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White Settlements (white + settlement)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

Migrants, Settlers and Colonists: The Biopolitics of Displaced Bodies

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 5 2008
Cristiana Bastos
All through the nineteenth century, Madeirans migrated from their Atlantic island to places as remote as Hawaii, California, Guyana and, later, South Africa. Scarcity of land, a rigid social structure, periodic famines and rampant poverty made many embark to uncertain destinies and endure the harsh labour conditions of sugarcane plantations. In the 1880s, a few hundred Madeirans engaged in a different venture: an experience of "engineered migration" sponsored by the Portuguese government to colonize the southern Angola plateau. White settlements, together with military control, scientific surveys and expeditions, contributed to strengthen the claims of European nations over specific territories in Africa. At that time, the long lasting claims of Portugal over African territories were not matched by sponsored colonial settlements or precise geographic knowledge about the claimed lands. There was little else representing Portugal than the leftover structures of the slave trade, the penal colonies and the free-lance merchants that ventured inland. In fear of losing land to the neighbouring German, Boer and British groups in south-western Africa, the Portuguese government tried then to promote white settlements by attracting farmers from the mainland into the southern plateau of Angola. As very few responded to the call, the settlement consisted mostly of Madeiran islanders, who were eager to migrate anywhere and took the adventure of Angola as just another destiny out of the island where they could not make a living. Their bodies and actions in the new place became highly surveilled by the medical delegates in charge of assessing their adaptation. The reports document what were then the idealized biopolitics of migration and colonization, interweaving biomedical knowledge and political power over displaced bodies and colonized land. At the same time, those records document the frustrations of the administration about the difficulties of the settlement experience and the ways in which colonial delegates blamed their failure on the very subjects who enacted and suffered through it. The eugenicism and racialism that pervade those writings, a currency during the age of empire, may now be out of taste both in science and in politics; however, they are not fully out of sight, and the subtle entrance of social prejudice into the hard concepts of biomedical science is still with us. Learning from this example may help analysing contemporary processes of medicalizing diversity or pathologizing the mobile populations, or, in other words, the biopolitics of migration in the 21st century. [source]

Global geographies of innovation diffusion: the case of the Australian cattle industry

THE GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2010
MATTHEW TONTS
The geographies and histories of the introduction of cattle breeds to Australia in the period since white settlement are documented as an example of the diffusion of agricultural innovations. Three phases of development are identified: a colonial expansion phase from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century during which a number of primarily British cattle breeds were imported by the colonial settlers; an innovative phase in the mid twentieth century when both governments and private interests sought to produce or import new breeds deemed to be better adapted to Australian environments; and a multifunctional phase in recent decades. In this final phase, government deregulation and new technologies, such as the long distance transport of genetic packages, have facilitated the importation and development of many new cattle breeds in Australia. While this has produced a significant rise in the total number of breeds represented nationally, many recent and historic breeds currently exhibit extremely small numbers and a few generally well-established breeds such as Holstein, Hereford and Angus still dominate the national herd. This study of changing breed types and introductions provides some evidence of post-productivism and of a multifunctional transition in that several cattle breeds favoured by hobby farmers and boutique breeders are now represented, but the aggregate numbers for these breeds remain small and the numbers for several of the traditional (or colonial) breeds are currently in decline. Overall, it is apparent that Australia's cattle industry retains a strongly productivist ethos and that, particularly given the country's very great environmental variation, its levels of breed diversity remain low. [source]

Migrants, Settlers and Colonists: The Biopolitics of Displaced Bodies

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 5 2008
Cristiana Bastos
All through the nineteenth century, Madeirans migrated from their Atlantic island to places as remote as Hawaii, California, Guyana and, later, South Africa. Scarcity of land, a rigid social structure, periodic famines and rampant poverty made many embark to uncertain destinies and endure the harsh labour conditions of sugarcane plantations. In the 1880s, a few hundred Madeirans engaged in a different venture: an experience of "engineered migration" sponsored by the Portuguese government to colonize the southern Angola plateau. White settlements, together with military control, scientific surveys and expeditions, contributed to strengthen the claims of European nations over specific territories in Africa. At that time, the long lasting claims of Portugal over African territories were not matched by sponsored colonial settlements or precise geographic knowledge about the claimed lands. There was little else representing Portugal than the leftover structures of the slave trade, the penal colonies and the free-lance merchants that ventured inland. In fear of losing land to the neighbouring German, Boer and British groups in south-western Africa, the Portuguese government tried then to promote white settlements by attracting farmers from the mainland into the southern plateau of Angola. As very few responded to the call, the settlement consisted mostly of Madeiran islanders, who were eager to migrate anywhere and took the adventure of Angola as just another destiny out of the island where they could not make a living. Their bodies and actions in the new place became highly surveilled by the medical delegates in charge of assessing their adaptation. The reports document what were then the idealized biopolitics of migration and colonization, interweaving biomedical knowledge and political power over displaced bodies and colonized land. At the same time, those records document the frustrations of the administration about the difficulties of the settlement experience and the ways in which colonial delegates blamed their failure on the very subjects who enacted and suffered through it. The eugenicism and racialism that pervade those writings, a currency during the age of empire, may now be out of taste both in science and in politics; however, they are not fully out of sight, and the subtle entrance of social prejudice into the hard concepts of biomedical science is still with us. Learning from this example may help analysing contemporary processes of medicalizing diversity or pathologizing the mobile populations, or, in other words, the biopolitics of migration in the 21st century. [source]

Colonial and post-colonial aspects of Australian identity1

THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2007
Bruce Tranter
Abstract Since the 1988 Bicentennial and the 2001 centenary of federation celebrations colonial images have flourished in Australia, highlighting the roles of convicts and free settlers during early colonization. Old sites, such as Port Arthur have been re-invigorated, and in 2004 Tasmanians celebrated the bicentenary of ,white' settlement. However, social scientists have given little attention to the role of colonial and post-colonial figures and myths as aspects of Australian national identity. We seek to address this issue by examining how convicts, free settlers, bushrangers and ANZACs are associated with contemporary identity in Australia.2 We examine evidence from the 2003 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes and find that historical figures such as the ANZACs and post-World War II immigrants comprise important aspects of national identity. A substantial majority of Australians judged ANZACs to be important, countering recent claims of the ,demise of the digger'. Sporting heroes are also at the core of Australian identity. Colonial figures appear to be far less important, although views on national identity vary according to social location. In particular, left-wing, university educated, younger, postmaterialist Australians view convicts and bushrangers as relatively important, indicating the salience of the larrikin in Australian identity. [source]