The Lobster Gangs of Maine by James M. Acheson

Abstract

156 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE needed, especially while the longshoremen who were affected by the technological changes are still with us. Donald Fitzgerald Dr. Fitzgerald is with the Corps of Engineers at Fort Shafter, Hawaii. The Lobster Gangs of Maine. By James M. Acheson. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1988. Pp. xiv+ 181; illustrations, notes, glossary, appendix, bibliography, index. $20.00 (cloth); $9.95 (paper). A stubborn myth in American folklore asserts that the Maine lobster hsherman is one of the last rugged individualists. In reality, he is ensnared in a complex web of social relationships. The ties of kinship, hamlets, and local associations direct and control his individ­ ual behavior. The social units affecting work are the “harbor gangs” that control entry into the industry and claim and defend fishing areas. This conclusion, reached by social anthropologist James M. Acheson, serves as the vantage point for his examination of a number of issues relating to the work of lobster fishermen and the lobster industry. One would expect the technology of lobster fishing to improve over the years. The most recent significant change has been the adoption of Loran C, a precise navigational instrument used to find particular fishing grounds. But it is the relationship of skill to technology that particularly interests Acheson. He found skill to be one of the most important variables determining a fisherman’s success. Only the size of the trap and the season had more influence. The nature of the lobster fisherman’s work enables Acheson to evaluate Garret Hardin’s thesis, “the tragedy of the commons,” which asserts that open access to publicly owned resources makes unlimited exploitation rational. Acheson finds that the harbor gangs’ strong sense of territoriality provides a means of conservation that would make Hardin’s dependence on draconian government controls un­ necessary. Moreover he finds that the fishermen care about the conservation of the resource they are dependent on and that their experiential knowledge often corresponds with the scientific knowl­ edge gained by marine biologists. Rather than looking on the fish­ ermen as uninformed, stubborn opponents to fisheries management, Acheson suggests biologists and government regulators seek a dia­ logue with fishermen and even, perhaps, the comanagement of fisheries with them. He also recognizes the importance of marketing to the fishermen and provides a useful economic analysis based on the principle of “relational contracting,” where transactions take place over a long period of time and both prices and personal relationships play a role. TECHNOLOGY .AND CULTURE Book Reviews 157 Since Acheson’s main purpose is to explain the present state of the lobster industry in Maine, he provides only a brief history of the industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Yet historians of technology, labor, and economics will find his book useful because of what he can tell them about the recent history of the lobster industry and because he illustrates how they might effectively use social anthropology. The Lobster Gangs ofMaine is a condensation of a much longer study based on fifteen years of research. Acheson effectively demonstrates the value of an interdisciplinary approach to under­ standing social problems such as the conservation of resources. He writes clearly and makes his subject interesting to the nonprofes­ sional; his bibliography directs scholars who desire further informa­ tion to other articles and reports. Richard D. Lunt Dr. Lunt is professor of history, Rochester Institute of Technology, and author of Law and Order vs. the Miners: West Virginia, 1907—1933 (Shoe String Press, 1979). Textiles in Transition: Technology, 'Wages, and Industry Relocation in the U.S. Textile Industry, 1880—1930. By Nancy Frances Kane. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1988. Pp. xi+ 190; tables, notes, appen­ dixes, bibliography, index. $37.95. In this volume, based on her UCLA dissertation, Nancy Kane assesses the effect of the adoption of ring spinning (vs. the classic “mule” format) on cotton mills’ survival chances during the halfcentury after 1880. Aggregating firm-level data derived from annual textile directory entries for Massachusetts and North Carolina, Kane wishes to test the hypothesis that technical change, more or rather than other factors, “facilitated the shift of the industry to the South” (p. 158). Operating within...