Paper short abstract:

Islands are (and are imagined to be) places that differ from other areas of land, as their social realities and cultural identities are either linked to insularity and isolation, beach life, peace and joy or to forced mobility and migration.

Paper long abstract:

Co-author: Burkhard Schnepel, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Institut für Ethnologie

The convenors will introduce the main assumptions, the background and the intellectual aims of the workshop.

On the one hand, it is possible to say that islands, as areas of land surrounded by water, are not necessarily more isolated in socio-cultural respects than any other areas of land, because they are involved in extensive networks of communication and exchange. Recent processes of globalisation, namely migrations and travel, modern capitalism, mass media and the new communication technologies, contribute in particular to the interrelatedness of the world and the trans-local link-up between people, no matter where they live.

On the other hand, it can be found that islands are (and are imagined to be) places that differ from other parts of land, as their cultural identity is either linked to insularity and isolation, to beach life, peace and joy or to forced mobility and migration. In their presentation the workshop convenors will outline former anthropological approaches to island cultures and elaborate on a possible framework for connecting the papers to be presented during the panel.