David Molnar
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691164038
- eISBN:
- 9781400881338
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691164038.003.0015
- Subject:
- Mathematics, History of Mathematics
This chapter provides an introduction to connection games in general. It also recounts how Sperner's Lemma, a result about labeling a triangulation of a simplex, can be used to prove that someone ...
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This chapter provides an introduction to connection games in general. It also recounts how Sperner's Lemma, a result about labeling a triangulation of a simplex, can be used to prove that someone must win at Hex—the best-known connection game—as well as The Game of Y®, (or simply, Y) another well-known connection game. Moreover, the chapter proves a generalization of Sperner's Lemma and uses it to show that there is always a winner in the many variations of Atoll and Begird, two connection games which can be played on a variety of boards and include Hex and Y, respectively, as special cases. These “must-win” results have significant strategic implications—if one prevents the opponent from making the desired connection, one would be able to make this connection by necessity.Less
This chapter provides an introduction to connection games in general. It also recounts how Sperner's Lemma, a result about labeling a triangulation of a simplex, can be used to prove that someone must win at Hex—the best-known connection game—as well as The Game of Y®, (or simply, Y) another well-known connection game. Moreover, the chapter proves a generalization of Sperner's Lemma and uses it to show that there is always a winner in the many variations of Atoll and Begird, two connection games which can be played on a variety of boards and include Hex and Y, respectively, as special cases. These “must-win” results have significant strategic implications—if one prevents the opponent from making the desired connection, one would be able to make this connection by necessity.
Charles R. C. Sheppard, Simon K. Davy, and Graham M. Pilling
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780198566359
- eISBN:
- 9780191713934
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198566359.003.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology, Aquatic Biology
Coral reefs are the ocean's richest ecosystem in terms of biodiversity and productivity. They are restricted to tropical waters where conditions of salinity, temperature and sedimentation are ...
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Coral reefs are the ocean's richest ecosystem in terms of biodiversity and productivity. They are restricted to tropical waters where conditions of salinity, temperature and sedimentation are suitable. Where they grow, their main benthic organisms deposit substantial limestone skeletons, such that they effectively make their own habitat which sustains their dynamic nature and supports the wide range of species which inhabit them. Reefs grow to the low tide level, thus providing a breakwater, but the richest parts lie 5–20 metres below the surface where light is still sufficient but where sediment and turbulence are not severe. Reefs may occur as narrow fringes bordering a continental coast, to huge offshore barriers of corals, to series of atolls that support entire nations; the biogenic nature of corals is enormously important to mankind.Less
Coral reefs are the ocean's richest ecosystem in terms of biodiversity and productivity. They are restricted to tropical waters where conditions of salinity, temperature and sedimentation are suitable. Where they grow, their main benthic organisms deposit substantial limestone skeletons, such that they effectively make their own habitat which sustains their dynamic nature and supports the wide range of species which inhabit them. Reefs grow to the low tide level, thus providing a breakwater, but the richest parts lie 5–20 metres below the surface where light is still sufficient but where sediment and turbulence are not severe. Reefs may occur as narrow fringes bordering a continental coast, to huge offshore barriers of corals, to series of atolls that support entire nations; the biogenic nature of corals is enormously important to mankind.
Juliana Flinn
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824833749
- eISBN:
- 9780824870829
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824833749.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Catholicism, like most world religions, is patriarchal, and its official hierarchies and sacred works too often neglect the lived experiences of women. Looking beyond these texts, the book reveals ...
