Bodley Summary
...ntimate knowledge of the behavior of native fishes. These people were looked down upon by other peoples further inland, and were considered poor and therefore lesser people. The Urus, as they were called, dried the fish that they harvested and traded them to people far inland for harvested crops. Their technologies relied heavily on their knowledge of the behavior of the different types of fish, as well as the cooperation of others from their villages. Beginning in about 1930, several things brought about changes in the people and their technologies. The first was a major draught that forced people living further inland to rely heavily on the lake fishermen to supply them with food, and thus lifting their status within the community. The second thing forced major changes in the technology of the fishermen, and that was the introduction of trout into the lake by an American fisheries specialist hired by the Peruvian and Bolivian governments. The trout population took to lake very well, and began to become popular in La Paz by the 1950’s. Increases in demand lead to an increase in profits allowing the men to buy nylon nets which lead to an increase in harvest which forced the men to buy steadier wood boats, and so forth. Eventually, canneries were opened briefly in the region, but were forced to close once the trout became over harvested and their number dwindled. Eventually, the government tried to regulate the fishers on Lake Titicaca, and they began issuing licenses for each boat. This was largely unsuccessful, but not nearly as unsuccessful as the fishing licenses they later tried to issue. More or less, the author attempted in this chapter to explain how and why technologies have ch...