Taylor, Lawrence J. (1981) “Man the fisher”: salmon fishing and the expression of community in a rural Irish settlement. American ethnologist, 8 (4). pp. 774-788. ISSN 0094-0496

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	community; European ethnography; maritime anthropology; Ireland; ideology;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy Faculty of Social Sciences > Anthropology
Item ID:	2015
Depositing User:	Professor Lawrence J. Taylor
Date Deposited:	29 Jun 2010 15:33
Journal or Publication Title:	American ethnologist
Refereed:	Yes
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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