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Catholicism, like most world religions, is patriarchal, and its official hierarchies and sacred works too often neglect the lived experiences of women. Looking beyond these texts, the book reveals how women practice, interpret, and shape their own Catholicism on Pollap Atoll, part of Chuuk State in the Federated States of Micronesia. It focuses in particular on how the Pollapese shaping of Mary places value on indigenous notions of mothering that connote strength, active participation in food production, and the ability to provide for one's family. The book begins with an overview of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Pollap and an introduction to Mary, who is celebrated by islanders not as a biologized mother but as a productive one, resulting in an image of strength rather than meekness: For Pollapese women Mary is a vanquisher of Satan, a provider for her children, and a producer of critical resources, namely taro. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception validates and celebrates local notions of motherhood in ways that highlight productive activities. The role of women as producers in the community is extolled, but the event also provides and sanctions new opportunities for women, allowing them to speak publicly, exhibit creativity, and influence the behavior of others. A chapter devoted to the imagery of Mary and its connections to Pollapese notions of motherhood is followed by a conclusion that examines the implications of these for women's ongoing productive roles, especially in comparison with Western notions and contexts in which women have been removed or excluded from production.Less
Catholicism, like most world religions, is patriarchal, and its official hierarchies and sacred works too often neglect the lived experiences of women. Looking beyond these texts, the book reveals how women practice, interpret, and shape their own Catholicism on Pollap Atoll, part of Chuuk State in the Federated States of Micronesia. It focuses in particular on how the Pollapese shaping of Mary places value on indigenous notions of mothering that connote strength, active participation in food production, and the ability to provide for one's family. The book begins with an overview of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on Pollap and an introduction to Mary, who is celebrated by islanders not as a biologized mother but as a productive one, resulting in an image of strength rather than meekness: For Pollapese women Mary is a vanquisher of Satan, a provider for her children, and a producer of critical resources, namely taro. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception validates and celebrates local notions of motherhood in ways that highlight productive activities. The role of women as producers in the community is extolled, but the event also provides and sanctions new opportunities for women, allowing them to speak publicly, exhibit creativity, and influence the behavior of others. A chapter devoted to the imagery of Mary and its connections to Pollapese notions of motherhood is followed by a conclusion that examines the implications of these for women's ongoing productive roles, especially in comparison with Western notions and contexts in which women have been removed or excluded from production.
Hans Konrad Van Tilburg
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813035161
- eISBN:
- 9780813038957
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813035161.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Underwater Archaeology
The USS Saginaw was a Civil War gunboat that served in Pacific and Asian waters between 1860 and 1870. During this decade, the crew witnessed the trade disruptions of the Opium Wars, the Taiping ...
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The USS Saginaw was a Civil War gunboat that served in Pacific and Asian waters between 1860 and 1870. During this decade, the crew witnessed the trade disruptions of the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, the transportation of Confederate sailors to Central America, the French intervention in Mexico, and the growing presence of American naval forces in Hawaii. In 1870, the ship sank at one of the world's most remote coral reefs; her crew was rescued 68 days later after a dramatic open-boat voyage. More than 130 years later, Hans Van Tilburg led the team that discovered and recorded the Saginaw's remains near the Kure Atoll reef. This book's narrative provides fresh insights and a vivid retelling of a classic naval shipwreck. It provides a perspective on the watershed events in history that reshaped the Pacific during these years. And the tale of archaeological search and discovery reveals that adventure is still to be found on the high seas.Less
The USS Saginaw was a Civil War gunboat that served in Pacific and Asian waters between 1860 and 1870. During this decade, the crew witnessed the trade disruptions of the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, the transportation of Confederate sailors to Central America, the French intervention in Mexico, and the growing presence of American naval forces in Hawaii. In 1870, the ship sank at one of the world's most remote coral reefs; her crew was rescued 68 days later after a dramatic open-boat voyage. More than 130 years later, Hans Van Tilburg led the team that discovered and recorded the Saginaw's remains near the Kure Atoll reef. This book's narrative provides fresh insights and a vivid retelling of a classic naval shipwreck. It provides a perspective on the watershed events in history that reshaped the Pacific during these years. And the tale of archaeological search and discovery reveals that adventure is still to be found on the high seas.
Michael Heads
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520271968
- eISBN:
- 9780520951808
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520271968.003.0006
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
New volcanic islands may be colonized from neighboring islands rather than from distant continents. The source islands may subsequently erode and subside, and eventually form atolls or submerged ...
