Norfolk Island, South Pacific, provides linguists a near laboratory case study in naming, languag... more Norfolk Island, South Pacific, provides linguists a near laboratory case study in naming, language contact, and environmental management. Tlie two languages spoken on the island, Norfk-the language of the descendants of the Pitcairn Islanders-and English, are both used in place-naming. This short note analyses the toponyms of Nepean Island, a small uninhabited island 800 metres south of Norfolk. It questions whether Nepean is a microcosm of naming behaviour for the rest of the Norfolk macrocosm. For its size, Nepean contains a large number of toponyms. The paper suggests the uninliabited nature of Nepean may have resulted in fewer commemorative anthroponymic toponyms, a situation unlike namiug patterns ki the rest of the archipelago. Nepean offers a study of naming a small no-man's land as compared to naming a larger occupied land.
Placenames (toponyms) give insight into relationships involving people, place, and language. An e... more Placenames (toponyms) give insight into relationships involving people, place, and language. An exemplary placename derived from long-term engagement within the sensitive linguistic ecology of Norfolk Island in the South Pacific is used to detail how a fusing of linguistic analysis, words, and cultural memory is beneficial for what constitutes an ecolinguistic fieldwork methodology. Differences between the ethnographic method and an ecolinguistic fieldwork methodology are presented. This enduring and keyed-in commitment with Norfolk Island's social and natural surroundings offers significant perceptiveness into and suggestions about how prolonged ecolinguistic work can be beneficial to language documentation projects, particular those incorporating lexical (word) and semantic (memory) description.
kings, spanning over the three periods which Kondi and Boer recognize in Sikkan mythical history.... more kings, spanning over the three periods which Kondi and Boer recognize in Sikkan mythical history. Lewis describes the two indigenous authors as 'members of a newly literate community' (p. 46), implying that they were experiencing a profound historical change brought by the technology of writing. Yet it is not clear that writing itself brings change, but the way texts are used. For example, Lewis's co-translator, Mandalangi, certainly tried to revive a more embodied sense of language when he recited a passage written in Sara Sikka in order to understand it (p. 46, note). Was Kondi's and Boer's Malay writing also oriented by the way it sounded when read aloud? Because Boer's and Kondi's Malay narrative only appears in this book in English translation it is difficult for the reader to consider this possibility, as well as Lewis's statement that they use Malay for an objective voice on their culture. At the same time Lewis gives a detailed account of how and why Kondi and Boer wrote about their society. He argues that the two men lived in changing times and wanted to salvage information about a disappearing culture. They probably anticipated a time in which people would again ask questions about the forgotten past. But they could not predict the form in which their narrative would make sense to future generations. They framed it as hikayat, a Malay genre which incorporates mythical and historical elements in a single narrative. Ultimately it is a charter for the political unity of Sikka, restored by raja Thomas after a long period of rebellions and wars. This interpretation of Kondi's and Boer's narrative raises the main ethnographic question of the book: what kind of sovereignty does the narrative talk about? According to their origin myth, the rulers of Sikka descend from foreigners shipwrecked at their shore. This myth of stranger kings recalls a familiar theme of Austronesian ethnography. Lewis develops this theme into a sophisticated comparative argument. For him, the foreign origin of political power does not mean that Sikka is a 'suburb of Fiji' (p. 156). Neither does Sikka have a totalizing ideology in which political values are encompassed by ritual ones-although 'hierarchies of value in marriage and sovereignty are the inverse of one another' (p. 155). Instead, Lewis argues that the Sikkan narrative of stranger kings is a statement about the complex relations of Sikka to other local polities, colonial agents, and larger historical systems. Lewis reflects on the nature of this history through the concepts of complexity (p. 157) and hybrid cultures (p. 202). His serious engagement with historical structures and possibilities is the most important contribution of the book. Lewis applies an ethnographic style which reminds one of two other recent books about Southeast Asia: Roy Ellen's On the Edge of the Banda Zone (2003) and Peter Metcalf's Life of the Longhouse (2010). These studies share a detailed understanding of local classifications and practices but address historical issues of more global scope. At the same time, they are not limited to conventional historical sources but foreground indigenous perspectives and statements.
