Geographical Identity Research Articles

L'exote, l'oviri, l'exilé : les singulières identités géographiques de Paul Gauguin // The exote, the oviri and the exiled : Gauguin's singular geographical identitites

The paper deals with Gauguin's geographical identities. It shows that the painter is not attached to a specific place, but is rather longing for the Elsewhere. This exoticism is shared with other orientalist artists, but his quest goes further. He longs for a more authentic human experience and expression, and hopes to find it in the "Savage", a figure of the Other defined by Geography. Gauguin wants to get away from the West and from the straitjacket of civilization. His journey is a quest for his identity. Gauguin's case shows that geographical identities have not necessarily something to do with territories, but may result from a complex and individual construction. The actor's representations and choices should then be taken seriously and be analyzed as elements of personal geographical identities, which may come to complement collective ones based on territories.

Vocabulary as an indicator of dialectal mapping: the case of isiZulu in KwaZulu-Natal

This article describes the various vocabulary items as generally used in KwaZulu-Natal. It also focuses on challenges faced by dialectologists due to the increasingly elusive nature of languages today. This is evidently the case in this study on isiZulu, where vocabulary cannot categorically be pinned down to a specific geographical area. Each individual has his/her language repertoire and is, therefore, capable of changing this in various given contexts. This includes such language aspects as prosody, pitch, rhythm intonation, etc. The problem that dialectologists also face is compounded by the mobility of people today, largely for the purposes of employment. Here it becomes difficult again to locate and specify particular dialects and vocabulary to a specific area in people's everyday discourse. What the article attempts to do is essentially demarcate vocabulary items according to geographical locations. However, this too is fairly sketchy, as there is variability among language speakers or users in their interactions depending on their conversations and speech events. The conclusion drawn in this article is that isiZulu, like any other language, has variants but specific vocabulary marks each geographical area's identity. The study also shows respondents' ambivalence about choosing and adopting specific vocabulary that would be claimed to belong to a dialect that is common in isiZulu.

Converting Trilby: Du Maurier on Englishness, Jewishness, and Culture

At the heart of George Du Maurier's Trilby are juxtaposed attempts to convert the novel's heroine and namesake. On the one hand, there is Svengali, the Jewish musician and mesmerist, who tries to convert Trilby into a cosmopolitan diva. On the other hand, there is Little Billee's effort to remake Trilby into a model of Englishness—an effort that has received little critical attention. These opposing conversion strategies raise important questions about if and how one can become English, emphasizing Englishness not as a juridical or geographic identity so much as one attainable through what Du Maurier calls "English training," particularly the consumption of English novels and English food. These dual conversion attempts also reveal Du Maurier'smarked ambivalence toward what I term "cultural Englishness," a combination of both everyday and artistic culture. Du Maurier is deeply invested in elements of English everyday culture. Yet he is highly critical of England's Philistinism, suggesting that Englishness can benefit from an "infusion" of Jewish creativity and vitality. The novel ultimately insists, however, that such an infusion can be healthy only when taken in "diluted homoeopathic doses." This essay, then, argues for the importance of Englishness in Trilby and for the way that Jewishness functions vis-à-vis Englishness in several of Du Maurier's works, which, like a number of Victorian contemporaries, repeatedly turn to Jewishness as medicinal—"homoeopathic"—yet reflect a contrary desire to "dilute" it into safety.

Geographical Identities of Ethnic America: Race, Space, and Place

Geographical Identities of Ethnic America: Race, Space, and Place

Moving Mountains: Community and Resistance in the Isle of Harris, Scotland, and Cape Breton, Canada

Drawing on poststructuralist political ecology, the narratives of two struggles about siting a superquarry are examined to elucidate the complex articulations of community, nature, resistance and identity in play in public debates. Focusing on the discursive formulations of the quarry in the expert language, as well as in the arguments of both local proponents and opponents of the quarries, shows the importance of ontological categories in “environmental” siting disputes. In Harris, these themes rearticulate the histories of dispossession, crofting and religion, as well as complex layers of geographical identity in the various claims to community. In Cape Breton, the rethinking of aboriginal Mi'kmaq identity was stimulated by revived interest in the religious traditions linked to the sacred site near the proposed quarry. In light of these findings, the complexity and active rearticulation of local “community” as political resistance are emphasised and the difficulties of thinking about sustainability highlighted.

