Repository logo
 

Dual classification revisited: Rodney Needham and vertical asymmetry aboard Scottish trawlers

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Change log

Authors

Abstract

jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:pDrawing on ethnographic data collected while working as a deckhand on two Scottish trawlers, this article analyses the spatialisation of social, religious, and economic inequalities that marked relations between crew members while they hunted for prawns in the North Sea. Moreover, it explores these inequalities as a wider feature of life in Gamrie, Aberdeenshire, a Brethren and Presbyterian fishing village riven by disparities in wealth and religion. Inequalities identified by fishermen at sea mirrored those identified by residents onshore, resulting in fishing boats being experienced as small floating villages. Drawing on the work of Rodney Needham, this article suggests that these asymmetries can be traced along a vertical axis, with greater to lesser wealth and religiosity moving from top/above to bottom/below. The article seeks to understand the presence and persistence of these hierarchies at sea and on land, by revisiting dual classification within anthropological theory.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

4406 Human Geography, 4401 Anthropology, 44 Human Society, 10 Reduced Inequalities

Journal Title

Maritime Studies

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1872-7859
2212-9790

Volume Title

20

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC