The Amazing Crawfish Boat by John Laudun (review)

It is not often that we get to hear the details of an innovation in rural industry in a place far from the more lauded technology corridors and valleys of metropolitan America. For those who believe that rural communities lack motivation or inspiration to evolve, the stories in this book are lessons in hope and change. Readers are also reminded that human and cultural dynamics both help and hinder creativity and project design. In The Amazing Crawfish Boat, Laudun describes the invention of the "smallest object with a small impact" in the wetlands of southwestern Louisiana. The boat was designed to solve a local problem, so it did not attract the attention and input of highly trained engineers and scientists. Instead, the men who use these boats and the men who provide equipment and repair services combined their insights and experiences to create a machine suited to their local circumstances. I have seen this machine in the waters off country roads or being towed on the highway, where I viewed it as an obstacle to get around on my way to more familiar places. With this new knowledge about and respect for this vehicle, I have the opportunity to give my tablet-fixated children and students a lesson in ground level, creative thinking.

Laudun's six-year field study, consisting of interviews and participatory observations, occurred mainly within a thirty-minute drive from his university base in Lafayette, Louisiana. Laudun offers, in addition to this image-filled volume, audio recordings, photographs, and video footage on the Ethnographic Video for Instruction and Analysis Digital Archive (EVIA) website. In describing the scope of his research, Laudun notes that his subjects were mainly men who were directly involved in managing crawfish ventures and those who supported them with the equipment and tools needed for such undertakings. However, he also acknowledges their families and the farm laborers who were largely African-American and Mexican.

After a detailed prefatory section, Laudun opens the first chapter, "Land's End," with the revelation that the invention of the crawfish boat was born of urgency and crisis—Hurricane Katrina. But because New Orleans received most of the attention from this catastrophic event, most people are unaware of the impact of the storm on the surrounding landscape that still experiences rising sea levels. The residents of these wetlands have the challenge of maintaining their livelihoods and way of life even as their lands continue to disappear. The chapter provides historical reflections on the settlement of the area by Cajuns and Germans, which mesh conveniently with their roles as farmers and technicians today. Laudun invokes the documentary work of folklorist Alan Lomax, which chronicles the lifestyle of an area known for elaborate Mardi Gras events. Descriptions of cattle raising and rotations in land use are also provided.

In chapter 2, "Shops," Laudun takes us to the technicians who support the fishers and farmers. Many of these shops are one-man metalwork operations engaged in welding, fabricating, and repair services. It is in these tinkering spaces that new devices emerge, often crude-looking contraptions that are designed to meet the specific needs of their customers, which makes it difficult to scale them up to commercially viable levels. According to the men, financial returns on their investment of time and effort are secondary to the need to solve problems and inject optimism into the farming and fishing community, which in turn helps keep their shops open. A later discussion about the unwillingness to patent the inventions that come out of the shops confirms the ethos of these shop owners.

Over several chapters, Laudun describes his interactions and trips with the crawfish farmers; technical details on the tractors, plows, trailers, and boats that traverse the rice fields; the types of rice and history of rice planting in the area; and rice harvesting and processing. The symbiotic relationship between rice farming and crawfish harvesting and distribution is fully examined. The last chapters engage readers in philosophical and practical assessments of how...