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New volcanic islands may be colonized from neighboring islands rather than from distant continents. The source islands may subsequently erode and subside, and eventually form atolls or submerged seamounts. Island taxa persist more or less in situ as dynamic metapopulations on individually ephemeral islands. These metapopulations may evolve by vicariance during rifting and basin formation, as in continental groups. In the Pacific, phases of Cretaceous volcanism associated with the South Pacific superswell have produced large igneous plateaus. Some of these include fossil wood in sedimentary strata intercalated with the volcanics. This chapter examines clades that are widely distributed in the central Pacific and endemic there, and relates these to the complex geological history.Less
New volcanic islands may be colonized from neighboring islands rather than from distant continents. The source islands may subsequently erode and subside, and eventually form atolls or submerged seamounts. Island taxa persist more or less in situ as dynamic metapopulations on individually ephemeral islands. These metapopulations may evolve by vicariance during rifting and basin formation, as in continental groups. In the Pacific, phases of Cretaceous volcanism associated with the South Pacific superswell have produced large igneous plateaus. Some of these include fossil wood in sedimentary strata intercalated with the volcanics. This chapter examines clades that are widely distributed in the central Pacific and endemic there, and relates these to the complex geological history.
Hans Konrad Van Tilburg
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813035161
- eISBN:
- 9780813038957
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813035161.003.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Underwater Archaeology
This chapter traces the history of the discovery of the wreck that turned out to be the remains of the navy gunboat USS Saginaw, a wooden side-wheel steamer that was lost at Kure Atoll on October 29, ...
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This chapter traces the history of the discovery of the wreck that turned out to be the remains of the navy gunboat USS Saginaw, a wooden side-wheel steamer that was lost at Kure Atoll on October 29, 1870. The survey of the physical artifacts and the history associated with the ten-year service of the USS Saginaw together open a window onto one of the unique maritime narratives of the Pacific Ocean. The importance of finding such artifacts underwater goes beyond the initial excitement of discovery. The survey of shipwreck sites like the Saginaw's, with the application of a little historical and archaeological imagination, is actually a form of time travel.Less
This chapter traces the history of the discovery of the wreck that turned out to be the remains of the navy gunboat USS Saginaw, a wooden side-wheel steamer that was lost at Kure Atoll on October 29, 1870. The survey of the physical artifacts and the history associated with the ten-year service of the USS Saginaw together open a window onto one of the unique maritime narratives of the Pacific Ocean. The importance of finding such artifacts underwater goes beyond the initial excitement of discovery. The survey of shipwreck sites like the Saginaw's, with the application of a little historical and archaeological imagination, is actually a form of time travel.
Wolf H. Berger
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247789
- eISBN:
- 9780520942547
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247789.003.0005
- Subject:
- Biology, Aquatic Biology
This chapter explores the diversity of coral reefs and atolls and the factors governing their patterns of distribution. It highlights the important reasons for studying and mapping coral reefs, and ...
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This chapter explores the diversity of coral reefs and atolls and the factors governing their patterns of distribution. It highlights the important reasons for studying and mapping coral reefs, and describes the major factors that threaten the coral reef ecosystem. Reef ecosystems are now facing overexploitation brought about by sophisticated technology that supports intense fishing and collecting of corals and mollusks. Another threat to coral reefs is coral bleaching, or the loss of photosynthesizing symbionts due to progressive global warming.Less
This chapter explores the diversity of coral reefs and atolls and the factors governing their patterns of distribution. It highlights the important reasons for studying and mapping coral reefs, and describes the major factors that threaten the coral reef ecosystem. Reef ecosystems are now facing overexploitation brought about by sophisticated technology that supports intense fishing and collecting of corals and mollusks. Another threat to coral reefs is coral bleaching, or the loss of photosynthesizing symbionts due to progressive global warming.
Orrin H. Pilkey, Linda Pilkey-Jarvis, and Keith C. Pilkey
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231168441
- eISBN:
- 9780231541800
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231168441.003.0007
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Climate
Storm surges will be the working force of sea-level rise. As the sea rises, surges extend further inland and to higher elevations. These powerful forces transport debris that crashes into everything ...
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Storm surges will be the working force of sea-level rise. As the sea rises, surges extend further inland and to higher elevations. These powerful forces transport debris that crashes into everything else. Atolls are particularly vulnerable, not only because of sea-level rise, but also because sea-level rise is pushing up the groundwater table and reducing its volume. Also pollution of the shrinking freshwater layer by human activities is a major problem. Arctic villages are threatened because of permafrost melting causing shorelines to be more vulnerable to erosion. Barrier islands make up 10 to 12% of the world's shorelines and because of their ability to migrate with the sea-level rise are a major problem for development of any kind.Less
Storm surges will be the working force of sea-level rise. As the sea rises, surges extend further inland and to higher elevations. These powerful forces transport debris that crashes into everything else. Atolls are particularly vulnerable, not only because of sea-level rise, but also because sea-level rise is pushing up the groundwater table and reducing its volume. Also pollution of the shrinking freshwater layer by human activities is a major problem. Arctic villages are threatened because of permafrost melting causing shorelines to be more vulnerable to erosion. Barrier islands make up 10 to 12% of the world's shorelines and because of their ability to migrate with the sea-level rise are a major problem for development of any kind.
