Accounting for Similarities

Abstract

Despite differences in the legitimacy of law in the two communities studied, the most striking feature of the comparison is similarity. In both communities the morality of compliance is largely shaped by moral distinctions between moderation and excess, and between money and food. Food is commonly regarded morally innocent, whereas money is not. People are thus under a moral obligation to comply with regulations in terms of commercial fisheries, but not in terms of subsistence fisheries. In both communities we have seen a commonly-perceived right to secure a satisfactory life, while maximisation of profit is perceived as carrying a potential of immorality. In Uerhavn, small boat fishermen could thus be met with some degree of understanding if they broke the law in commercial fisheries, provided that they did so in order to resolve a situation of economic force majeure. Commercial large-scale activities are generally subjected to much stricter informal surveillance than small-scale, subsistence-oriented ones.