Anthropology of Fishing: An Ethnographic Study on the Culture of Fishermen in Sari, Iran

In this paper, the culture of fishermen has been studied in Sari, north of Iran, taking an anthropological approach. Studying the culture of fishermen, the study aims to examine the effects of the Caspian Sea on the daily lives of the fishermen and their families from social and cultural points of view. This study, hence, focuses on the socio-cultural actors in the community of fishermen, social relations and the division of labor among them. In this ethnography, a variety of methods including the participatory observation and fieldnote, the ethnographic interviews and the focus groups discussion was used to collect data and evidence. Moreover, a kind of qualitative content analysis, namely the conventional content analysis was employed to analyze the data from the community. The main participants of this study recruited from the fishermen in the coastline in Sari, members of fishing corporations and the staff in fishing-related organizations in Sari, Mazandaran. This paper addresses the social and professional relationship among Sari’s fishermen, and examines their ways of leadership. This study revealed that the director of these people (called Losman in the fishing communities in the south bank of the Caspian Sea) plays a key role in the community and his expertise, skill and technical knowledge lead to a special working relationship with other fishermen in the corporation company. The findings of this study also demonstrates that the Losman’s local knowledge is unique and more or less monopolized to him and can be divided into tying the seine net (called Pare), specifying the depth of sea water and the direction for setting the net, forecasting the stormy weather (whether or not to take a risk and head for the sea to catch the fish), put him in a position of power and authority.