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was no jural obligation to support him, and he had lived there ever since. After division he was, of course, no more eligible for mastership on his nephews' junks than any other non-family member. There were several other cases of charity towards relatives both men and women. Some received the wages of hired men, some did not.
The Participation of Women
No Kau Sai fishing boat had a woman master. From time to time one heard of such a phenomenon elsewhere, but although most passenger sampans in the Boat Peoples' major centres and not a few lighters in the harbour were owned and managed by women it was exceedingly rare to find them in charge of sea-going or fishing vessels.
Strictly patrilineal patterns of inheritance coupled with the out-marriage of daughters, who were thereupon cut off from all further claim upon their natal families, made the emergence of female heirs intrinsically unlikely. On the rare occasions when a daughter did inherit or a widow administer (fishing) boat property the practical demands of a fishing business, both at sea and ashore, made it difficult for any but the most unusually strong-minded woman even to attempt to run it herself, let alone succeed. One day in the 'fifties men's gossip on the sea wall at Kau Sai turned to this subject. One man remarked that he had heard there was a woman master on a fishing boat based somewhere to the westward. Several others had heard of her too, but Chung Fuk Hei said he had met her. He shook his head in mixed admiration and disapproval: "Ho gan-iu, gogo nuiyan", he added, "really formidable”.
This does not mean, of course, that women play no part in fishing. On the contrary, because it is normal for these Chinese fishing junks to house whole families it follows that nearly all of them have women on board. This is such an unusual state of affairs that it requires a small digression. Much more commonly the literature on fishing communities explains that women are magically dangerous creatures whose mere presence on, or even near, any fishing boat is bound to bring bad luck. It would
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was no jural obligation to support him, and he had lived there ever since. After division he was, of course, no more eligible for mastership on his nephews' junks than any other non-family member. There were several other cases of charity towards relatives both men and women. Some received the wages of hired men, some did not.
The Participation of Women
No Kau Sai fishing boat had a woman master. From time to time one heard of such a phenomenon elsewhere, but although most passenger sampans in the Boat Peoples' major centres and not a few lighters in the harbour were owned and managed by women it was exceedingly rare to find them in charge of sea- going or fishing vessels.
Strictly patrilineal patterns of inheritance coupled with the out-marriage of daughters, who were thereupon cut off from all further claim upon their natal families, made the emergence of female heirs intrinsically unlikely. On the rare occasions when a daughter did inherit or a widow administer (fishing) boat property the practical demands of a fishing business, both at sea and ashore, made it difficult for any but the most unusually strong-minded woman even to attempt to run it herself, let alone succeed. One day in the 'fifties men's gossip on the sea wall at Kau Sai turned to this subject. One man remarked that he had heard there was a woman master on a fishing boat based somewhere to the westward. Several others had heard of her too, but Chung Fuk Hei said he had met her. He shook his head in mixed admiration and disapproval: "Ho gan-iu, gogo nuiyan”, he added, "really formidable”.
This does not mean, of course, that women play no part in fishing. On the contrary, because it is normal for these Chinese fishing junks to house whole families it follows that nearly all of them have women on board. This is such an unusual state of affairs that it requires a small digression. Much more commonly the literature on fishing communities explains that women are magically dangerous creatures whose mere presence on, or even near, any fishing boat is bound to bring bad luck. It would
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