual (Poggie and Pollnac 1988, 66). Seafaring

fishermen confirmed that someone in the family (mother, wife, daughter, sister) says

prayers to God/Goddess regularly for their safe return from the sea. This sense of trust of

fisherwomen provides the fishermen a good feeling and confidence in their job at sea.

Some fishermen believe that rituals and religious austerities generate divine power (Daiva

Shakti) among the devotees, which they can feel through manifestations of spiritual

feeling. Within the diverse ritualistic domain of Hinduism, the seafaring caste-based

fishers have developed their own distinct sets of rituals. With vigor and cordiality, the

deity ‘Ganga’ (Goddess of water/sea; a nice-looking deity with four hands, sitting on an

imaginary marine animal, ‘Mokor’) is worshipped by the seafaring coastal fishers, and yet

is apparently unthinkable to other fishers of the same or different castes.

We recorded five types of ‘puja’ (worship) that the fisherwomen perform on a daily or

weekly basis in favor of their male counterparts. These are: ‘Shani Puja’ (performed on

Saturday evenings for the deity ‘Saturn’), ‘Mongolchandi puja’ (on Tuesdays for welfare),

‘Laxmi Puja’ (on Thursdays for prosperity), ‘Satyanarayan puja’ (on full-moon nights), and

‘Bipdnashini puja’ (on Tuesdays or Saturdays to get rid of danger). All the essential

ingredients for the prayers (like a mango twig with five leaves, ‘horitoki’ – Terminalia

chebula, sugar, rice, water, flowers, fruits, ‘billyapatra’ – leaves of Aegle marmelos,

fragrance, and basil leaves – Ocium sanctum) are collected by them. Following the worship,

fisherwomen chant melodious hymns, put imprints (paste of oil and divine ashes of fire

sacrifice) on fishers’ foreheads, and afterwards, serve the holy offerings ‘Prosadam’. During

the worship, ‘menstruating women’, ‘widow’ and ‘married women who failed to give birth

to a child’ (‘vaja’) are not allowed to touch the sea-bound boat or any ingredient used in the

worship.

10 A.K. Deb et al.

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The special rituals observed by the Hindu fisherwomen for their seafaring husbands/

sons sharply differ from the cultural language of the rural peasant ideas of Bangladesh.

Fisherwomen have developed a local form of Hinduism that is different from the regional

or peninsular Hinduism. The observances of rituals at the family and community levels

make the seafaring fishers emotionally ready for the ‘call from the sea’ and also in

maintaining their impulses, emotions, and social and psychological coherence in a world

characterized by a plasticity of risks, uncertainties, and death. Beyond the individuals’

psychological bearings, the observance of rituals is believed to renew and reaffirm social

relations; the observance of some rituals with vigor in public manifests the socio-political

power of wealthy boat owners.

Fisherwomen’s roles in sustaining livelihoods and enhancing family income

Small-scale fishery is an economic sector that allows women to do a host of ‘less capital-

intensive’ things in their known limited territories. Many fisherwomen (especially on the

coast) play active roles in fish vending, post-harvest processing (solar drying, salting,

smoking, and fermentation), net mending, equipment cleaning, and a myriad of

complementary activities (Figure 3(a)–(f); Tables 1 and 2). By doing so, a majority of

them not only supplement family income in nuclear or extended families, some of them

who have disabled or diseased husbands or lost income earners in sea-borne accidents do

bear the sole responsibilities as providers of meals.

Hindu fisherwomen are actively engaged in fish vending or retailing in both semi-

urban and rural markets. However, Muslim fisherwomen are yet to be involved and socio-

culturally absorbed in the wider markets in the floodplain areas. When a fisherwoman buys

something from the market, her activity is considered as an extension of ‘domestic roles’.

However, when she sells her produce in the marketplace, she is held back by the

Figure 3. Photographs showing some economic activities of fisherwomen (top: left to right: (a)fisherwoman taking care of extended family; (b) fisherwoman ready for selling her small fish andshrimp; (c) fisherwomen busy in the segregation of fish. Bottom, left to right: (d) fisherwomencatching shrimp fry; (e) fisherwoman weaving set bag net; (f) fisherwoman repairing a fine-meshednet.

