Socio-cultural issues encountered in modernising traditional fishermen in Sabah

Abstract

Socio-cultural issues that are debilitating factors in governmental attempts to modernise traditional fishermen in Sabah can be broadly classified into two categories: exo-community issues and endo-community issues. Both types of issues are subtle, and manifest themselves in a complex multi- layered series of relationships that are not obviously related to the task of modernisation. Before analysing these socio-cultural issues in the main body of the paper, the state's fishing industry shall be profiled briefly, and a capsule portrait of Sabah's traditional fishermen, based on the State Fishery Department information and KO-NELAYAN Sabah Fishermen Survey data, presented.