The Clearinghouse Approach to Enhancing Informed Public Participation in Watershed Management Utilizing GIS and Internet Technology

Geographic Information Systems and Internet technology provide the capability to enhance informed public participation in watershed management. This is demonstrated by a case study of the endeavor resulting in the construction of the Gunpowder Watershed Clearinghouse Website. This “clearinghouse” model represents an important tool for promoting “inclusiveness” in watershed management. This is essential, as watersheds serve the needs of diverse groups of stakeholders with divergent agendas and differing jurisdictional allegiances. It is vital to engage these diverse groups because it is upon their behavior(s) that watershed health depends. When resource managers incorporate the general public into watershed management public health is guarded, conflict can be mitigated, government transparency is increased in a digestible manner, better decisions are made, and appreciation of the need to protect natural resources nurtured. This incorporation is well served by the creation of an Internet “clearinghouse” to foster a shared watershed-based geographical identity, educate at the user's convenience, and connect stakeholders with cultural and physical resources and phenomena. Allowing sharing, rather than hoarding or duplication of resources, and creating awareness among various watershed stakeholders of each other's activities supports watershed preservation and restoration.

Geographical Identities of Ethnic America: Race, Space and Place, Kate Berry & Martha Henderson (editors). Reno: University of Nevada Press (2002). Reviewed by Mary E. Valmont

Geographical Identities of Ethnic America: Race, Space and Place, Kate Berry & Martha Henderson (editors). Reno: University of Nevada Press (2002). Reviewed by Mary E. Valmont

Geographic Identities of the Sacrificial Victims from the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, Teotihuacan: Implications for the Nature of State Power

This study addresses the political and military structure of early Teotihuacan through the analysis of oxygen-isotope ratios in skeletal phosphate from 41 victims of a sacrifice associated with the Feathered Serpent Pyramid. Oxygen-isotope ratios are markers of geographic identity. A comparison of bone and enamel values, which provides a contrast between environments experienced during growth and those of adulthood, illustrates that at least four different regions are represented in this sample. Those identified as soldiers had either lived locally since childhood or had moved to Teotihuacan from several foreign locations. Most had lived in Teotihuacan for a prolonged period before their death. This pattern suggests foreign “recruitment” or mercenary behavior. The women had either lived all their lives in Teotihuacan or had moved from there to a foreign location. Most of the individuals in the center of the pyramid (burial 14) did not come from Teotihuacan, nor had they lived in the city long before their deaths. We suggest that the choice of victims was meant to demonstrate Teotihuacan's powerful ideology to the rest of the Mesoamerican world. Notably, this isotopic evidence of physical interaction between Teotihuacan and foreign regions considerably predates the currently existing archaeological evidence.

Intonation in Two Scottish Poems

This article represents recent interests in poetic intonation. The systematic study of intonation has come very late to linguistics and is still fraught with difficulties. As the author explains, any study of intonation in poetry encounters further problems, too, given that poetry is usually presented visually and is visually thought to transcend individual performances. Nonetheless, using two Scottish poems, the author shows how intonational contours in poetry can indeed be recorded, identified, compared, and interpreted. These contours, the author demonstrates, can do important poetic work: shape rythms, create parallels, express attitudes, and mark linguistic, geographical, generic, and personal identities.

Molecular detection, community structure and phylogeny of ericoid mycorrhizal fungi

Through traditional culturing and molecular characterization, we have determined that five putative species and 2 polyphyletic assemblages of fungi produce ericoid mycorrhizae in Gaultheria shallon, other Ericaceae and Epacridaceae. Using phylogenetic analysis of ITS2 sequences in GenBank, we have confirmed that most of these fungi occur in North America, Europe, and Australia. The low recovery rate of culturable ericoid mycorrhizal fungi from Gaultheria shallon may partly be explained by the fact that most mycorrhizal root segments contain an unculturable basidiomycete, revealed by direct amplification, cloning, and sequencing of LSU fungal DNA from root. Molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis are powerful tools in revealing the geographic distribution and identity of ericoid mycorrhizal fungi.