Gender, Place and Culture 11

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ideological values and cultural preferences of mainstream society. This is because market

places are still widely deemed as masculine spaces and are unwelcome to women. To

examine the gender ideology in fish marketing, Hapke (2001a) puts forward twofold

sensibleness: first, within the fishing communities, where the gendered division of labor

assigns particular tasks to women within the purview of the male–female identity,

sexuality, and cultural constructions of male–female space and, second, within the fish

markets, where fisherwomen as petty retailers experience the marketing activities as

gendered subjects.

At the community level, the inherent economic compulsion for livelihood sustenance

provides greater freedom to fisherwomen. The social prerequisites which set fisherwomen

engaged in fish vending and the retailing businesses apart from other women are: they are

usually married or widowed, and old (40–65 years). Usually they are distinct from other

rural women. ‘Their faces are weathered from working outdoors, and they have a brisk

loping gait which comes from walking long distances, carrying up to twenty kilograms in

their characteristic woven baskets’ Ram (1992, 219) observes for Mukkuvar fisherwomen,

India. They enjoy partial escape from the bodily discipline demanded of women in the

fishing community. Before attaining puberty, under-aged girls are often seen engaged in

activities such as fish segregation, salting, drying, and limited-level fish retailing in the

markets along with their parents or other reliable relatives/neighbors. After attaining

puberty, they are hardly permitted by parents to move or work alone because of the fear of

sexual harassment. Any such incidence of harassment will make a girl’s future life

perilous as a ‘bad name’ (Kolonko) will reduce her chance of social marriageability. So,

engaging in earning activities outside the village territory is therefore a cautious move for

fisherwomen.

Though fish (wet and dry) vending or retailing is at the lowest echelon of the small-

scale fisheries market hierarchy, and considered a job of last resort in the community,

women who are skilled in retailing in semi-urban markets are respected within their

communities. One such fisherwoman retailer mentioned: ‘My customers range from

rickshaw (tri-cyle) pullers to government high officials; they knowme by name; they stand

beside me when I need help.’ Utilizing both the male and female channels of social

relations, some women in the Hindu fishing villages have developed entrepreneurial

abilities in small-scale retailing to the extent that they command dominant positions in the

community. In Thakurtala village, one ‘Jogoti Bala Jaladas’ was met, who transformed

herself from an ordinary ‘fish wife’ to a ‘fish mammy’ by managing the fishing operation

and business after her husband had fallen to a sea-borne accident. Taking such a lead role

is unusual, but her close involvement in the fishing business with her husband and

exposure to wider communities leveraged this entrepreneurial opportunity.

In the public domain, fisherwomen occasionally face harassments from surrounding

male retailers and buyers. Working in the dawn and dusk hours outside the village is not

safe for them. They combat male harassment on an individual basis or sometimes

concertedly and technically garner support from sympathetic men to resolve the conflicts

in their favor. Rural fish markets provide the fisherwomen the much-needed public space

for sustaining livelihoods and developing social ties. Such a domestic–public

transgression and the problematic of women’s presence in the public domain are deeply

rooted in the prevailing gender ideology, which provides a woman certain power and

responsibility, but simultaneously tends to discipline her body and circumscribe her

sexuality (Ram 1992; Hapke 2001a).

Interestingly, the overall societal attitude in the coastal areas, though apparently

conservative, reveals itself as nonconfronting and nonaligned in accepting and socially

12 A.K. Deb et al.

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legitimizing fisherwomen’s service and mobility in a predominantly male domain. This is

generally encouraging in the context of socioeconomic empowerment of fisherwomen;

however, some of them reveal reticence as their fish retailing job is viewed derisively by

the mainstream society perpetuating their lower societal position (Hapke 2001a). Hapke

(2001a, 237) puts it nicely:

The juxtaposition of these two conflicting norms places women fisherfolk in a situation inwhich the actual economic roles they perform put them at odds with the wider society’scultural notions of space such that they become interlopers of the public/domestic divide.