Orrin H. Pilkey, Linda Pilkey-Jarvis, and Keith C. Pilkey
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231168441
- eISBN:
- 9780231541800
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231168441.003.0009
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Climate
The climate refugee problem will dwarf the current political refugee problem facing western Europe. Bangladesh with millions of people on the delta will provide the greatest number of refugees that ...
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The climate refugee problem will dwarf the current political refugee problem facing western Europe. Bangladesh with millions of people on the delta will provide the greatest number of refugees that will flee to India or Myanmar. India is building the Great Wall of India in anticipation of this future flow of humanity. Currently, most people leaving the delta are fleeing to Dhaka or to other major cities near deltas. On a local scale all over the world, beachfront dwellers will be moving back, often into already crowded cities.Less
The climate refugee problem will dwarf the current political refugee problem facing western Europe. Bangladesh with millions of people on the delta will provide the greatest number of refugees that will flee to India or Myanmar. India is building the Great Wall of India in anticipation of this future flow of humanity. Currently, most people leaving the delta are fleeing to Dhaka or to other major cities near deltas. On a local scale all over the world, beachfront dwellers will be moving back, often into already crowded cities.
Thom van Dooren
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231166188
- eISBN:
- 9780231537445
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231166188.003.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
This chapter emphasizes the “embodied temporality” of species by looking through the lives of albatrosses. Albatrosses are pelagic, nomadic birds that comfortably cross huge expanses of water each ...
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This chapter emphasizes the “embodied temporality” of species by looking through the lives of albatrosses. Albatrosses are pelagic, nomadic birds that comfortably cross huge expanses of water each day. Despite their adaptation as “wanderers,” they remain utterly tied to the land, as they need to lay eggs and raise their young. Midway Atoll, located roughly halfway between the United States and Japan, is a breeding place for both Black-footed and Laysan albatrosses. In recent decades, one of the most visible anthropogenic effects on many small Pacific islands like Midway has been the presence of plastic items. As they head skyward and seaward in search of food for growing chicks, albatrosses invariably collect plastic items that they mistake for food. These plastic items cause malnourishment, dehydration, starvation, and other health problems when ingested by the young.Less
This chapter emphasizes the “embodied temporality” of species by looking through the lives of albatrosses. Albatrosses are pelagic, nomadic birds that comfortably cross huge expanses of water each day. Despite their adaptation as “wanderers,” they remain utterly tied to the land, as they need to lay eggs and raise their young. Midway Atoll, located roughly halfway between the United States and Japan, is a breeding place for both Black-footed and Laysan albatrosses. In recent decades, one of the most visible anthropogenic effects on many small Pacific islands like Midway has been the presence of plastic items. As they head skyward and seaward in search of food for growing chicks, albatrosses invariably collect plastic items that they mistake for food. These plastic items cause malnourishment, dehydration, starvation, and other health problems when ingested by the young.
David G. Havlick
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226547541
- eISBN:
- 9780226547688
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226547688.003.0005
- Subject:
- Biology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
International settings for military-to-wildlife conversions often bring cultural considerations more actively into view than their counterparts in the United States. Along broad expanses of ...
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International settings for military-to-wildlife conversions often bring cultural considerations more actively into view than their counterparts in the United States. Along broad expanses of militarized landscapes such as the Iron Curtain borderlands of central Europe or the Demilitarized Zone of the Korean Peninsula, the political and historical contexts of these sites are maintained along with the explicit or de facto nature reserves that have emerged along these areas. These international settings provide important examples and lessons in how militarized landscapes are treated, managed, and understood over time.Less
International settings for military-to-wildlife conversions often bring cultural considerations more actively into view than their counterparts in the United States. Along broad expanses of militarized landscapes such as the Iron Curtain borderlands of central Europe or the Demilitarized Zone of the Korean Peninsula, the political and historical contexts of these sites are maintained along with the explicit or de facto nature reserves that have emerged along these areas. These international settings provide important examples and lessons in how militarized landscapes are treated, managed, and understood over time.
