Elements of Assemblage in Northern Informal Fisheries: Solidarity, Norms, Pink Salmon, Atlantic Salmon

Abstract

We approach informal fisheries in the Murmansk region by employment of the concept of M. DeLanda. DeLanda’s concept mainly associates with the construction of a horizontal ontology, as an alternative to the traditional vertical structures that advocate a hierarchical understanding of the world and the exclusivity of humans. M. DeLanda’s horizontal ontology allows considering different-level components of fishing in two interdependent axes: 1) “material – expressive”; 2) “synthetic – variable”. The analysis of these axes allows us to analyze the problem of the lack of positive attitude of local population to the abundance of pink salmon, which is one of the most significant material components of the assemblage of informal fisheries in the Murmansk region. The theoretical explication of this problem is connected with the possibility of realising the synthesis of material elements, which – in themselves – are connected with different spheres of life activity. Historical and spatial plots show various aspects of the connection between the material and expressive poles of fish assemblage, and reveal the possibility of scaling the informal practices of the North particularly, in the Murmansk region. Pink salmon has the potential to change assemblage through exteriority – the inclusion of external elements. Figure of a salmon occupies a position between the material and the expressive stabilizing the assemblage of northern informal fishing and embodying the community’s identification with place and its history. Solidarity sets patterns of behavior that define not only “us” and “them” but also the many in-betweens. Informal norms reflect perceptions of the image of the “golden mean” in fishing in the North. The connection to history and to a place, manifested in local identification, opens up the possibility of altering the agency of pink salmon in terms of expressivity.