As a very cheap source of labor, the involvement of girls and women in the shrimp

processing factories (like those of the Scottish ‘herring girls’ or ‘gutting quines’) of

southeast and southwest cities in Bangladesh is widely known. In response to economic

pressures, both girls and adult women are found actively engaged in shrimp fry fishing in

the coastal areas (Figure 3(d)). Some fisherwomen manage their fry fishing business in an

‘entrepreneurial mood’. In some coastal and riverine areas, we found nomadic women

(‘vede’/‘vaidhya’, predominantly Muslims) actively fishing using both fixed and chasing

gear. Many floodplain women set monofilament nets and do angling in the vicinity of their

houses for nutrition and subsistence income. If fishing means catching fish irrespective of

size and species, all these activities are in favor of the argument that women do fish,

though mainly in the near-shore waters. However, lack of stamina needed for deep-sea

fishing, noncooperation of boat owners, issue of ‘menstruation related impurity’, and

nonexistence of space appropriate to feminine needs in the motorized fishing boats prevent

fisherwomen from engaging in marine fishing.

Outside the ambit of distant sea-fishing economies, many poor and destitute women

collect, sell, and break snails for aquaculture farms. These women collect aquatic plants,

such as stems and fruits of ‘Shapla’ (Nymphea nouchalli), root stocks of ‘Ghechu’

(Aponogeton sp.), ‘Fukol grass’ (Euryale ferox), ‘Singara’ (Trapa natans) and leaves of

‘Kalmi’ (Limnocharis flava) from the wetland, for household consumption. Such roles of

women are very important in terms of family nutrition and food security.

Fishing-related activities on land and water are complementary to each other. In fact, a

higher catch allows increased mobilization of women in post-harvest activities. Boys and

girls in the fishing villages are socialized into their economic roles mostly in compliance

with the prevailing fundamental differences in gendered roles in artisanal fishery (Hapke

and Ayyankeril 2004). Boys and occasionally small girls work as cheap laborers (US$10–

12 per person/month) for the fish wholesalers in their collection centers. Duties are usually

confined to fish carrying, species-wise segregation, cleaning, icing and serving the boss

with tea, betel leaf, and tobacco pipe.

Sultana and Thompson (2008), from their comparative study on Hindu and Muslim

fishing villages in the southwest floodplains of Bangladesh, mentioned that in the Hindu

villages, at least one woman from a household spent about 40 days a year in fishing-related

activities, while no woman caught fish in the Muslim fishing village. However, around

60% of the women and children in both the Hindu and Muslim villages catch snails for

household use or for income, and about 10% of the women are employed as snail brokers.

They mentioned that Hindu women, because of their relatively higher mobility, education,

and societal freedom, could impress upon more influence in the joint decision-making

along with men for the wetland resource management (Ibid., 58–67). Some destitute

fisherwomen in both the study villages catch a variety of fish/prawn/crab species from

nearby habitats by using inexpensive fishing tools, and in doing so, they develop their sets

of indigenous knowledge. Vunisea (1997) mentions that fisherwomen in Fiji usually fish

Gender, Place and Culture 13

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on a more regular basis than their male counterparts, and that they target a wide range of

species. Recent studies (Davis and Nadel-Klein 1997) indicate that in fishing villages

where more concerted efforts are observed in family level fishing, oftentimes the

‘fisherman’ functionally turns into a ‘fisherwoman’ owing to the overlapping nature of

different aspects of fishing.

Seasonal transformation of patriarchy to matrifocality

When he (husband) leaves the house for 6–7 months, the sky falls on my head . . . Gradually Imake myself ready for all the odds and crises . . . I do everything what he used to do when he ison land. (Buli Jaladas, 45, Thakurtala, Moheskhali)

Oh my brother, it is difficult to change the dominance of the male. I am in charge to the extenthe is gone for fishing. He shows his real face when he is back. (Nasreen Bibi, 33, Volarkandi)

We will now examine two interwoven aspects of patriarchy and a typical seasonal form of

matrifocality. Interestingly, the coastal fishing villages witness a shift in control and

authority over the family. The peculiarities of the fishing operations and economy put a

considerable familial and social burden on coastal fisherwomen, and the idiosyncrasies of

social relations and kinship give them some means with which to meet the challenge (Ram

1992). The customary patriarchal focus gets automatically shifted to matrifocality when

the fishermen leave the households for half the year. On the other hand, floodplain fishers

are engaged in daily fishing, either from dawn to dusk or from dusk to dawn depending on

the fishing gear and targeted species, and hence, this discussion excludes them.