Juliana Flinn
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824833749
- eISBN:
- 9780824870829
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824833749.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to analyze a community in which women operate within a vernacular Catholicism and imagery of Mary that support opportunities for women to ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to analyze a community in which women operate within a vernacular Catholicism and imagery of Mary that support opportunities for women to influence opinion and events, and emphasize the value of women as mothers. Despite attempts that missionaries may have made to define appropriate female roles, including what it means to be a mother, local notions of motherhood filter and shape the impact of the Catholic message. On Pollap, women experience and perceive motherhood not so much as a biological process, with a focus on childbearing and then remaining at home to care for them, but rather as a cultural process that encompasses the production and distribution of key resources. Local belief also posits power in speech and its ability to define and shape appropriate behavior—a belief that women exploit to their advantage in various opportunities made available through the local church structure for them to speak to others beyond their local network of kin. Thus, women play a role in defining appropriate behavior, articulating ideas, and influencing activities in the community. The book examines how Pollapese women define their own Catholicism, how they live it in practice, and how these definitions and practices affect their autonomy and their ability to shape their lives, support the well-being of their kin, and influence community events.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, namely to analyze a community in which women operate within a vernacular Catholicism and imagery of Mary that support opportunities for women to influence opinion and events, and emphasize the value of women as mothers. Despite attempts that missionaries may have made to define appropriate female roles, including what it means to be a mother, local notions of motherhood filter and shape the impact of the Catholic message. On Pollap, women experience and perceive motherhood not so much as a biological process, with a focus on childbearing and then remaining at home to care for them, but rather as a cultural process that encompasses the production and distribution of key resources. Local belief also posits power in speech and its ability to define and shape appropriate behavior—a belief that women exploit to their advantage in various opportunities made available through the local church structure for them to speak to others beyond their local network of kin. Thus, women play a role in defining appropriate behavior, articulating ideas, and influencing activities in the community. The book examines how Pollapese women define their own Catholicism, how they live it in practice, and how these definitions and practices affect their autonomy and their ability to shape their lives, support the well-being of their kin, and influence community events.
Stuart Kirsch
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520297944
- eISBN:
- 9780520970090
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520297944.003.0006
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
This chapter considers claims about culture loss at hearings of the Nuclear Claims Tribunal in the Marshall Islands, including the impact of nuclear weapons testing on the people of Rongelap Atoll. ...
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This chapter considers claims about culture loss at hearings of the Nuclear Claims Tribunal in the Marshall Islands, including the impact of nuclear weapons testing on the people of Rongelap Atoll. The concept of cultural property is used to identify the referents of discourse about culture loss, including local knowledge, subsistence production, and connections to place. For example, the absence of breadfruit and pandanus trees on the atolls where the people from Rongelap were relocated prevented them from teaching subsequent generations how to build their distinctive sailing canoes, contributing to the decline of long-distance voyaging and the loss of knowledge about navigation by the stars and wave patterns. These discussions have been taken up by international debates about noneconomic loss and damage resulting from climate change, a matter of considerable significance for the people living in the Marshall Islands, given their double exposure to both nuclear radiation and rising sea levels. Less
This chapter considers claims about culture loss at hearings of the Nuclear Claims Tribunal in the Marshall Islands, including the impact of nuclear weapons testing on the people of Rongelap Atoll. The concept of cultural property is used to identify the referents of discourse about culture loss, including local knowledge, subsistence production, and connections to place. For example, the absence of breadfruit and pandanus trees on the atolls where the people from Rongelap were relocated prevented them from teaching subsequent generations how to build their distinctive sailing canoes, contributing to the decline of long-distance voyaging and the loss of knowledge about navigation by the stars and wave patterns. These discussions have been taken up by international debates about noneconomic loss and damage resulting from climate change, a matter of considerable significance for the people living in the Marshall Islands, given their double exposure to both nuclear radiation and rising sea levels.
Emerson Lopez Odango
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824847593
- eISBN:
- 9780824868215
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824847593.003.0016
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter documents and reflects on some of the cultural significance of discourse markers in kapsen Mwoshulók (Mortlockese) storytelling (tittilap) at Pakin Atoll of the Federated States of ...
