Red Flags and Lace Coiffes: Identity and Survival in a Breton Village

Red Flags and Lace Coiffes: Identity and Survival in a Breton Village

by Charles R. Menzies
Red Flags and Lace Coiffes: Identity and Survival in a Breton Village

Red Flags and Lace Coiffes: Identity and Survival in a Breton Village

by Charles R. Menzies

eBook

$45.99  $61.00 Save 25% Current price is $45.99, Original price is $61. You Save 25%.

Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers


Overview

This book explores the question of why fishing communities continue their struggle to survive, despite often calamitous changes in ecology and economy. Using historical ethnography as a lens through which to understand how fishers of the Bigouden region of France and their families have reinvented themselves, Menzies argues that local identity plays an important role in their perseverance as global capitalist pressures continually force them to reorganize or disappear entirely.

Touching on many concepts that are fundamental to anthropology—culture, identity, kinship, work, political economy, and globalization—and filled with personal stories and warmth, this ethnography will be a welcome teaching tool for instructors and an enticing read for students.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781442605145
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Publication date: 08/01/2011
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 160
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

Charles R. Menzies is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia and Director of the Ethnographic Film Unit. He is director of an accompanying film about the Breton fishery, Face a la Tempete—Weather the Storm (Bullfrog Films, 2008) and editor of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Natural Resource Management (University of Nebraska Press, 2006).

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables

Preface

Introduction

Situating the Field
Where is the Bigoudennie?

Part One: A Local Politics of Survival

1. Social Struggle at "la fin de siècle"

Night of Fire
On to Crisis
Days of Protest
The Impact of the Crisis on Everyday Life
Neo-Liberal Globalization and Social Conflict
Conclusion

2. Symbols of Struggle: Red Flags, Lace Coiffes, and Social Class

Strikes and Demonstrations
Putting Food on the Table
Symbols of the Strikes and Demonstrations
Lace Coiffes and Industrial Work
Conclusion

Part Two: The Material Conditions of the Everyday

3. Episode, Not Epoch: Building Capitalism in the Hinterland

From Peasant to Worker
The Rise of the Trawl Fishery
Social Relations of Production
Conclusion

4. Working at Sea

A Day at Sea
Skippers, Crews, and the Family at Sea
Work First! Eat Later: Social Class at Sea
Social Class and the Artisanal Fishing Experience
The Development of the Bigouden Fishing Fleet
Boats and their General Characteristics
Conclusion

5. Working Ashore

Fishermen and Women in Fishing Communities: A Global Overview
Women's Work and Fishing in the Bigoudennie
Socio-economic Differences and Women's Work
Conclusion

6. The Difference a Family Makes

Luc and Martine Kernevad
Gilbert and Catherine Bazhad
Families and the Maintenance of Property

Conclusion

The Argument
The Future of the Bigouden Fishery

Glossary

References

Index

What People are Saying About This

Sharon Roseman

Menzies's ethnography will be extremely effective for teaching undergraduate students. It delivers sophisticated lessons in political economy analysis through a lively and accessible discussion of the historical and contemporary Bigouden fishery.

Karen Brodkin

Menzies has given us a fine read—an engaging and beautifully written portrait of daily life in a Breton village and the historical struggles of fishers to maintain their livelihoods. This is a book with a heart, but it also includes a solid analysis of the global forces with which artisanal ways of life continually do battle.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews