Both recreatinal and industrial fishing play a large part in society . To maintain their rich waters, Icelanders have had to impose fishing quotas, many of which are now being bought by a few large companies.(RAFN HAFNJORD / ICELANDIC TOURIST BOARD)

Viewing themselves as a single entity, Icelanders see no reason to foist their culture upon others, just as within Iceland they see no reason to limit individual freedom. Those I asked said they would not want American society to be more like theirs because then it would not be true to itself. This spirit of unobtrusiveness is what led Iceland in 1996 to become the first country in the world to formally recognize the marriage of same-sex couples. Recently, it became the second to allow step-adoption by same-sex couples. Such adoptions have been met by so much support that in her article on the subject for the Iceland Review, Margaret Bjorgulfsdottir cited only one talk show as creating any sense of controversy. With the overall adoption rate in Iceland very low, only a few children a year will be adopted by same-sex couples. Instead, the law epitomizes the Icelandic sense of individual autonomy.
       
This attitude is both historically based and found in the essentials of the language and family system. Icelanders use the patronym system. Children take their father's first name as their last, adding the suffix of -son or -dottir. Therefore, a family whose father's first name is Jon will have children named Jonson and Jonsdottir. The mother in the family will, however, retain her given name, after her own father. This means that in a family of four, with both a boy and girl child, every person will have not only his own first name but his own last name as well. It is therefore considered no more formal to call a person by his last name than his first. Maria, an Icelandic American, told me that a sister, who moved back to Iceland, sends her kids to a school at which the principal is called by his first name. Even in the phonebook, people are listed by first name.