Coastal fishermen, most of whom do not have the craft or gear of their own, find

contractual job for 6–7 months as laborer and steerer on the mechanized fishing boats

(wooden craft, engine power 30–65 HP) for fishing in the southwest part of the Bay of

Bengal. This seasonal migration of the male proletariat is unique in two ways: first,

fisherwomen do not accompany their male counterparts (this is not even a rural–urban

migration of labor force as we notice such cases from the northern part of the country) and

second, unlike other forms of migrations, this economic motive-driven migration of the

male labor force covers two distinct ecosystems, from land to sea.

In the coastal villages, such geographical and social separation between male and

female worlds allows a subtle shift in the roles, responsibilities, societal networks, and

dignity of the fisherwomen. One curious aspect of such geographical and social isolation

of the coastal Hindu fishermen is that while the key production functions are still male

dominated, the economic or cash maintenance functions are regulated by the fisherwomen,

though with tiny informal transactions. Fishermen’s long isolation is positive in the sense

that it confers on women a form of power and authority through which they construct

positive identities and perform a multitude of socio-economic roles.

This is quite the opposite of the trend observed in many land-based production systems

where women are central to production, but fail to control the money earned through their

work (Molineux 1981). It is an issue of power-and-rights-oriented debate for many

feminist anthropologists and a widely perceived orthodoxy on gender relationships (Ram

1992). Such female economy is complementary and virtually parallel to the male

economy, a submerged and invisible ‘underground economy’ (Ibid., 146). Fishermen,

when they are at land, occasionally quarrel or even physically abuse women for procuring

money to buy tea or liquor, but they hardly challenge or cut-off fisherwomen’s larger

control over cash. Fisherwomen maintain the flow of loans and income–expenditure ‘in an

elaborate network of informal transactions which counterbalance the vicissitudes of the

male-dominated formal economy of production’ (Ibid., 141). They demonstrate high

14 A.K. Deb et al.

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degree of efficiency in managing all the household affairs with little budget and few

resources.

In the Bengali rural peasant society in which women are usually contained within their

domestic spheres, fisherwomen’s added responsibilities for day-to-day biological survival

and social reproduction in the absence of their male counterparts take them well outside

the domestic territory. This involves a subtle process of mobility, livelihood, and

empowerment that does not necessarily challenge or transgress the dominant cultural

codes of rural societies. To work in the wider areas of public domain for paid jobs in fish

processing yards and petty vending, fisherwomen conveniently develop complex mutually

benefiting social relationships with like-minded women and men; such cooperative

relationships might be transient in nature or may be renewed based on the needs and trust.

In serving a host of responsibilities in the absence of male counterparts, coastal

fisherwomen face more risks and physical–mental stresses than terrestrial agriculture-

based women. ‘For the fishing community women, it is an ordeal test from God; HE

examines our patience and devotion for husband. Months after months, we keep waiting

for our husbands and brothers-in-law. Sometimes they are swept away by the wave.’ says

Mitali Jaladas, 35, Thakurtala. This ‘God-specified ordeal test’ and social norms keep both

husband and wife away from any unethical action; it is strongly believed that Goddess

‘Ganga’ will put the man into jeopardy in the sea for the immoral activities of an unfaithful

wife. Within the wider myth of Bengali women, some of the cardinal characteristics of the

coastal fisherwomen are self-reliance, aggressiveness, diligence, psychological stress-

bearing, quick decision-making, pragmatism, extroversion, caring, vocal, bad-mouthed-

ness, and kindness. The vocal, bad-mouth, and mannish impression of the fisherwomen in

the wider society acts as a ‘self-guarding safety system’ against rape and abduction in an

insecure and geographically isolated rural condition without male protectors.

What kind of social networks do fisherwomen maintain? To cope with any adverse

situation (especially when fishermen are away for months), women form special ties and

kinship with like-minded groups in and around communities. The societal pressures

dictate and limit with whom the fisherwomen can talk, do business, and renew their

economic relationships within the wider market, which might have direct consequences on

the continuum of their social and economic well-being (Hapke 2001a). Such purposive

business and social ties are usually reoriented following the return of fishermen from the

sea. As the men arrive from the sea, women become reluctant matriarchs as usual.

Fisherwomen told us that they are not willing to leave their males for a life-threatening job,

and they would have chosen other safer jobs if better alternatives had been found in the

locality. This judgment is opposite to that of Danowski (1980) who perceived a general

satisfaction of fishers’ wives with their husbands’ jobs at sea.