Reclaiming National Literary Heritage: The Rehabilitation of Abdurauf Fitrat and Abdulhamid Sulaymon Cholpan in Uzbekistan

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING, colonialism has had great influence in reshaping geographical, social and cultural identities around the world. As Franz Fanon argues, it has not only aimed at holding captive and emptying the colonised of all form and content, but has also attempted to distort and disfigure the past of oppressed people. Similarly, as an apparatus of power, colonialist discourses have historically focused upon the devaluation and fetishisation of the pre-colonial culture and history of the colonised.' They have also construed 'the colonised as a population of degenerate types on the basis of racial origin, in order to justify conquest and to establish systems of administration and instruction'.2 In responding to their marginalisation, subjugation, exploitation and exclusion, anti-colonialist writers have generated discourses that seek to challenge and rewrite colonial discourses as a way of explicating and defining their own culture, history, literary heritage and being. In so doing, as counter-ideological discourses, anti-colonial literary texts have not only sought to offer a critique of colonial policies, they have also provided cultural and ideological expressions of resistance, liberation and social revolution in colonised regions. In this respect, Edward Said argues that

Girls' slang and boys' slang: Two towns in Finland visited

In this study the vocabulary of girls' slang and boys' slang in two different towns in Finland was compared and it was found that there are both similarities and differences. The similarities can be found in typical slang topics. As part of the study, boys and girls in both towns wrote down slang words in the same semantic domains. The differences are traditional. Whereas boys' slang shows more local traits, girls' slang is typically more mainstream. The language that is used for new slang words varies more between the two towns than between the gender groups. It seems that Swedish-speaking youths in Finland have several different traits within their slang to draw upon when signalling and decoding identity. Both geographical and gender identity can be conveyed through the choice of slang words in any given situation.

A common space? The Falklands/Malvinas and the new geopolitics of the South Atlantic1

This article explores the possibility of developing a more progressive sense of place which recognises the mutual interdependence and interconnection of South America, the Falklands (Malvinas) and the South Atlantic rather than perpetuating exclusive identities and sovereignty. Since the 1982 South Atlantic conflict, there have been considerable improvements in Anglo‐Argentine relations resulting in a decade‐long period of South Atlantic co‐operation and the 14 July 1999 Joint Statement. The difficulties of generating a progressive sense of place in regions where conflict, distrust and bitterness endure remain powerful forces. These endeavours will require all parties to develop a more plural sense of culture, geographical identity and place. The recent public recognition of shared loss by former President Carlos Menem and HRH the Prince of Wales is interpreted as a promising development in the long‐term process of co‐operation and forgiveness. Finally, this investigation considers how political geographers can contribute to these acts of reconciliation and recognition.

HPV16 E6 gene variations in invasive cervical squamous cell carcinoma and cancer in situ from Russian patients.

HPV16 is frequently seen in invasive cervical cancer (ICC) and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). Its E6 gene has frequent sequence variations. Although some E6 variants have been reported to have different biochemical or biological properties, they do not show geographical identity. Moreover, the definition of ‘variant’ has been a source of confusion because it has been based on all departures from the ‘prototype’ once isolated randomly from an ICC case. We amplified the HPV16 E6 gene by PCR from fresh-frozen tissue of 104 cases of ICC and CIN from Russian patients and sequenced it in positive cases. We found that 32 of 55 (58.2%) ICC cases and 18 of 49 (36.7%) CIN cases were HPV 16-positive and we could identify 3 groups of E6 variants: group A was characterized by G at nt 350 where group B had T, and group M was a heterogeneous mixture of unique E6 variants; no significant difference existed in the distribution of the different groups between ICC and CIN; the clinically malignant (as defined by FIGO stage) order between the groups was M > A > B in ICC; in the cases with a single HPV16 E6 sequence, coexisting ICC, CIN and normal epithelium in the same patient shared the E6 variant; and 4 cases of ICC had double/multiple E6 variants. The results did not show any importance of E6 variants for ICC progression in Russian women. The results also indicated that the original HPV16 variant persisted during ICC progression, and that at a low frequency, double infections and/or mutation of variants might occur. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.com

Reading private green space: Competing geographic identities at the level of the lawn

This paper focuses on private residential green space as a site of contested meanings. Recent research points to the emergence of an activism centered on ecological restoration and a shift away from the lawn as the only accepted landscape practice for private green space. However, it is clear that the lawn, a particularly powerful cultural landscape form in residential neighborhoods, still largely dominates this space across North America. This investigation examines the voices of two groups: traditional lawn owners and ecological activists. We observe two sets of discourses centered on private green space. Both groups construct residential green space as a site of identity politics-a site wherein the self is defined as pure and the other excluded as different and necessarily inferior. And both perceive their discourse as ''natural.'' The critical finding is that they are almost entirely oppositional discourses. The contest over what constitutes appropriate landscaping practices for this space provides a locus for bringing to a discursive level, the kinds of socio-cultural perspectives and practices that create and dominate our places in late capitalist society. We suggest that at present the lawn remains a barrier to alternative green space practices.

