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BARBARA E. WARD
It should not be inferred from any of the foregoing that the potentially polluting nature of females in general and the actually polluting nature of menstruating and parturient females in particular was not considered to be of prime importance. The dangers were certainly felt to be completely real, the fears they engendered just as worrying to the women as the men. It so happened, however, that the prohibitions that were believed to ward the dangers off had little to do with the performance of work. Provided she observed the correct ritual taboos and did not take part in shooting lines or nets while in a state of impurity a woman's participation in fishing operations was not thought to be unlucky.65
Both in 1953 and 1970, when the full counts were made, the Boat population of Kau Sai was distributed almost equally between males and females.
Children and the elderly
The following information has been compiled from the full count made in 1953 and discussed in more detail in Chapter below [not included in manuscript]:-
Type Number 0-9 10-15 16-59 Over 60 Total Purse-seiner 37 121 25 180 13 339 small long-liner 15 26 16 55 3 100 medium long-liner 3 7 1 11 hand-liners and others 8 8 3 17 1 29 Totals 61 158 44 259 18 479The divisions in this table have been made to accord with the common practice of including young people of 16 years and above in the economically active section of a population and excluding old people over 60. There was nothing very realistic about this division in Kau Sai, where boys and girls around 10...