Island Life Research Articles

Space, Sexuality, and Thornton Wilder’s Villa Rhabani

Abstract Thornton Wilder composed his unfinished play Villa Rhabani—set on the cosmopolitan island of Capri—between 1920 and 1921. This article argues that the play explores the connections between particular spaces and the development of nonnormative sexual identities or practices. It shows how the island setting of Villa Rhabani is crucial to its depiction of queer characters who are associated with both fluid cosmopolitanism and the contestation of sexual binaries. First, Wilder explores how transnational sexual or romantic encounters, cultivated by the shifting cross-cultural exchanges of island life, can produce a flexible attitude to place-based identities. Second, he demonstrates how a mainland–island binary can be used to describe queer identities on the move. His characters’ oscillations between the mainland metropolis of Naples and small-town Capri appear fundamental to the plasticity of their sexual, familial, and national associations. These two dominant modes of portraying character interactions and setting, as well their relation, help reveal the imbricated relationship of space and sexuality. Wilder’s unfinished play, therefore, constitutes a significant contribution to queer transnational literature. The article also contextualizes the play within colonial and Orientalist discourses that have historically linked Southern Italy with same-sex eroticism. While Villa Rhabani draws on a language of exoticization to describe the behaviors of sexually permissive Italian men, it also questions these associations by showing how such practices may be instrumentalized by the economic precarity and desperate social conditions that prevailed in Southern Italy in the early twentieth century.

Islands are key for protecting the world's plant endemism.

Islands are renowned as evolutionary laboratories and support many species that are not found elsewhere1,2. Islands are also of great conservation concern, with many of their endemic species currently threatened or extinct3. Here we present a standardized checklist of all known vascular plants that occur on islands and document their geographical and phylogenetic distribution and conservation risk. Our analyses of 304,103 plant species reveal that 94,052 species (31%) are native to islands, which constitute 5.3% of the global landmass4. Of these, 63,280 are island endemic species, which represent 21% of global plant diversity. Three-quarters of these are restricted to large or isolated islands. Compared with the world flora, island endemics are non-randomly distributed within the tree of life, with a total of 1,005 billion years of unique phylogenetic history with 17 families and 1,702 genera being entirely endemic to islands. Of all vascular plants assigned International Union for Conservation of Nature conservation categories5, 22% are island endemics. Among these endemic species, 51% are threatened, and 55% of all documented global extinctions have occurred on islands. We find that of all single-island endemic species, only 6% occur on islands meeting the United Nations 30×30 conservation target. Urgent measures including habitat restoration, invasive species removal and ex situ programmes are needed to protect the world's island flora. Our checklist quantifies the uniqueness of island life, provides a basis for future studies of island floras, and highlights the urgent need to take actions for conserving them.

Inter-archipelago dispersal, anagenetic evolution, and the origin of a rare, enigmatic plant genus on a remote oceanic archipelago.

Island plants have long interested biologists because of their distinctive morphological features and their isolation on small land areas in vast oceans. Studies of insular endemics may include identifying their ancestors, tracing their dispersal to islands, and describing their evolution on islands, including characters adaptive to island life. Thamnoseris is a monospecific genus endemic to the Desventuradas Islands, Chile. Its origins and relationships are unresolved, given the challenges of getting to the islands and accessing plants there. Sequences from ITS of nrDNA and the complete chloroplast genome were employed to resolve phylogenetic relationships of Thamnoseris. Phylogenetic analyses of nuclear and chloroplast sequences showed Thamnoseris nested within or sister to Dendroseris, the largest endemic genus in the Juan Fernández Islands. Thamnoseris evolved from a common ancestor of all or most species of Dendroseris prior to the diversification of Dendroseris in the Juan Fernández archipelago. The ancestor of Thamnoseris dispersed to the Desventuradas archipelago, which consists of the islands San Ambrosio and San Félix, within the past 3 Ma (the age of San Ambrosio). This is the only known example of possible plant dispersa\l between the Juan Fernández and Desventuradas Islands. We also mention two less likely biogeographic scenarios for the origin of Thamnoseris, which has features not seen in Dendroseris: small capitula with yellow florets; style branches barely divergent; and basally swollen subtending involucral bracts, all features associated with selfing and reduced dispersal. Goats and rabbits (now removed) reduced T. lacerata, once very abundant on the Desventuradas Islands, to several plants, making it of extreme conservation concern and worthy of further study.

