Meminjam Modal untuk Menjaring Asa: Adaptasi Kehidupan Nelayan dalam Keterbatasan- Studi Etnografis Kelompok Nelayan di Dusun Rancong, Gampong Blang Naleung Mameh, Kota Lhokseumawe, Provinsi Aceh

Abstract

For the poor, utilizing limited resources is a constant struggle between competing needs. Resource scarcity can significantly constrain their efforts to meet daily necessities. Amid such limitations, the poor develop adaptive behaviors that enable them to survive. They have their own ways of maximizing every available potential; an art of managing scarcity. This thesis employs ethnographic methods, focusing on a group of fishermen in Dusun Rancong, Gampong Blang Naleung Mameh, Lhokseumawe City. Conducted over a two-month period (March – May), this fieldwork involved living among the community and participating in their daily activities an embodiment of participant observation, which provides a comprehensive depiction of the adaptive behaviors developed by the fishermen in the research site. The aim of this study is to understand the adaptive behaviors of poor communities in facing limited resources, with a particular focus on the fishermen group. Despite the economic hardship that envelops their everyday life, the fishermen have developed adaptive strategies not based on resignation, but on rational considerations to maximize available potential. The results showed that fishermen in Rancong Sub-village have their own ways of managing limitations, which are reflected in their adaptive behavior patterns. These strategies are arranged as a form of adaptation to various economic, social, and environmental pressures, as well as an effort to maintain survival. Adaptations formed by fishermen groups as a strategy to deal with these pressures in this finding are divided into three major themes, namely; 1. Strategy of fishermen going home for the day, 2. Strategy of fishermen for 3 and 10 days, and 3. Strategy of fishermen in general. The strategy of return-day fishermen in dealing with pressure is to go to sea earlier than before. The strategy of 3 and 10-day fishermen is interesting to observe because they form a tactic to the toke to escape the pressure. Meanwhile, fishermen's adaptations in general include sending their children to school, and finding additional sources of income. The findings show that adaptation to poverty is not just a passive reaction, but an art of using resources carefully and creatively. This research contributes to the academic understanding of the dynamics of adaptation of the poor, especially in the context of coastal communities.