This chapter provides the background context for the problem, the setting, and the issues related... more This chapter provides the background context for the problem, the setting, and the issues related to shopping environments, all of which establish the background for this dissertation. From the previously stated problem, globalization has influenced the appearance of new shopping developments and poses a threat to the viability of traditional shopping environments. The problem affects local economy, retail businesses, and built environments in Bangkok, Thailand as a part of the affected locales. Furthermore, the problem affects cultural identity and relationships between people and the place they live, and among local people. This dissertation addresses the problem of globalization with specific regard to traditional shopping environments in Bangkok, Thailand. To begin, it is necessary to provide the background of the problem as it affects the setting, as well as other issues relating to the setting such as the design and previous study. This context chapter provides the background for the problem, the research setting, design and study issues related to the setting, and the approach to the problem.
This article investigates how the explicit and fixed inside– outside (landward-seaward) absolute ... more This article investigates how the explicit and fixed inside– outside (landward-seaward) absolute spatial axis used to describe offshore space linguistically in the Pitcairn Island language, Pitcairn, can be applied metaphorically to a more implicit and flexible social axis of insider–outsider in Pitcairn Island society. An argument merging the role of the researcher-as outsider interacting with informant-as-insider and real and perceived social threat is advanced. The piece concludes by reasoning that descriptions of grammaticalised space in the Pitcairn language are stricter and less flexible than the potentially more fluid appreciation of the constitution of the island’s insider–outsider consensus.
My thoughts are anthropological, environmental, and geographical in that my family and I find our... more My thoughts are anthropological, environmental, and geographical in that my family and I find ourselves in new cultural, geographical, and academic surrounds. I have recently moved with partner and 26-month-old daughter to rural New South Wales to take up a three-year postdoctoral research fellowship at a regional university. The fellowship scheme is part of a new initiative to attract fresh talent to this institution, Australia's oldest regional university, an establishment with an already impressive research record. The new fellowship program allows fellows the opportunity to procure more research funds and attract more research status to the university. Such an arrangement should not surprise any of us operating in what can be considered a neoliberal research sector.
: Explicit consideration of the concept of island toponymy is scant. Following a summary of recen... more : Explicit consideration of the concept of island toponymy is scant. Following a summary of recent island toponymic experiences on Pitcairn Island, this introduction reviews how the seven papers in this thematic section of ISJ offer methodological and theoretical groundwork towards establishing island toponymy as a subfield of research in its own right both within island studies and toponymy more generally. The creative aspects and eclectic nature of investigating island toponymies is proposed as a possible means of further enquiry.
Norfolk Island, South Pacific, provides linguists a near laboratory case study in naming, languag... more Norfolk Island, South Pacific, provides linguists a near laboratory case study in naming, language contact, and environmental management. Tlie two languages spoken on the island, Norfk-the language of the descendants of the Pitcairn Islanders-and English, are both used in place-naming. This short note analyses the toponyms of Nepean Island, a small uninhabited island 800 metres south of Norfolk. It questions whether Nepean is a microcosm of naming behaviour for the rest of the Norfolk macrocosm. For its size, Nepean contains a large number of toponyms. The paper suggests the uninliabited nature of Nepean may have resulted in fewer commemorative anthroponymic toponyms, a situation unlike namiug patterns ki the rest of the archipelago. Nepean offers a study of naming a small no-man's land as compared to naming a larger occupied land.
Placenames (toponyms) give insight into relationships involving people, place, and language. An e... more Placenames (toponyms) give insight into relationships involving people, place, and language. An exemplary placename derived from long-term engagement within the sensitive linguistic ecology of Norfolk Island in the South Pacific is used to detail how a fusing of linguistic analysis, words, and cultural memory is beneficial for what constitutes an ecolinguistic fieldwork methodology. Differences between the ethnographic method and an ecolinguistic fieldwork methodology are presented. This enduring and keyed-in commitment with Norfolk Island's social and natural surroundings offers significant perceptiveness into and suggestions about how prolonged ecolinguistic work can be beneficial to language documentation projects, particular those incorporating lexical (word) and semantic (memory) description.
