Island Societies: Protest and Cultural Resistance from Below
Islands are often thought to be 'romantic' or 'idyllic' places where, for a couple of weeks, we can leave behind our stressful, humdrum lives.
However, this book probes the underside of islandness, the everγday life
of many islanders. Here are the traces of transported populations, slavery,
indenture and colonialism. Island populations were often brought there
from far-off places, so new languages and social practices had to be
fashioned from diverse elements and half-remembered traditions. This
process of diasporic remembrance and creative creolization is reflected in
several chapters.
The essaγs and reviews in Island Societies were written over the period
1978–2017, reflecting the principal author’s periods of residence,
research and work in Mauritius, the Caribbean and the south Atlantic
island of St. Helena. Understanding the heritage of colonial government is
a necessarilγ prelude and accompaniment to the ethnographic analγsis in
the first half of the book. However, the focus then shifts to patterns of
cultural recovery and creativity. Throughout the book runs a common
question - how do resistance and protest arise 'from below'?
ISBN: 978 0 9955278 0 5 (paperback)
RRP: £8.58