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Unit 3

The impact of geography and history on the emerging culture and the study of it

The uniqueness of the Caribbean and Aruba

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Unit 3:

2 parts:

First part: islands as abstract conceptualization: they are unique

Second part: the Caribbean and Aruba: important characteristics that affect the study of the region

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Islands

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Island myth

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Islands have been the inspiration

for fictions, arts and the imagination:

They are often portrayed

as exotic and mysterious

Maldives

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The setting, some interesting facts:(Baldacchino, 2006)

There are 550 million people living on islands: around 10% of the worlds total population.

Islands (Australia and Antarctica (=continents) are excluded, this decision is contestable) occupy just 1.86% of the Earths surface area, but 13,1% (106 out of 812) of UNESCOs World heritage Sites (as stated at February 2006) are on islands or else are islands in total

No fewer than 43 (22%) of the worlds sovereign states are exclusively island states. And many states have one or more island regions or sub-national jurisdictions (CIA, 2005)

Innovative forms of sovereignty tend to involve islands, especially small islands. E.g. Aruba (Status Aparte), Aland, the Isle of Man, Mayotte, Puerto Rico and dozens of other island territories have struck unique status arrangements with much larger national or supra-national bodies.

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New Zealand islands

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Islands are unique(Baldacchino, 2006)

(...) the island is the first unit that the mind can pick out and begin to comprehend (McArtur and Wilson, 1967)

The island becomes an attractive location, or itself the instigator, for attitudes which sweep from total, God-like control to an equally total submission to Nature; and for processes ranging from reinvigorating therapy to dark obscenity

The island is a mystery, its unique in its sort

Known terms as island fever, island mentality have been (are still) in use to describe what it means to live on an island:

It is a unique (one of a kind) psychological, social, cultural, political, and environmental experience/phenomena

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Islands as tabulae rasae

Islands are potential laboratories for any conceivable project in thought or action:

They have a natural geographical outlined (explicitly defined) boundary

They float in the sea, sometimes with neighboring islands, other times in relationship with the mainland(s)

They are innovative conceptualizations

They have innovative forms of sovereignty

Their one of a kind uniqueness as an island as their main characteristic has carries a inherently paradox

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Islands as innovative conceptualizations

Island are pioneers

Either making the strange familiar (breaking out of the mould) or making the familiar strange (such as finding your own soul)

Whether of nature or human enterprise, whether virtual or real

Koffi Annan, (former UN secretary-general) states this in the following words: Islands are the frontline zones where many of the main problems of environment and development are unfolding.

And so the solutions:

e.g. Danish island that is fully self-sufficient in energy supplies

e.g. Nos Aruba 2025, a national strategic participative process striving for the sustainability of the future development of Aruba

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E.g. Islands as innovative conceptualizations: Samso

E.g. Danish island Samso is 'energy self-sufficient

http://www.sidewaysnews.com/environment-nature/danish-isle-energy-self-sufficient

http://www.energiakademiet.dk/default_uk.asp

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E.g. Islands as innovative conceptualizations: Nos Aruba 2025

http://www.nosaruba2025.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21&Itemid=60&lang=en

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Islands as innovative forms of sovereignty

Unique status arrangements with much larger national or supra-national bodies

E.g. Arubas own status Aparte:

Relationships because of colonial history:

With the Netherlands

With the Kingdom of the Netherlands

With the European Union

New relationships in order to be self-sustainable:

Tourism: US, Latin America and beyond

Many of the islands (even old colonies) outright political independence. What are possible reasons for this?

Collaboration with international bodies/agencies:

UNESCO, other international and regional constellations in terms of themes

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Unique island character: Paradox!

Paradox between:

Small insular* specificity (close):

reachable under the microscope

small islands are somehow closed systems, making it amenable to study

making it amenable to test and explore ideas and theories: rehearsals for reality

Small insular periphirality** (open to other influences):

being on the edge, being out of sight and so out of mind

Situations which both exposes and foment the weakness if mainstream ideas

* insular refers to isolation

** periphery is a boundary or outer part of any space or object, periphery implies here: being at the boundary, but in connection to other parts

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The what and why of Island studies (Baldacchino, 2006) : Nissology

Island-driven focus is called Nissology (Greek for islands)

Islands -small-islands in particular- are distinct enough spaces or harbour extreme enough renditions of more general processes, to deserve their continued respect as subjects/objects of academic focus and inquiry.

