Mauss, Interestedness, and Disinterestedness: Hawaiian and Maori Fisheries

Abstract

This article uses Mauss's thesis on The Gift as a lens through which to critically compare Hawaiian and Maōri fisheries. I focus, in particular, on the specific and paradoxical blending of interestedness and disinterestedness in the subsistence sector in Hawaii, and the historical separation of these phenomena in the context of fisheries management in New Zealand. As emergent financial commodities fish symbolises a new type of disjuncture between production and exchange, a disjuncture which is likely to be unsustainable in terms of either human or environmental costs.

Review of adaptations of U.S. Commercial Fisheries in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic using the Resist‐Accept‐Direct (RAD) framework

“…This focus on caring for the community is a core component of other types of economic systems that are less focused on market outcomes and also include diversification in societal roles, as was prevalent in the more successful fishery adaptations. Some researchers have contrasted commodity economies with gift economies, where the exchange of fish as a gift is not only a transaction of food but also maintains social ties and fulfills cultural obligations (McCormack, 2015 ). Others refer to a social and solidarity economy, where the production and exchange of goods and services are outside of traditional state‐run markets and priorities are social well‐being, community building, cooperation, and solidarity (Utting et al, 2014 ).…”