Identities without a Reference

Identities without a Reference

‘The Sun Always Shines in Perth’: a Post‐Colonial Geography of Identity, Memory and Place

In this paper I explore some of the textual possibilities of post‐colonial geography. Using the conceptual tool of place as a palimpsest, I trace some geographies of memory across selected colonial and post‐colonial texts. By focusing on the relationship between representations of ‘sunny Perth’ and ‘Nyungah Perth’, I tease out some of the more general theoretical issues which pertain to a politics of place and space within this (post)colonial Australian context. The nexus of memory, place and cultural identity is central to my analysis. I give particular attention to the ways in which cultural memories are inscribed in some very specific and very ordinary places, and how these places become site‐markers of the remembering process and of identity itself.

Microhistory and Cultural Geography: Ben Jonson's “To Sir Robert Wroth” and the Absorption of Local Community in the Commonwealth*

The consolidation of England into a monarchical commonwealth in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries created the possibility of polyvalent geographic identity. Ben Jonsons country house poem, “To Sir Robert Wroth, “ was written from the vantage point of a shift in the politico-geographical borders that made local communities in the shires part of a centralizing monarchical commonwealth. Microhistorical examination of the Wroths and their village in the period preceding the composition of the poem reveals their insistent local identity and resistance to the monarchical commonwealth ruled from London. The immediate context of their resistance to the center was a Privy Council project to make the River Lea navigable in order to bringdown the price of grain in London. Economically threatened, the Wroths orchestrated sabotage against the project, but eventually acquiesced to the Privy Council and re-entered the centrally administered commonwealth fold. Jonsons poem is a testimony to this reaffiliation, a celebration of the Wroths as exemplars of commonwealth identity within local region. Only when they distanced themselves from local identity did the Wroths become suitable for Jonson as a poetic model of the country ideal. In Jonsons hands, the country house poem becomes the vehicle of multivalent identification with place.

Mappings: feminism and the cultural geographies of encounter

List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Locational Feminism3Pt. IFeminism/Multiculturalism15Ch. 1Beyond Gender: The New Geography of Identity and the Future of Feminist Criticism17Ch. 2Beyond White and Other: Narratives of Race in Feminist Discourse36Ch. 3Beyond Difference: Migratory Feminism in the Borderlands67Pt. IIFeminism/Globalism105Ch. 4Geopolitical Literacy: Internationalizing Feminism at Home - The Case of Virginia Woolf107Ch. 5Telling Contacts: Intercultural Encounters and Narrative Poetics in the Borderlands between Literary Studies and Anthropology132Ch. 6Routes/Roots: Boundaries, Borderlands, and Geopolitical Narratives of Identity151Pt. IIIFeminism/Poststructuralism179Ch. 7Negotiating the Transatlantic Divide: Feminism after Poststructuralism181Ch. 8Making History: Reflections on Feminism, Narrative, and Desire199Ch. 9Craving Stories: Narrative and Lyric in Feminist Theory and Poetic Practice228Notes243References281Index303

Genetic Variation in a Widespread, Epiphytic Orchid: Where is the Evolutionary Potential?

Breeding system, population dynamics, and the underlying genetic structure of orchid pop- ulations should reflect their evolutionary potential. We examined the genetic structure of populations repre- senting a widespread, obligately outbreeding epiphyte of the Greater Antilles, Tolumnia variegata. We sampled 14 populations from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba for isozyme variation using horizontal starch-gel electrophoresis. We resolved and scored variation for twelve loci from six enzymes, and found that all loci were polymorphic at the species level and allele frequencies were significantly different among all populations. Variation at the population level was also high, as the average percent polymorphic loci was 71%, the expected mean heterozygosity (He) was 0.21, and the average number of effective alleles per locus was 1.43. Nearly all genetic variation in T variegata occurred within populations (HT = 0.22; DST = 0.03; GST = 0.11). Average gene flow estimates among populations were moderate (Nms = 1.34 and Nmw = 2.07). Within islands, populations were very similar to one another and there was a significant negative correlation between geographic distance and either genetic identity or Nmw among populations. Among islands, gene flow was more restricted but there was no obvious relationship between genetic distance and population differentiation. Patterns of genetic and morphological variation matched. Some minor differentiation has oc- curred among islands, but gene flow estimates reinforce the notion that all populations sampled represent a single species. Evolutionary potential is high because of substantial levels of genetic and morphological variation, but evolutionary diversification among these populations would likely be a slow process.