Staging Posts: Thinking through the Orkney archipelago

The Orkney Archipelago, around 10 miles off the north coast of Scotland, has seen 6000 years of human settlement, with many archaeological artifacts offering significant insights into the formation of a deep-rooted island culture. The various transfigurations of this island culture to present-day Orkney indicate how external influences shape cultural inheritances, yet how this culture retains fundamental qualities; of imagination, resourcefulness, and territorial interconnections. This issue of how we negotiate the complexity of archipelagic relations is presented through a framework of process-based terms, of formations, transfigurations, constellations, aggregations, and tensions. This framework offers a degree of conceptual specificity, bringing focus to processes of relation change, movement, and interaction, across varying spatial and temporal scales. Underpinned by observational fieldwork, what emerges in this study is a sense of island life, bringing light to cultural and environmental processes, often most intensively manifest around strategic staging posts.

Contextual corporeality: Life in the ninth decade and beyond

AbstractIncreased longevity is occurring worldwide with the greatest increase in the numbers of the very old. Many gerontological scholars have noted that these changes pose a risk of exclusion of the very old whose ability to participate in society may be compromised by bodily challenges. While the growing number of people aged 80 years and over raises many issues concerning health and social care needs, demands for a skilled workforce, and scope for technical innovations designed to compensate for the infirmities of advanced old age, these topics tend to exclude consideration of the everyday experiences, interests and wishes of those in deep old age. The qualitative research reported here focuses on people in advanced old age and the associated corporeal challenges they may face, set in the context of living on the San Juan islands off the coast of Washington in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The participants of this study were islanders ranging in age from 80 to 102 years with a median age of 83 (M = 85.9, SD = 5.95). A mixture of semistructured interview and a photo elicitation methodology was employed. The results of the study demonstrated that, while integral to daily life in deep old age, corporeal challenges per se did not necessarily lead to a sense of exclusion, at least in the context of island life. Thematic analysis of the findings suggested the importance of context in framing corporeality, and the need to look beyond objective indicators of disability and function to acknowledge the role of social belonging in ensuring the continuing citizenship and social engagement of people in their ninth decade and beyond.

Social Psychological Perspectives on Islandness: Identities, Vulnerabilities and Precarities

Although there are many widely perceived attractions to living on a small island, island life is not without its challenges. The physical aspects of these are well rehearsed. The psychological ones, less so. Drawing on social psychological theories, we analyse the experience of living on small islands, with a focus on two small British islands. Data were collected through ethnographic fieldwork, involving observations and interviews with small island inhabitants. We found a range of factors impacting them psychologically, including several that suggest identity and social identity theories may provide a useful psychological lens for understanding these communities. There were also other psychological features identified that suggest a self-perception of vulnerability. These were reflected in concerns around the precarity of employment, but also evident in islanders’ discourses around health (both physical and mental). These findings echo previous authors’ assertions concerning the existence of an ‘island psychology’ evident in the experiences of island residents, but also contribute to discussions around its origins and mechanisms of influence - which we argue have been hitherto, relatively atheoretical. Importantly, a better understanding of island experience, and the relevant theoretical frameworks, can assist in supporting the wellbeing of islanders and the sustainability of their communities.

Got milkweed? Genetic assimilation as potential source for the evolution of nonmigratory monarch butterfly wing shape.

Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are well studied for their annual long-distance migration from as far north as Canada to their overwintering grounds in Central Mexico. At the end of the cold season, monarchs start to repopulate North America through short-distance migration over the course of multiple generations. Interestingly, some populations in various tropical and subtropical islands do not migrate and exhibit heritable differences in wing shape and size, most likely an adaptation to island life. Less is known about forewing differences between long- and short-distance migrants in relation to island populations. Given their different migratory behaviors, we hypothesized that these differences would be reflected in wing morphology. To test this, we analyzed forewing shape and size of three different groups: nonmigratory, lesser migratory (migrate short-distances), and migratory (migrate long-distances) individuals. Significant differences in shape appear in all groups using geometric morphometrics. As variation found between migratory and lesser migrants has been shown to be caused by phenotypic plasticity, and lesser migrants develop intermediate forewing shapes between migratory and nonmigratory individuals, we suggest that genetic assimilation might be an important mechanism to explain the heritable variation found between migratory and nonmigratory populations. Additionally, our research confirms previous studies which show that forewing size is significantly smaller in nonmigratory populations when compared to both migratory phenotypes. Finally, we found sexual dimorphism in forewing shape in all three groups, but for size in nonmigratory populations only. This might have been caused by reduced constraints on forewing size in nonmigratory populations.

