PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jesper Larsson
AU  - Eva-Lotta Päiviö Sjaunja
TI  - Freshwater Fishing Strategies in Early Modern Sami Households
AID  - 10.3368/aa.57.2.197
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - Arctic Anthropology
PG  - 197--211
VI  - 57
IP  - 2
4099  - http://aa.uwpress.org/content/57/2/197.short
4100  - http://aa.uwpress.org/content/57/2/197.full
SO  - Arctic Anthropol2020 Jan 01; 57
AB  - Fish were absolutely necessary for survival for many households in preindustrial societies. Because fishing waters are considered a common-pool resource, it is difficult to exclude users, and the catch is subtractable. To learn what strategies were in place to avoid fish-stock depletion and secure continuous harvests, we investigated how Indigenous Sami households in Lule lappmark, Sweden, used low-productive freshwaters between 1660 and 1780. Our aim is to show how they conducted fishing and how it was linked to rules for fishing. Our sources are contemporary 17th- and 18th-century accounts and local court rulings. Rules for fishing were developed in a self-governance context. Users and fishing areas were well defined, and users often had exclusive rights to fish. Inheritance was important but not a sufficient prerequisite to obtain access. Our research covers a period during which abundant but low-yield fishing waters per household declined, making it more difficult to survive.