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Island Societies (island + society)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	83%

Selected Abstracts

Nature-Society Interactions in the Pacific Islands

GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2003
Patrick D. Nunn
ABSTRACT This paper focuses on nature,society interactions in the Pacific Islands before European contact about 200 years ago. It argues that the character of early interactions was decided by both the nature of a particular island environment and the intentions of the human settlers. Throughout the pre-European contact human history of the Pacific Islands, environmental changes of extraneous cause have been the main control of societal and cultural change. This environmental determinist view is defended using many examples. The contrary (and more popular) cultural determinist view of societal change in the Pacific Islands is shown to be based on largely spurious data and argument. A key example discussed is the ,AD 1300 Event', a time of rapid temperature and sea-level fall which had severe, abrupt and enduring effects on Pacific Island societies. It is important to acknowledge the role of environmental change in cultural transformation in this region. [source]

Kava in Arnhem Land: a review of consumption and its social correlates

DRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 3 2000
Alan R. Clough
Abstract The debate about the effects and public health importance of the way Aboriginal people drink kava has been confounded by claims, based on anecdote, of imputed health effects. Anecdote and comment have promoted the perception that dosage levels among Aboriginal people are much greater than in Pacific island societies. In this paper we review published data about kava consumption, and evaluate it with respect to information collected from observation of one Aboriginal community in Arnhem Land (Northern Territory) where people tend to consume kavaat a steady tempo; 37g of kava powder containing around 3800mg of kava lactones in 670ml of water in an hour. The highest levels of consumption in Arnhem Land have been reported to be up to 900g/week of kava powder with heavy consumers drinking at least 610g/week, levels comparable to estimates for Pacific-island societies. The significance of a steady drinking tempo means that an individual's weekly kava consumption relates directly to the amount of time spent drinking which, in turn, is correlated with categories of social setting of drinking (p < 0.0002). Lone drinkers appear to be the heaviest users while lowest consumption takes place in private domestic situations, where people enjoy kava as part of family group activities. Surrogates of consumption levels may be found in local socio-economic circumstances. This approach may be useful when more direct measurement of consumption is difficult or impossible. [source]

Environmental Relations and Biophysical Transition: The Case of Trinket Island

GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2003
Simron Jit Singh
ABSTRACT To what extent is an island economy cut off from the rest of the world? Defined as a mass of land bounded by water, island societies connect and exchange with their surroundings rather intensely. Based on empirical research, this paper explores the role of a ,remote' island society on Trinket in generating or sheltering itself from the process of globalisation in which con-textually given borders are transgressed and displaced. To this end, we apply the concepts of societal metabolism and colonising natural processes operationalised by Material and Energy Flow Analysis (MEFA), and Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) respectively. Using these biophysical indicators, we describe the transition from a metabolism based upon the natural environment to metabolism based on exchange with other societies. Data presented in this paper further reveal a process of industrialisation and integration into the global market of a so-called ,closed' and ,inaccessible' island society. [source]

Caribbean Transnational Return Migrants as Agents of Change

GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2007
Dennis Conway
This article challenges several of the firmly held convictions drawn from extant research on return migration to the Caribbean. For many contemporary small island societies undergoing rapid change and transformation, modernization and integration into the wider global economy, today's younger and more youthful return migrants are no longer an ineffective demographic cohort. Despite their numerically small size, many are demonstrating they can be influential "agents of change." No longer merely returning retirees, they are more diverse, in terms of age, life-course transitions, class and gendered social positions, family networks, and migration histories. Multiple identities are the rule, rather than the exception, as returnees of different ages choose to live, work (and play) in island society, to give something back to the island home of their parents or of their youth. Many embrace transnational strategies to live in and between two worlds, or more if their family network's reach is multilocal. [source]