Transposition, not translation: Recuperating attentionality on Pantelleria, Sicily

AbstractThis article examines how elderly rural Sicilians recall the meanings of words rendered obsolete by infrastructural, technological, and economic changes that occurred in their lifetime. I examine conversations from my 2016 and 2019 fieldwork on Pantelleria, Sicily, characterized by what I term recuperated attentionality, speaking from erstwhile attentional circumstances. To unpack the meanings of words, elderly islanders employ transposition, contextualizing their attentional guidance from a moment of reference anchored in the remembered past, orienting to an obsolete way of being in the world. Socio‐biographical discontinuity means that acquaintance and familiarity with the denotata of these words is asymmetrical, once accessed by participating in island life, issuing and responding to directives, attending to tasks, and so on, but now accessed principally by memory. I examine conversational discourse in which transposition is used to unpack word meanings, which clashes with elicitation norms that request translational equivalents for words.

Island Blue Spaces: A Deeper Exploration

Preliminary research has shown that blue spaces provide many benefits to health and well-being. In response to the call for a deeper investigation into this area of inquiry, the current study seeks input from those (N=37) who live on islands in the Northeast region of the United States. Previous findings about the significance of having access to nature, identifying it as a favorite part and most influential reason for living on an island, were reaffirmed. Distinctions between island and mainland life were highlighted, emphasizing the importance of community. This study also brought to light participants’ grave concerns about issues such as housing costs, overdevelopment of the island, and the impact of tourism, providing a multifaceted view of life in an island blue space. It is hoped that these findings contribute to a deeper understanding of living in a blue space that can be applied to both island and non-island populations.

Praying in the pandemic, and after

What is everyday life like under a militarized pandemic where the brute force of the state is deployed to contain an outbreak? What lifeworld is generated against the backdrop of authoritarian control? What holds us together when our lives are quarantined? I will answer these questions by looking at the practice of mass listening. In particular, I look at a recorded prayer to provide a picture of an island life. In this essay, I call attention to what may be termed the vernacular will to life in a carceral regime in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the oratio imperata as a case study, I think more broadly about the meaning of freedom, restraint, and contingency. Namely, I describe the lifeforce buried in everyday acts of praying wherein repressive social forces, be they the police or religious authorities, come to enable world-making possibilities for ordinary lives in paradoxical ways. I argue that the recorded prayer helps us to grasp the dynamics of repression and agency. Using memoir and ethnography, I propose the theory of vernacular biopoetics to explore the possibility of freedom in a carceral condition wherein the constriction of spaces becomes an opening for alternative forms of imagination.

From Colombia to Lesbos: Experiences with Bee Research and Island Life

From Colombia to Lesbos: Experiences with Bee Research and Island Life

Islandness in human rights, human rights in islandness: Missing voices

Island Studies literature has rarely engaged with human rights law to scrutinise how the development of human rights standards and/or their (in)efficient implementation on islands contour the lives of islanders and islandness itself. Along similar lines, human rights research and practice do not systematically take into account islandness and Island Studies research. The present article explores the mutual reticence between human rights law and Island Studies, suggesting, though, that both fields can offer each other important opportunities for development. It advocates, in particular, that it is high time for a cohesive human rights and islands approach which is based on the human rights-based approach of islandness and the islandness-based approach in human rights. A potential cross-fertilisation between human rights law and Island Studies can be very promising not only for the advancement of the respective fields from a scholarly point of view, but also for a more efficient understanding of islandness and protection of human rights in practice.

The Aspirations and Wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Involved in a Research Project: A Study Protocol

ABSTRACT Community-based research, which involves working alongside communities, is being increasingly implemented. This paper outlines a protocol developed to explore the impact of involvement by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers and life coaches in a community-based project on their aspirations and wellbeing. The proposed study will implement a mixed-methods longitudinal design, including peer researchers, life coaches and staff at Aboriginal Housing Victoria (AHV). Peer researchers and life coaches will participate in a survey and interview at baseline and 6 months. The survey and interview will capture participants’ wellbeing, aspirations, and resilience. AHV staff will participate in an interview to explore their opinions regarding the project and its impact on the broader community at baseline and 6 months. This study will contribute to the literature, which advocates for Indigenous Peoples’ genuine and authentic inclusion in research. An expected outcome of the research is that it will enhance our understanding of the goals and aspirations among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples working within the space of community-based research. In doing so, policy can focus on adhering to these goals and aspirations, thereby promoting self-determination among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

MeltPT: A Python package for basaltic whole-rock thermobarometric analysis with application to Hawaiʻi

Quantifying the depths and temperatures from which igneous rocks are derived is an important step in understanding volcanic, magmatic and mantle processes. We present meltPT, a Python package that allows users to apply twelve published whole-rock thermobarometers within a consistent framework, as well as combine thermobarometric results and geothermal models to estimate mantle potential temperatures. We apply meltPT to basaltic rocks from mid-ocean ridges and the Hawaiian Islands. We find mid-ocean ridge basalts equilibrate between 1–2 GPa and 1275–1475 ℃, corresponding to an ambient mantle potential temperature of ~1400 ℃. We estimate that the Hawaiian plume has an excess temperature of ~150 ℃. Hawaiian melt-equilibration depths increase from 1–3 GPa to 2.5–5 GPa through each island's life cycle. Our results indicate that multiple lithologies are present within the plume, and that transient plume reconfiguration in response to changing plate velocity is a viable mechanism for generating Hawaiʻi's two geochemically distinct plume tracks.