The core of island studies is the constitution of islandness and its possible or plausible influence and impact on ecology, human/species behavior and any of the areas handled by tradition subject uni-disciplines (such as archaeology, economics or literature), subject multi-disciplines (such as political economy or biogeography) or policy foci/issues (such as governance, social capital, waste disposal, language extinction or sustainable tourism)

Islands are somewhat manageable for study (somewhat closed systems)

Islandness is an intervening variable that does not determine, but contours and conditions physical and social events in distinct, and distinctly relevant ways.

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The what and why of Island studies (Baldacchino, 2006): Nissology

The emerging consensus is that island studies should not necessarily be seen as a discipline/or discipline-in the waiting, it doesnt need to have a distinctive methodology

It is primarily an inter-, or even trans-, disciplinary focus of critical inquiry and scholarship

Islandness is an intervening variable that does not determine, but contours and conditions physical and social events in distinct, and distinctly relevant ways.

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University of Arubas own expertise in island studies and sustainability:

Chair:

Institutional Capabilities for Small Island Innovation

Prof. Ryan Peterson

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Poem by Derek Walcott (the Schooner Flight, 1979)

Open the map. More islands there, man,

Than peas on a tin plate, all different size,

One thousand in the Bahamas alone

There are so many islands!

As many islands as the stars in the Night

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The uniqueness of the Caribbean

History (colonization past)

Languages

Culture, fusion of cultures

Development (social, economic, democratic wave)

Small states

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Prehistoric Aruba

Pre-ceramic Amerindians

Between 2500 bc and 950 ad

They are called pre-ceramic because they did not yet invent pottery

A society of nomadic hunter gathers

They lived in family groups of about 15 people

Ceramic Amerindians

Archaeologist call them Dabajuroi, the Caquetio are probably their descendants

They belong to the Arawak language family

Sedentary semi-agrarian society: they planted corn but still hunted and gathered

The Dabajuroi had long-distance trading

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Dabajuroi area

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The Dabajuroi are believed to have had a complex society:

Dabajuroi pottery

Aruban woman grinding corn

The Dabajuroi are believed to have had a complex society. We think that because the Dabajuroi had complex burial rites:

One way of burying was to bury the dead and after a few months dig up the bones and bury them again in an urn

This type of burial still exists with the Wayuu (or Guajiro) who live in north-east and north-west Venezuela

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Spanish Period (1499-1636)

The Spanish came to Aruba

The Spanish thought the ABC islands where useless(they were calles the Islas Intiles)

And enslaved the Amerindians and deported them(spanish conquistadores who caught Amerindian slaves where called indieros)

After a while some Amerindians (possibly the same) where brought back by Juan de Ampus who used Aruba as a Rancho

Later on the Spanish emperor sold the rights of the region to a German banking firm, who where allegedly even more cruel than the Spanish

Even thought the Spanish conquered Aruba, the Amerindians of Aruba kept in contact with those of the mainland

The Spanish converted the Amerindians to Catholicism

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West Indian Company (WIC)

In 1636 the Dutch West India Company conquered Aruba

The W.I.C. was a combination of a modern trading company and a state war machine

The W.I.C. also saw Aruba as a useless island

But they also saw it as their private property, so they prohibited colonization

The W.I.C. also prohibited the enslaving of Amerindians

This made Aruba effectively an Amerindian reservation until 1750

The first non Amerindian settler (apart from the W.I.C. personal and their slaves) was Mozes Maduro.

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The Dutch Kingdom

After the W.I.C. went bankrupt there were some turbulent years

In 1815 Aruba came under the authority of the Dutch king William I

In the nineteenth century there where three main social groups on Aruba:

the more European merchants, this group was the political and economical elite

the more Amerindian fishermen and farmers and

the African slaves.

In the nineteenth century Aruba was poor, the population was between 3000 and 10.00 people.

Even though gold and phosphor where found Aruba predominantly remained an agricultural society

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King William the First

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Lago

The Lago meant an economic boom and a spectacular growth of the population

Aruba changed from an agrarian society to a industrial society

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YearInhabitants18171.73218633.25819009.70219208.265193015.697194030.614195051.000196056.905197257.905198160.321

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Tourism and Status Aparte

When the oil business started to go downhill Aruba began investing in Tourism.

This meant another rise in population:

Aruba changed from an primarily industrial society to a service society

Economic prosperity led to the wish for independence:

Status Aparte

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3 main themes in Aruban History

The strong historical bonds between Aruba and the Mainland (Venezuela/Latin America)

Multiculturalism as an integral part of the Aruban character and identity (plural identities)

The big influence of Multinationals on Aruba's history:

the Welser banking house

the W.I.C.

the Lago

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