v2n1

1. Cover
2. Contents
3. When Islands Lose Dialects: The case of the Ocracoke Brogue
   Walt Wolfram
   [Abstract] [Keywords]
   Keywords: Sociolinguistics, dialect, language endangerment, language change, Ocracoke
   Abstract: The transformation of many small islands from isolated, subsistence-based economies into well-known and desired tourist sites is often accompanied by significant language change and recession in ancestral island communities, a growing topic of concern in the field of sociolinguistics. This discussion considers language change and recession on the island of Ocracoke, a small barrier island located off the coast of North Carolina in the US. It demonstrates how language change is related to shifting social and economic factors and intra- and inter-community relationships on the island. In the process, it also challenges the accepted definition of language endangerment in mainstream linguistics and argues on theoretical, historical, and cultural grounds for the inclusion of minority dialects threatened by dominant, mainstream varieties of English in the endangerment canon.
4. Pacific Festivals as Dynamic Contact Zones: The case of Tapati Rapa Nui
   Dan Bendrups
   [Abstract] [Keywords]
   Keywords: Pacific festivals, Tapati Rapa Nui, dynamic contact zones
   Abstract: In the contemporary Pacific, cultural festivals provide important points of contact between people at local, national, colonial and global levels, contributing to the complex processes by which issues of identity and indigeneity are explored and mediated. This article presents new ethnographic research concerning the annual Tapati Rapa Nui festival of Easter Island (Rapanui). Now into its fourth decade, Tapati Rapa Nui is one of very few public contexts in which ancient Rapanui traditions are re-enacted for a contemporary audience. This article employs historian Mary Pratt’s conceptualisation of “contact zones” (1992) to describe the specific characteristics of Tapati Rapa Nui as a nexus between indigenous, colonial and international cultures. It examines the relationship between cultural performance and international tourism in the contemporary Pacific, arguing that festivals like Tapati Rapa Nui are able to cater to the cultural heritage needs of islander communities as well as satisfying the curiosity of outsider audiences.
5. Trains of Thought: Railways as Island Antitheses
   Godfrey Baldacchino
   [Abstract] [Keywords]
   Keywords: Railways, islands, dysfunctionality, transport infrastructure, scale economies
   Abstract: This article discusses the impacts of railways on islands, and of islands on railways. It argues that railways constitute a development logic that may work well on sprawling mainlands with industrialised economies and large enough populations residing in high-density clusters but they are hard pressed to achieve viability in service-driven island jurisdictions where there are critical mass constrains in terms of both potential passengers and freight, at times even in spite of relative affluence or high population densities. Thus, the mere existence, or even the improvement, of transport infrastructure does not guarantee economic and social progress. Many railways and their histories have now been somewhat accommodated within the service industry of various islands. However, the ‘fatal attraction’ they have provided to investors, elites and politicians in the past may recur in relation to other, mesmerising technologies, with their promise of serving as development panaceas.
6. Economic Development Options for Island States: The case of Whale-Watching
   Brendan J Moyle and Mike Evans
   [Abstract] [Keywords]
   Keywords: Development, ecotourism, noncommunicable disease, Tonga, whale-watching, whaling
   Abstract: This paper explores the consequences of whale-watching tourism with reference to the Kingdom of Tonga. Whale-watching tourism has been proposed as a viable development option for small island states. This proposal is frequently linked to permanent cessation of what is, in many cases, traditional whale hunting. This article critiques some earlier work on the economic impact of whale-watching and explores the consequences of whale-watching using biometric models in an attempt to inform policy and debate concerning the economic benefits of switching from whale hunting to watching. Ecotourism generally, and whale-watching specifically, have some development risks and these risks are elaborated.
   
   For small island states on the periphery of the whale-watching industry, the profitability of an exclusive whale-watching strategy is threatened by increased competition elsewhere. We contend that economic returns from whale resources can be maximised by retaining a whale hunting option for cases where resource populations rise above that necessary for ecological sustainability and tourism activities. By eliminating the prospects of a diversified use of whale stocks for the somewhat more uncertain gains from whale-watching, small island states expose themselves to potential shocks. Such states have a lesser ability to absorb such shocks; hence the elimination of hunting options is an ill-advised development route for humans.
7. Filmmaking and the Politics of Remoteness: The Genesis of the Fogo Process on Fogo Island, Newfoundland
   Stephen Crocker
   [Abstract] [Keywords]
   Keywords: Fogo Process, subject generated media, media and remote populations, National Film Board of Canada, Newfoundland
   Abstract: The Fogo Process was an early project in participatory media first developed on Fogo Island, Newfoundland in the late 1960s. Through a series of experiments in the political uses of interactive film and video Fogo islanders resisted resettlement of their island community and an imposed, top-down ‘modernisation’ of its way of life. Today, these early experiments with remote island populations raise interesting questions about the politics of media. In an age of subject generated media, when anyone anywhere can produce and distribute video, what is the relation between political collectivity and our ability to ‘cognitively map’ our place in the larger geo-political system?
8. Murder and Cultural Construction in 19th Century Prince Edward Island
   Douglas Malcolm
   [Abstract] [Keywords]
   Keywords: Prince Edward Island, murder, culture, folklore, Isle of Skye
   Abstract: The transformational possibilities of an island’s culture are both shaped and constrained by its totalised physical boundary, helping to create a culture composed paradoxically of both intimacy and separation. Cultural construction occurs through a dialectic between symbolic systems that are put at risk through practice and thus subject to change. Island inhabitants preserve the social and physical boundaries imposed by geography because boundaries make it tolerable to live at close quarters in a community over many years. The policing of borders thus engenders a culture that promotes collectivity and elides whatever contests it. The unsolved rape and murder of Ann Beaton in May of 1859 in Rear Settlement, Prince Edward Island significantly problematised the isolated Scots culture of which she was a part and prompted its followers to construct new narratives that were one step in their integration into the larger Island society. Responses to the murder were, and have continued to be, apparently designed to circumvent evidence and to develop explanatory narratives that did not endanger the community.
9. Feature Review – Subantarctica: the Auckland Islands and Joan Druett’s Island of the lost
   Bernadette Hince
   [Abstract] [Keywords]
   Keywords: Shipwrecks, subantarctic islands, Auckland Island, Robinsonade
   Abstract: The subantarctic is a little-known region with fluid boundaries. Its islands, once obscure and undesirable places, have conservation protection today for their distinctive plants and animals, spectacular landscapes and scientific value. In reviewing Island of the lost (2007), Joan Druett’s popular account of two 1864 shipwrecks on Auckland Island, this article explores the notion of a continuing culture of the subantarctic in the absence of permanent settlement.
10. About The Authors