Authority and the Factors Determining It in Fishing Families

In the Case of “Anori, ” a Fishing Village in Shima

Abstract

The purpose of this report is to show empirically the husband-wife relationship in the fishing family by analyzing its power and authority and to find out the factors determining them.
Samples are 112 housewives who have elementary school children in “Anori, ” one of the fishing villages in Shima peninsula. The authors interviewed them at their homes in July, 1970.
1. Percentages of four types of the conjugal authority are as follows : wifedominant type 27%, autonomic type 25%, syncretic type 18% and husband-dominant type 12%.
In this survey, percentage of the wife-dominant type is much higher than that obtained by the urban families in Kobe and Detroit. This fact shows that more wives in Anori take the lead in making decisions for home management and that their social status is comparatively high.
2. The major factors which determine the conjugal authority are the family constitution and the wife's job. In case where both husband and wife are engaged in fishing, the authority is more syncretic and in case where the wife is “Ama” (fisher woman), it is rather wifedominant, type.
3. The change in the industrial structure of this community will bring about an upward trend in autonomic and wife-dominant type families.