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This chapter documents and reflects on some of the cultural significance of discourse markers in kapsen Mwoshulók (Mortlockese) storytelling (tittilap) at Pakin Atoll of the Federated States of Micronesia. It shows how fieldwork on tittilap cannot merely be accomplished by using a voice recorder alone. Discourse analysis provides the tools for understanding how speakers of a language both access bodies of knowledge (such as abstract grammatical patterns and generalizations based on previous conversations) and create and interpret new instances of that knowledge, and “discourse” in this case refers to the intricate nuances of the tittilap. A grammatical technique of particular interest in the tittilap are its use of discourse markers, which are the words used to move talk along, whose meaning heavily depends on the context around them.Less
This chapter documents and reflects on some of the cultural significance of discourse markers in kapsen Mwoshulók (Mortlockese) storytelling (tittilap) at Pakin Atoll of the Federated States of Micronesia. It shows how fieldwork on tittilap cannot merely be accomplished by using a voice recorder alone. Discourse analysis provides the tools for understanding how speakers of a language both access bodies of knowledge (such as abstract grammatical patterns and generalizations based on previous conversations) and create and interpret new instances of that knowledge, and “discourse” in this case refers to the intricate nuances of the tittilap. A grammatical technique of particular interest in the tittilap are its use of discourse markers, which are the words used to move talk along, whose meaning heavily depends on the context around them.
Niko Besnier
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824833381
- eISBN:
- 9780824870676
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824833381.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter provides an overview of the book’s main themes, concepts, and methodology. Gossip can be seriously understood only when embedded in a larger context of social relations and symbolic ...
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This chapter provides an overview of the book’s main themes, concepts, and methodology. Gossip can be seriously understood only when embedded in a larger context of social relations and symbolic dynamics, as it is only a vehicle through which agents get things done or undone. This book explores this embedding. Its overarching theme is the emergence of political practice in the everyday and, in particular, the complexities of politics in small-scale societies where hierarchy and egalitarianism coexist in sometimes uneasy fashion and where the boundary between public and private is at best wafer thin. The book is based on fieldwork conducted in Nukulaelae Atoll, part of Tuvalu, known in colonial times as the Ellice Islands and independent since 1978. Today it is one of the world’s smallest microstates with around 11,636 inhabitants. The discussion rests on two analytic traditions: the microscopic analysis of interactional data, traditionally grounded in linguistic anthropology; and the macroscopic analysis of large-scale social processes, an approach associated with the sociocultural subfield of anthropology.Less
This chapter provides an overview of the book’s main themes, concepts, and methodology. Gossip can be seriously understood only when embedded in a larger context of social relations and symbolic dynamics, as it is only a vehicle through which agents get things done or undone. This book explores this embedding. Its overarching theme is the emergence of political practice in the everyday and, in particular, the complexities of politics in small-scale societies where hierarchy and egalitarianism coexist in sometimes uneasy fashion and where the boundary between public and private is at best wafer thin. The book is based on fieldwork conducted in Nukulaelae Atoll, part of Tuvalu, known in colonial times as the Ellice Islands and independent since 1978. Today it is one of the world’s smallest microstates with around 11,636 inhabitants. The discussion rests on two analytic traditions: the microscopic analysis of interactional data, traditionally grounded in linguistic anthropology; and the macroscopic analysis of large-scale social processes, an approach associated with the sociocultural subfield of anthropology.
Niko Besnier
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824833381
- eISBN:
- 9780824870676
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824833381.003.0002
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
The chapter presents the author’s account of his experiences on Nukulaelae Atoll, including some of the initial impressions he formed when he first arrived in the early 1980s. These impressions would ...
