Fish, fisheries and fishermen: ethnographic notes about ecosocial processes

Abstract This paper focuses on three emic concepts (fish, fisheries, and fishermen) that are important to understand artisanal fishing at two beaches of Pernambuco in the Brazilian Northeast: São José da Coroa Grande and Carne de Vaca. Using a comparative ethnographic approach, I discuss these concepts as eco-social processes, supporting the concepts of social production and reproduction of Godelier and Lukács. Thus, eco-social processes are understood as an irrevocable metabolism of the fisherman with nature. Consequently, the fisherman’s work becomes a sine qua non condition for social production and reproduction of artisanal fishing as a category that at the same time constitutes and is comprised by ‘ways of being’ and by socio-economic, cultural and ecological conditions of existence. In addition, eco-social processes are social mediations linked to certain historical times, given specific environmental conditions, local characteristics and their interactions with the whole of society. An example of this is presented through the different fishing practices (with rafts, boats and canoes) and ways of the fishermen at the beaches of São José da Coroa Grande and Carne de Vaca.摘要 本研究聚焦三大主位概念（emic concept）——鱼类（fish）、渔业（fisheries）与渔民（fishermen），旨在深入理解巴西东北部伯南布哥州两处海滩的手工渔业（artisanal fishing）实践样态：圣若泽达科罗阿格兰德（São José da Coroa Grande）与卡尔内迪瓦卡（Carne de Vaca）。本文采用比较民族志研究方法，将上述概念视为生态社会过程（eco-social processes）展开探讨，并依托戈德利耶（Godelier）与卢卡奇（Lukács）的社会生产与再生产理论开展论证。据此，生态社会过程被界定为渔民与自然之间不可逆转的物质代谢过程。由此，渔民的劳作成为手工渔业这一范畴实现社会生产与再生产的必要条件：该范畴既建构了“存在方式”，同时也为“存在方式”以及社会经济、文化与生态生存条件所形塑。此外，生态社会过程是与特定历史时期相关联的社会中介（social mediations），其形成与运行依赖于特定环境条件、本地社会特征，以及其与整体社会的互动关系。本文以圣若泽达科罗阿格兰德与卡尔内迪瓦卡海滩的渔民不同作业实践（使用筏、渔船与独木舟）及作业模式为例，具体展现了上述生态社会过程的实际样貌。