Farmers at Sea: A Study of Fishermen in North Norway, 1801-1920

• Published in: Journal of Family History
• Main Author: Dyrvik, Ståle
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 1993
• Subjects: Social Sciences (miscellaneous); Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); Anthropology; Lofoten; Norway; North Norway
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/036319909301800404; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/036319909301800404

This investigation encompasses three coastal communities in North Norway. They are all associated to varying degrees with the cod fisheries in the Lofoten Islands, and comparisons among them reveal how this fishing created, various types of household organization. However, difficulties arise because it is not the fisherman, but rather the fisherman-farmer that is typical in the region. Concealed in this combination of livelihoods is a life-cycle pattern: youths participated very actively in fishing, adults less so and the elderly hardly at all. The households of the traditional full-time fishermen were small and simple in structure. The households of fishermen-farmers were larger and more complex. The organization of labor in the fisheries cut across household boundaries. Only during the final decade of the period investigated are full-time fishermen distinguishable to any significant degree in the three local communities. At the same time differences in household structure begin to rapidly level out.