Flags and Fishing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2009
Dr. Chad Stebbins

(417) 626-9736
 
JOPLIN, MO (SNS) –   Dr. Craig T. Palmer is an associate professor of cultural anthropology and director of graduate studies in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Missouri-Columbia will  make two presentations at Missouri Southern State University on Friday, Sept. 4.

• “Why are There So Many Newfoundland Flags in Alberta? -- Newfoundland Identity and Supportive Social Networks” will be presented at 9 a.m., Friday, Sept. 4 in Corley Auditorium in Webster Hall.

The past 30 years have seen thousands of Newfoundlanders migrate to Alberta to work in the oil industry. This continuing pattern of migration provides an opportunity to explore both the nature of the Newfoundland identity and the reasons for why it is given such emphasis among Newfoundlanders living in Alberta. It is suggested that the frequent displays of Newfoundland identity through such mediums as T-shirts, hats, tattoos, flags, bumper stickers and music are instrumental in the creation of mutually beneficial social networks.

• “In Cod They Trusted: Ecological Knowledge, Social Context and the Overexploitation of Marine Resources in Eastern Canada” will be presented at 11 a.m  in the same location.

Eastern Canada, like many parts of the world, has seen the dramatic overexploitation of natural resources. The local ecological knowledge of the people directly dependent on a resource is obviously a valuable tool to be used in avoiding similar future ecological disasters. However, local ecological knowledge is far more complex than what people say about the environment and the causes of environmental problems. This is because all talk about the environment not only takes place within a specific social environment; it is also aimed at influencing the behavior of people in that social environment. Thus talk about the causes of environmental problems must be interpreted within the social context of that talk. Craig Palmer presents a number of examples of the need for such interpretations from his fieldwork in Newfoundland and Labrador over the past 20 years that included extensive participant observation in the commercial fisheries for cod, lobster, shrimp and other species.

Dr. Palmer earned his Ph.D. in anthropology from Arizona State University in 1988. His research focuses on kinship, religion, ritual, cooperation, migration, sports and the ecological adaptations of fishing communities to their environment. His experience working in the commercial lobster fishery of Maine for five years during the 1980s led to his anthropological fieldwork in fishing communities on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, Canada.

This research started in 1990 and initially focused on the social consequences of the collapse of the cod stocks that had been the primary economic resource in the area for centuries. More recently his research has followed the residents of Newfoundland as the collapse of the fishery has caused them to have to migrate to western Canada in order to find jobs in the oil industry of northern Alberta. His current research focuses on how these individuals maintain many of their Newfoundland traditions and use these to create networks of social relationships with other Newfoundlanders to help meet the many challenges faced in the new environment of western Canada.

 

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