kings, spanning over the three periods which Kondi and Boer recognize in Sikkan mythical history.... more kings, spanning over the three periods which Kondi and Boer recognize in Sikkan mythical history. Lewis describes the two indigenous authors as 'members of a newly literate community' (p. 46), implying that they were experiencing a profound historical change brought by the technology of writing. Yet it is not clear that writing itself brings change, but the way texts are used. For example, Lewis's co-translator, Mandalangi, certainly tried to revive a more embodied sense of language when he recited a passage written in Sara Sikka in order to understand it (p. 46, note). Was Kondi's and Boer's Malay writing also oriented by the way it sounded when read aloud? Because Boer's and Kondi's Malay narrative only appears in this book in English translation it is difficult for the reader to consider this possibility, as well as Lewis's statement that they use Malay for an objective voice on their culture. At the same time Lewis gives a detailed account of how and why Kondi and Boer wrote about their society. He argues that the two men lived in changing times and wanted to salvage information about a disappearing culture. They probably anticipated a time in which people would again ask questions about the forgotten past. But they could not predict the form in which their narrative would make sense to future generations. They framed it as hikayat, a Malay genre which incorporates mythical and historical elements in a single narrative. Ultimately it is a charter for the political unity of Sikka, restored by raja Thomas after a long period of rebellions and wars. This interpretation of Kondi's and Boer's narrative raises the main ethnographic question of the book: what kind of sovereignty does the narrative talk about? According to their origin myth, the rulers of Sikka descend from foreigners shipwrecked at their shore. This myth of stranger kings recalls a familiar theme of Austronesian ethnography. Lewis develops this theme into a sophisticated comparative argument. For him, the foreign origin of political power does not mean that Sikka is a 'suburb of Fiji' (p. 156). Neither does Sikka have a totalizing ideology in which political values are encompassed by ritual ones-although 'hierarchies of value in marriage and sovereignty are the inverse of one another' (p. 155). Instead, Lewis argues that the Sikkan narrative of stranger kings is a statement about the complex relations of Sikka to other local polities, colonial agents, and larger historical systems. Lewis reflects on the nature of this history through the concepts of complexity (p. 157) and hybrid cultures (p. 202). His serious engagement with historical structures and possibilities is the most important contribution of the book. Lewis applies an ethnographic style which reminds one of two other recent books about Southeast Asia: Roy Ellen's On the Edge of the Banda Zone (2003) and Peter Metcalf's Life of the Longhouse (2010). These studies share a detailed understanding of local classifications and practices but address historical issues of more global scope. At the same time, they are not limited to conventional historical sources but foreground indigenous perspectives and statements.
This chapter provides the background context for the problem, the setting, and the issues related... more This chapter provides the background context for the problem, the setting, and the issues related to shopping environments, all of which establish the background for this dissertation. From the previously stated problem, globalization has influenced the appearance of new shopping developments and poses a threat to the viability of traditional shopping environments. The problem affects local economy, retail businesses, and built environments in Bangkok, Thailand as a part of the affected locales. Furthermore, the problem affects cultural identity and relationships between people and the place they live, and among local people. This dissertation addresses the problem of globalization with specific regard to traditional shopping environments in Bangkok, Thailand. To begin, it is necessary to provide the background of the problem as it affects the setting, as well as other issues relating to the setting such as the design and previous study. This context chapter provides the background for the problem, the research setting, design and study issues related to the setting, and the approach to the problem.
This article investigates how the explicit and fixed inside– outside (landward-seaward) absolute ... more This article investigates how the explicit and fixed inside– outside (landward-seaward) absolute spatial axis used to describe offshore space linguistically in the Pitcairn Island language, Pitcairn, can be applied metaphorically to a more implicit and flexible social axis of insider–outsider in Pitcairn Island society. An argument merging the role of the researcher-as outsider interacting with informant-as-insider and real and perceived social threat is advanced. The piece concludes by reasoning that descriptions of grammaticalised space in the Pitcairn language are stricter and less flexible than the potentially more fluid appreciation of the constitution of the island’s insider–outsider consensus.
My thoughts are anthropological, environmental, and geographical in that my family and I find our... more My thoughts are anthropological, environmental, and geographical in that my family and I find ourselves in new cultural, geographical, and academic surrounds. I have recently moved with partner and 26-month-old daughter to rural New South Wales to take up a three-year postdoctoral research fellowship at a regional university. The fellowship scheme is part of a new initiative to attract fresh talent to this institution, Australia's oldest regional university, an establishment with an already impressive research record. The new fellowship program allows fellows the opportunity to procure more research funds and attract more research status to the university. Such an arrangement should not surprise any of us operating in what can be considered a neoliberal research sector.
: Explicit consideration of the concept of island toponymy is scant. Following a summary of recen... more : Explicit consideration of the concept of island toponymy is scant. Following a summary of recent island toponymic experiences on Pitcairn Island, this introduction reviews how the seven papers in this thematic section of ISJ offer methodological and theoretical groundwork towards establishing island toponymy as a subfield of research in its own right both within island studies and toponymy more generally. The creative aspects and eclectic nature of investigating island toponymies is proposed as a possible means of further enquiry.
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