Do fisherwomen enjoy more freedom than those in the peasantry? Some responses to

this question have already been given. Obviously, the roles, power, and status of

fisherwomen across societies vary substantially (Norr and Norr 1997). The coastal

fisherwomen tend to work in a wider domain beyond their domestic territories, while the

women in the floodplain fishing village were found limited to their confinements.

Floodplain fisherwomen remain involved in post-harvest operations (such as fermenting

and fish drying) at the household level, while some coastal fisherwomen do those post-

harvest activities to earn wages in commercial fish drying yards. We gathered the

impression from the study villages that caste-based Hindu fisherwomen enjoyed relatively

more freedom than the floodplain Muslim fisherwomen. Drawing a comparative view

between the fishing and the peasant women, Norr and Norr (1997, 72) concluded that

‘within the context of a peasant level society and its general male dominance, women in

Gender, Place and Culture 15

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Minakuppam [fishing village] are relatively independent and unsubservient in their

everyday behaviors and relations with men’. They also hypothesized that usually women

enjoy relatively more independence in the lower strata of society; when fishers are lower in

the societal hierarchy, fisherwomen tend to be more independent than the women of

peasant societies. When fishermen enjoy equal status with peasants, their wives do not

behave differently; when fishers enjoy higher status than peasants, women in the fishing

community have less power (Ibid., 72–75). As the men arrive from the sea, women

become reluctant matriarchs as usual, and fishermen resume their socio-culturally

appropriate roles and responsibilities again.

The complex nature of distributional and contextual issues of power also deserves

attention. Under certain contexts and situations, women hold and display more power than

men. In the coastal fishing village, we found the wives of male moneylenders appear on the

scene for the retrieval of money when the male moneylenders themselves run out of force.

There is similar evidence of fisherwomen’s enhanced social power from maritime

societies. Studies on fishing women in Japan, Malay, Ghana, and New Guinea found ‘more

freedom of speech and action than wives in farming communities’ (cited in Thompson,

Wailey, and Lummis 1983, 177). Smith (1977) proposes that the very nature of the marine

econiche itself affects the socio-cultural systems or configuration of maritime

communities, which are characterized by a relatively greater dependency on women for

land-based food production, resulting in a greater role of differentiation and economic

independence for the women (cited in Davis and Nadel-Klein 1997, 52). Niehof, Jordaan,

and Santoso (2005) mentioned the firmly entrenched diverse roles of Madurese

fisherwomen in the Indonesian small-scale fisheries. They concluded that the fisherwomen

could retain and consolidate their positions in the process of modernizing the fisheries

sector. Thompson (1985) argues that the widely perceived masculine character of fishing

‘conceals the reality of an occupation which, by removing men to sea, makes them

peculiarly dependent on the work of women ashore.’ This temporary departure of men

creates more socio-political space for fisherwomen, which might vary across different

cultural traditions, religions, and societal values. This situation is what Sir Walter Scott

remarked in 1816, ‘the government is gynecocracy’ when referring to a clear practical

basis of the power of fisherwomen.

Conclusion

By expanding beyond the naturalness of a male-dominance stereotype prevalent in the

small-scale fisheries of Bangladesh, our research examined the gender norms, division of

labor, and fisherwomen’s reproductive and productive roles in different aspects of the

fisheries. Central to our ethnographic engagement and analysis is to provide an adequate

and meaningful account of socially neglected fisherwomen’s works, and develop a

positive understanding of how fisherwomen are performing in the embedded socio-

cultural battlefield. Within the broad picture of low-classness and ‘occupational pollution’

of fishers in the mainstream society, fisherwomen are sanctioned a further relegated

position and structural subordination to patriarchy.

