ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the ethnography of shrimp mariculture projects in some coastal rural communities. It describes how these projects were related to the larger community and locate this mode of production within the overall range of productive activities. The chapter analyzes the conflicts and other unforeseen consequences of shrimp mariculture projects in the communities where they were developed. The development of a shrimp mariculture industry in Mexico seemed to be appropriate considering its advantages in relation to other Latin American countries. Another reason for such interest was to use the permit process to prevent any further exploitation of the natural shrimp resources. In a sense, two contrasting principles of social organization were functioning simultaneously: first, a competitive private company that controlled all resources and had to show a "bottom line" based on profits; and second, a communally-based group of workers whose only resources were their labor, their land and their word.
