‘Beyond the Lens of Peasantry’: Theoretical Basis of ‘Fishantry’ as a Distinct Social Domain (Part 1)

Historically, fishers have been embodied among rural primary producers, and they have been largely overlooked in efforts of anthropological and political theorizing of the peasantry. This article, which is the first part of a study, takes up the challenge to analyze the theoretical basis and argues in favour of why fishers do deserve a separate analytical treatment. We observed that, despite some commonalities, interactions, and dependencies between fishers and peasants as rural inhabitants and professional groups, fishers exhibit distinct characteristics in terms of their socio-political dimension, culture, Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), production relations, adoption of technology, local institutions, and resource governance. We, therefore, assert fishantry as a distinct social domain that deserves a separate analytical framework relative to peasantry. Empirically, the attributes of fishantry are more visible in small-scale fisheries in developing or least-developed societies. In part two of this study, which will be published in the next issue, we present the analysis pertinent to the independent existence and the social relations of fishers in the fishing communities in Bangladesh. We envision that manifestations of a fishantry theoretical framework would be reflected in the policy domain as designated resources and programs that would aim for the sustainable management of fisheries resources and the well-being of the user groups.