This research has three broad implications: First, it challenges the myth of male

dominion in the small-scale fishery and develops an understanding of the visible and

invisible complementary roles undertaken by fisherwomen in the operational wings of

small-scale fisheries. Second, it reveals that the productive and reproductive roles carried

out by fisherwomen are important for the very existence of the families, which

simultaneously provide them much-needed space outside their domestic territories. Third,

16 A.K. Deb et al.

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it demonstrates how fisherwomen strategize and carry out socio-culturally approved roles

in the course of the seasonal shift from patriarch to matrifocality (and the resultant

reorganization in social relationships) without transgressing the dominant version of

Bengali culture. Within the socio-cultural framework of the fishing villages, some of the

productive roles of fisherwomen (e.g. fish retailing) fall under the socially viewed

‘masculine character’. Both the fishing communities, with little to moderate internal

economic stratification, should ideally provide a ‘setting for relative equality between

sexes and freedom from cultural disciplining of female sexuality’ (Ram 1992, 47), but

generally speaking, the deeply entrenched socio-religious norms bar Muslim fisherwomen

from ‘active’ participation in the wider public domain. Paradoxically, when considering

rural societal values, Hindu fisherwomen enjoy relatively higher freedom from social

surveillance, seclusion, and concealment, which is attributed to their elevated productive

roles and economic achievements.

We discussed the issue of the seasonal transformation of patriarchy to matrifocality in

the coastal Hindu village, where fisherwomen carry on sole responsibilities. Yet, the socio-

cultural construction of the fishing villages often does not recognize the stressful and

critical roles women played in the absence of male fishers. Rather, such roles are viewed as

a God-imposed dutifulness for women. Fisherwomen are adept in adapting to changing

circumstances in the absence of their male counterparts; they develop and renew social ties

and relationships in a somewhat unorthodox fashion that is purposive and economically

beneficial to them. Through an enhanced mobility in the public domain for economic

reasons, not only are fisherwomen performing outside their domestic territories, but they

are also involved in counteracting with a host of institutional subversions.

Hindu fisherwomen’s higher mobility than Muslim fisherwomen’s and peasant

women’s in general can be explained by the recourse to the argument that socio-cultural

terrain mediates female labor differentially and flexibly to the extent that fishers’

subsistence needs are met. The nuances of gender roles and their inter-dependence, and the

making of socio-political spaces for fisherwomen, have to be well-understood by the

policy-makers in order that fishing-dependent livelihoods are protected and the ultimate

goals of food security, livelihood well-being, and socio-economic advancement are

attained (Benett 2005). Finally, given the fact that there have been major transformations

in artisanal fisheries, it is important to examine how capital penetration and modernization

efforts impact the relationship between class and gender, and how women’s lives and

gender relations in the fisheries sector have been hard-hit by neo-liberal globalization.

Acknowledgements

Weare grateful to fishers of the study villages, especially to the fisherwomen, who passionately sharedtheir views and life stories with us. Cordial thanks to the anonymous referees for their critical insightsand thought-provoking suggestions. Thanks to Avril Maddrell for her cooperation, suggestions, anddelivery of some articles to the corresponding author. Thanks to Biswajit Talapatra (COMMUNICADesigners, Anderkilla, Chittagong, Bangladesh) who provided artistic touch to Figure 2.

Note

1. Bengali women are known to have a wide variety of metaphorization (such as water, motherland,nature, cradle, river, and deities) in literary works, popular beliefs, and culture. Especially Hindureligious scripts personify woman as a creative and dynamic cosmic energy (‘Shakti’),represented through goddesses such as ‘Durga’, ‘Kali’, ‘Laxmi’, ‘Sarwasati’, and so on in widerBengal. Again, interestingly, she comprises left part of male Lord Shiva. Such mythologicalpersonification in religious scripts is indicative of partial patriarchy. In the Bengali society, she is

Gender, Place and Culture 17

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still regarded for unconditional care, protection, mysteriousness, elusiveness, natural beauty, andnever-ending love. Women, with son, are generally viewed as lucky and a repository of power.Again, women who fail to exercise natural function of child-birth transmute their personal, social,and religious power. In general, they are born to serve.

Notes on contributors

Dr Apurba Krishna Deb graduated from the Natural Resources Institute (NRI), University ofManitoba (UM), Canada. Currently, he works in the Climate Change and Environmental ProtectionDivision-Western region, Manitoba Conservation andWater Stewardship, Government of Manitoba,Canada. Dr Deb specializes in the areas of artisanal fisheries, fishing communities, livelihood,coping, gender mainstreaming, indigenous knowledge, environmental policy, participatory research,and project management. Dr Deb managed development projects with nonprofits, Department forInternational Development, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and CanadianInternational Development Agency.