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The chapter presents the author’s account of his experiences on Nukulaelae Atoll, including some of the initial impressions he formed when he first arrived in the early 1980s. These impressions would later turn out to be as important to an understanding of political and social process on the atoll as the more nuanced insights he would eventually derive from the experience of years of cumulative fieldwork. He describes life on Nukulaelae, focusing in particular on the intimacy of contexts in which gossip takes place. He discusses islanders’ self-representations to themselves and the outside world in the course of history and in modern times, self-representations that foreground problematically an ideology of harmony and consensus.Less
The chapter presents the author’s account of his experiences on Nukulaelae Atoll, including some of the initial impressions he formed when he first arrived in the early 1980s. These impressions would later turn out to be as important to an understanding of political and social process on the atoll as the more nuanced insights he would eventually derive from the experience of years of cumulative fieldwork. He describes life on Nukulaelae, focusing in particular on the intimacy of contexts in which gossip takes place. He discusses islanders’ self-representations to themselves and the outside world in the course of history and in modern times, self-representations that foreground problematically an ideology of harmony and consensus.
Niko Besnier
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824833381
- eISBN:
- 9780824870676
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824833381.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Beneath the overelaborated veneer of harmony and peace that Nukulaelae people try so hard to maintain are long-standing conflicts, contradictions, and complexities about how the island should be ...
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Beneath the overelaborated veneer of harmony and peace that Nukulaelae people try so hard to maintain are long-standing conflicts, contradictions, and complexities about how the island should be organized. This chapter examines the basic ideological tension between a “discourse of nostalgia” and a “discourse of egalitarianism.” Both are part and parcel of what Nukulaelae people articulate quite readily to one another and to the prying anthropologist, although the discourse of nostalgia is more closely associated, in the local logic, with the image of the atoll community as harmonious and peaceful than the discourse of egalitarianism is. In turn, the discourse of egalitarianism is invoked to undermine the hierarchical order put forth in the discourse of nostalgia, and this undermining frequently takes place in gossip. The chapter’s goal is not to locate Nukulaelae’s “genuine culture” in either a harmonious order or a conflictual disorder, or in either hierarchy or egalitarianism. Rather, the atoll’s culture and politics are located in the tensions between these different qualities, at the convergence of these various seemingly incommensurable discourses.Less
Beneath the overelaborated veneer of harmony and peace that Nukulaelae people try so hard to maintain are long-standing conflicts, contradictions, and complexities about how the island should be organized. This chapter examines the basic ideological tension between a “discourse of nostalgia” and a “discourse of egalitarianism.” Both are part and parcel of what Nukulaelae people articulate quite readily to one another and to the prying anthropologist, although the discourse of nostalgia is more closely associated, in the local logic, with the image of the atoll community as harmonious and peaceful than the discourse of egalitarianism is. In turn, the discourse of egalitarianism is invoked to undermine the hierarchical order put forth in the discourse of nostalgia, and this undermining frequently takes place in gossip. The chapter’s goal is not to locate Nukulaelae’s “genuine culture” in either a harmonious order or a conflictual disorder, or in either hierarchy or egalitarianism. Rather, the atoll’s culture and politics are located in the tensions between these different qualities, at the convergence of these various seemingly incommensurable discourses.
Alistair Sponsel
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226523118
- eISBN:
- 9780226523255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226523255.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines the two instances when Darwin had the opportunity to research coral reefs in the field, at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in April 1836 and at Mauritius the following month. The ...
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This chapter examines the two instances when Darwin had the opportunity to research coral reefs in the field, at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in April 1836 and at Mauritius the following month. The visits offered very different circumstances for research and offer contrasting case studies of Darwin’s approach to field work. At the first location Robert FitzRoy and the Beagle’s other officers and crew carried out a hydrographic survey of South Keeling atoll; at Mauritius there was no surveying activity for Darwin to draw upon. Taken together these episodes show how much Darwin’s scientific work had come to depend on his shipmates’ expertise and labor. At South Keeling, Darwin was eager to determine whether the atoll’s deep structure favored his new subsidence-based theory over the prevailing view that atolls formed atop shallow submarine volcano craters. In addition to his natural history investigation of the living and fossil corals atop the reef and in shallow water he gained support for his theory from the surveyors’ deep soundings. At Mauritius, by contrast, Darwin had to conduct soundings himself, revealing that hydrographic practices were essential rather than supplemental to his research on reef structure and the distribution of corals.Less
This chapter examines the two instances when Darwin had the opportunity to research coral reefs in the field, at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in April 1836 and at Mauritius the following month. The visits offered very different circumstances for research and offer contrasting case studies of Darwin’s approach to field work. At the first location Robert FitzRoy and the Beagle’s other officers and crew carried out a hydrographic survey of South Keeling atoll; at Mauritius there was no surveying activity for Darwin to draw upon. Taken together these episodes show how much Darwin’s scientific work had come to depend on his shipmates’ expertise and labor. At South Keeling, Darwin was eager to determine whether the atoll’s deep structure favored his new subsidence-based theory over the prevailing view that atolls formed atop shallow submarine volcano craters. In addition to his natural history investigation of the living and fossil corals atop the reef and in shallow water he gained support for his theory from the surveyors’ deep soundings. At Mauritius, by contrast, Darwin had to conduct soundings himself, revealing that hydrographic practices were essential rather than supplemental to his research on reef structure and the distribution of corals.
