Red flags and lace coiffes : identity and survival in a Breton fishing village

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. "Small-scale, family fishing enterprises manage to persist despite a range of difficult economic and ecological changes and disruptions. Red Flags and Lace Coiffes is an ... ethnography that explores how and why family-based fishing enterprises continue in the face of what seem to be overwhelming odds. Using historical ethnography as a lens through which to understand how the fishers and their families of the Bigouden region in France have situated themselves over time, Charles R. Menzies argues that local identity plays an important role as global capitalist pressures force these fishing communities to reorganize or disappear entirely. Throughout, the book touches on key concepts such as identity, culture, globalization, kinship, work, the environment, and the economy."--Publisher's description