Dr C. Emdad Haque is Professor at NRI, UM, Canada and was a visiting Fulbright research fellow atArizona State University, USA, in 2008. Dr Haque was the founding President of the Canadian Riskand Hazards Network. His recent books included Hazards in a Fickle Environment (1998),Mitigation of Natural Hazards and Disasters (2005), and Disaster Risk and Vulnerability:Mitigation through Mobilizing Communities and Partnerships (2012).

Dr Shirley Thompson is an Associate Professor at NRI, UM. As a principal, co-principal and co-investigator of grants, Dr Thompson has received over $3 million funds, including national grantsfrom CIHR and SSHRC. She was elected as the co-president of the Environmental StudiesAssociation in Canada for the last five years. She has a focus on sustainable livelihoods, gender indevelopment and eco-health in First Nation and developing countries.

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ABSTRACT TRANSLATIONS

‘El hombre no puede parir, la mujer no puede pescar’: la dinamica de genero en la

pesca de pequena escala en Bangladesh

Yendo mas alla de los mitos dominantes en el arraigo sociocultural del Bangladesh rural,

este artıculo analiza los diversos roles visibles e invisibles de las mujeres pescadoras en

la pesca artesanal. Esta investigacion considero a dos grupos etnicos situados en dos

ecosistemas diferentes: el ecosistema de llanura de inundacion fluvial esta representado

por pescadoras musulmanas ‘Maimal’ recien arribadas, y el ecosistema costero esta

representado por pescadoras hindues ‘Jaladas’ con sistemas de castas. Desde una mirada

Gender, Place and Culture 19

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mundial ontologica basica de la dignidad humana, el individualismo moral y el

reconocimiento social de los derechos de las mujeres, sostenemos que los roles de las

pescadoras deben ser reconocidos, enfocados y valorados para desarrollar un

entendimiento horizontal, que es un prerrequisito para el proceso de democratizacion, y

para el funcionamiento apropiado de una sociedad justa. En las sociedades rurales, una

serie de atributos, tales como las construcciones socioculturales profundamente arraigadas

del mito maternal, la tolerancia extrema, la ensenanza familiar, el antagonismo religioso,

la pobreza, la falta de educacion, la posicion subordinada internalizada, la falta de

instituciones de apoyo y el miedo a la perdida del patrocinio social, socavan

profundamente la capacidad de las mujeres a tener aspiraciones y a levantar sus voces.

A las mujeres pescadoras se les otorga una posicion social inferior, aunque juegan roles

unicos en areas de cuidado infantil, mantenimiento del hogar, sustento y apoyo psicosocial

para los pescadores en el mar. Considerando el ecotono de la pesca marina, este artıculo

tambien describe como una forma patriarcal rıgida de sociedad es transformada

estacionalmente a la matrifocalidad cuando los pescadores se han ido a pescar durante

medio ano.

Palabras claves: pesca artesanal; mujeres pescadoras; matrifocalidad; rituales; modos de

sustento; Bangladesh

‘男人无法生孩子, 女人不能捕鱼’: 孟加拉小规模渔业中的性别动态

本文超越镶嵌在孟加拉农村社会文化中的流行神话故事，检视女性渔夫在小规模

渔业中的可见及不可见角色。本研究考量分别位于不同生态系统的两大族裔团

体：新进入的穆斯林渔民‘迈莫’（Maimal）代表了洪泛平原淡水生态系统，以种姓

制度为基础的印度渔民‘加拉达’（Jaladas）则代表了沿海生态系统。从人类尊严的

基本实在论世界观、道德个人主义以及女性权利的社会认可而言，我们主张，女

性渔民的角色必须被承认、关注并受到重视，以发展做为民主化进程与公平社会

适当运作前提的水平式理解。在农村社会中的许多特徵，诸如对于母性神话根深

蒂固的社会文化建构、极度的容忍、家庭教育、信仰的对立、贫穷、缺乏教育、从属位置的内化、缺乏支持性机构，以及对于失去社会恩庇关係的恐惧，皆深刻

地削弱了女性想望并发声的能力。儘管女性对航海渔业从业者在儿童照护、家庭

照料、生计与心理—社会支持的领域中扮演了特殊的角色，女性渔民却获得了次

等的社会位置。有助于海洋渔业的交错带，本文亦描绘出严密的父权社会形式，如何在男性出海捕鱼的半年间，季节性地转换成为母主制度。

关键词：小规模渔业; 女性渔民; 母主制度; 仪式; 生计; 孟加拉

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