Mark J. Rauzon
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824846794
- eISBN:
- 9780824868314
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824846794.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Pacific Studies
America’s southernmost territory, American Samoa has national parks, marine sanctuaries and wildlife refuges that protect tropical rainforests and coral reefs. Rare birds, fruit bats, Norway rats, ...
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America’s southernmost territory, American Samoa has national parks, marine sanctuaries and wildlife refuges that protect tropical rainforests and coral reefs. Rare birds, fruit bats, Norway rats, and Tahiti petrels are the focus of my work at the National Park of American Samoa. Anthropologist Margaret Mead studied adolescent behavior of women on Ta’u island wehre I rediscovered a rare rail not seen in a generation—the spotted crake—as well as finding Norway rats. Rose Atoll is about 20 acres, and the world smallest atoll is named after the stow-away wife of the French explorer Freycinet. Rats were eradicated here and now it is Rose Atoll National Marine Monument. The monument is administered by the Sect. of the Interior, in consultation with the Sect. Of Commerce, and is managed along with the first ever marine sanctuary at Fagatele Bay on Tutuila.Less
America’s southernmost territory, American Samoa has national parks, marine sanctuaries and wildlife refuges that protect tropical rainforests and coral reefs. Rare birds, fruit bats, Norway rats, and Tahiti petrels are the focus of my work at the National Park of American Samoa. Anthropologist Margaret Mead studied adolescent behavior of women on Ta’u island wehre I rediscovered a rare rail not seen in a generation—the spotted crake—as well as finding Norway rats. Rose Atoll is about 20 acres, and the world smallest atoll is named after the stow-away wife of the French explorer Freycinet. Rats were eradicated here and now it is Rose Atoll National Marine Monument. The monument is administered by the Sect. of the Interior, in consultation with the Sect. Of Commerce, and is managed along with the first ever marine sanctuary at Fagatele Bay on Tutuila.
Mark J. Rauzon
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824846794
- eISBN:
- 9780824868314
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824846794.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Pacific Studies
Palmyra Atoll receives 13 feet of rain because of its location in the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Ancient Polynesians first colonized Palmyra, later it was developed into a copra plantation. ...
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Palmyra Atoll receives 13 feet of rain because of its location in the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Ancient Polynesians first colonized Palmyra, later it was developed into a copra plantation. Palmyra was used as base in WWII and airstrip construction affected the coral reef circulation. The privately owned island was the site of a double-murder and piracy of a yacht in 1974. A failed rat eradication effort in 2002 further affected the rainforest. Ants and scales killed the largest stands of native Pisonia trees in the Pacific, but the forests started to recover with a second attempt at rat eradication by Island Conservation eradication in 2011 that was successful. Palmyra was purchased by The Nature Conservancy and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. A marine lab is studying climate change in the Palmyra, and now rat-free, Palmyra is planned to be the site of reintroduction of the endangered the Christmas Island Warbler.Less
Palmyra Atoll receives 13 feet of rain because of its location in the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Ancient Polynesians first colonized Palmyra, later it was developed into a copra plantation. Palmyra was used as base in WWII and airstrip construction affected the coral reef circulation. The privately owned island was the site of a double-murder and piracy of a yacht in 1974. A failed rat eradication effort in 2002 further affected the rainforest. Ants and scales killed the largest stands of native Pisonia trees in the Pacific, but the forests started to recover with a second attempt at rat eradication by Island Conservation eradication in 2011 that was successful. Palmyra was purchased by The Nature Conservancy and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. A marine lab is studying climate change in the Palmyra, and now rat-free, Palmyra is planned to be the site of reintroduction of the endangered the Christmas Island Warbler.
