Fishscapes: Noticing Multispecies Entanglements in a Nair Taravad

This paper narrates the interspecies relatedness and gendered entanglements in the life journey of anchovies from the oceans to the plate. In dynamic capitalist sites, anchovies are transformed from their very being into cheap resources and are translated as new commodity frontiers with varying soci...

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Main Author: Sunil D. Santha
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of the Western Cape, Centre for Humanities Research and the History Department 2025-05-01
Series:Kronos
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Online Access:http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-01902025000100004&lng=en&tlng=en
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author Sunil D. Santha
author_facet Sunil D. Santha
author_sort Sunil D. Santha
collection DOAJ
description This paper narrates the interspecies relatedness and gendered entanglements in the life journey of anchovies from the oceans to the plate. In dynamic capitalist sites, anchovies are transformed from their very being into cheap resources and are translated as new commodity frontiers with varying social and ecological consequences. Anchovies were once part of the staple diet of the Nair households, which I describe in this paper. My inquiry for this paper begins here. How did the anchovy disappear from our everyday life? What does it say about gender inequality, modernity, and environmental change? Fishscapes, in this paper, are stories that Nair women have to say about their fish-making practices, reminiscing about their social encounters with anchovies. Autoethnographic by design, this paper explores the situated perspectives of Nair women's relatedness with anchovy as the starting point to understand how their daily experiences and ways of knowing interface with historical and layered patches of modernisation, patriarchy, and environmental change in a more-than-human world.
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publishDate 2025-05-01
publisher University of the Western Cape, Centre for Humanities Research and the History Department
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spelling doaj-art-4d95dd3e765d4214bdb6039f20a61dfa2025-08-20T03:11:49ZengUniversity of the Western Cape, Centre for Humanities Research and the History DepartmentKronos2309-95852025-05-0151111810.17159/2309-9585/2025/v51a4Fishscapes: Noticing Multispecies Entanglements in a Nair TaravadSunil D. Santha0Tata Institute of Social SciencesThis paper narrates the interspecies relatedness and gendered entanglements in the life journey of anchovies from the oceans to the plate. In dynamic capitalist sites, anchovies are transformed from their very being into cheap resources and are translated as new commodity frontiers with varying social and ecological consequences. Anchovies were once part of the staple diet of the Nair households, which I describe in this paper. My inquiry for this paper begins here. How did the anchovy disappear from our everyday life? What does it say about gender inequality, modernity, and environmental change? Fishscapes, in this paper, are stories that Nair women have to say about their fish-making practices, reminiscing about their social encounters with anchovies. Autoethnographic by design, this paper explores the situated perspectives of Nair women's relatedness with anchovy as the starting point to understand how their daily experiences and ways of knowing interface with historical and layered patches of modernisation, patriarchy, and environmental change in a more-than-human world.http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-01902025000100004&lng=en&tlng=enFishFisheriesGenderMultispeciesSituated KnowledgeEntanglements
spellingShingle Sunil D. Santha
Fishscapes: Noticing Multispecies Entanglements in a Nair Taravad
Kronos
Fish
Fisheries
Gender
Multispecies
Situated Knowledge
Entanglements
title Fishscapes: Noticing Multispecies Entanglements in a Nair Taravad
title_full Fishscapes: Noticing Multispecies Entanglements in a Nair Taravad
title_fullStr Fishscapes: Noticing Multispecies Entanglements in a Nair Taravad
title_full_unstemmed Fishscapes: Noticing Multispecies Entanglements in a Nair Taravad
title_short Fishscapes: Noticing Multispecies Entanglements in a Nair Taravad
title_sort fishscapes noticing multispecies entanglements in a nair taravad
topic Fish
Fisheries
Gender
Multispecies
Situated Knowledge
Entanglements
url http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-01902025000100004&lng=en&tlng=en
work_keys_str_mv AT sunildsantha fishscapesnoticingmultispeciesentanglementsinanairtaravad