Gendered Modes of Evaluating Work in a Javanese Fishery

Abstract

This paper discusses two differently gendered modes of evaluating the work of crewmembers in a Northern Javanese fishery, the first focusing on its outcome and the second on the work process itself. Both are familiar from the anthropological literature. In this literature, the relative weight attributed to each and the connection stipulated between them appears as a matter of theoretical choice. In a fishing village in northern Java, however, each mode of evaluating work appears as a gendered perspective, grounded in the different experiences and kinds of expertise acquired by male crewmembers on the boats and by their female relatives who manage household finances. The paper introduces each of these perspectives and then explores how they are shared through narratives and everyday interactions within crewmembers’ households.