A Grounded Theory of Living in Two Worlds: Torres Strait Islanders’ Experience of Contemporary Migration

ABSTRACT This study explored the resettlement experiences of Torres Strait Islanders who moved to the Australian mainland. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 individuals, using a grounded theory method. Findings suggest that Torres Strait Islander contemporary out-movers are adjusting rather than assimilating to the Australian mainstream culture. The concept of “living in two worlds” required managing the crossing between the obligations of island life and demands and expectations of the mainstream. As people made sense of their experiences, out-movers developed strategies to “manage the crossings” from one world to another- the simpler lifestyle of “island life” that offered a greater sense of certainty and familiarity, and “mainstream” which may present many challenges, competing demands and expectations. While Torres Strait Islander out-movement is internal, there are similarities to international migration experiences, and like other internal movements, this movement tended to go unnoticed. Migration is an important area of social work practice that needs the attention of social workers, particularly with the predicted increases in out-movements that may occur in response to economic and climate-related change. IMPLICATIONS Torres Strait Islander internal migration is absent from social work literature. There is a gap in knowledge of how contemporary migrants experience and make sense of life on the mainland. Social work can learn from this movement to prepare for future migration responding to environmental and economic imperatives, both internally and internationally.

Islands, the Anthropocene, and Decolonisation

AbstractThe Anthropocene is deployed as incontrovertible fact, yet its foundations merit strong critique to challenge how particular voices and locations are absented, silenced, or enrolled in the fallacies that attend this epochal framework. Other placed, grounded, and scale‐sensitive explanations exist for present and future state scenarios, including on islands—often the focus of apocalyptic thinking. Dealing with historical and contemporary struggles to decolonise is more powerful than engaging with a reified framework that is part of ongoing colonial‐imperial excesses, uneven development, and racial capitalism. This work considers how four of us, as instigating authors, worked with five others, as collaborating authors, to understand academic works, activism, and artistic expressions of island life and concerns. Our aim was to learn about how and why their efforts to prioritise decolonisation is at the heart of what is needed to shore up island peoples’ futures.

Helminth biocoenosis of Lepus europaeus meridiei (Hilzheimer, 1906) from Pianosa island, Italy.

Pianosa is a 10 km2 Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea which is part of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park. In this island lives a brown hare population which, according to the literature, belongs to the ancestral taxon Lepus europaeus meridei that offers a unique opportunity to observe how the parasite biocoenosis shapes in condition of isolation, limited space availability and high population density. The aim of this work is to describe the helminth component community of a non-managed, isolated, and dense hare population, evaluating host-parasite relationship and parasite community structure. All 26 analyzed hares (13 males and 13 females) were in good physical conditions, and all of them harboured exclusively the nematode Protostrongylus oryctolagi only. This is the first report of this lungworm species in Italy. The estimated overall abundance was 48.15 worms per examined hare (range 3–258, median 50) and the parasites were unevenly distributed across host population, with few hosts having most parasites (aggregated or overdispersed distribution). No significant relationship was detected between the number of isolated parasites and hare sex and weigh. The effect of the isolation of Pianosa's hare population seems to have acted reducing parasite richness, while the high host density is probably the cause of the high prevalence and abundance of the single helminth species collected.In conclusion, despite the low impact of parasites confirmed also by the overdispersed parasite distribution, the low diversity of the studied parasite community sounds a warning for the management of the hare population and the whole Pianosa's ecosystem.

Island Life: Use of Activity Budgets and Visibility to Evaluate a Multi-Species Within-Zoo Exhibit Move.

Simple SummaryModern zoos aim to provide the best facilities possible for their animals, staff and visitors. Here, we present findings from a study focusing on the behaviour and visibility of four species pre- and post-translocation to a new environment, Islands, within Chester Zoo, UK: the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii), crested macaque (Macaca nigra), Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus) and the Malayan sun bear (Helarctos malayanus). We used full activity budgets to demonstrate that the move to new, custom-built facilities influenced the behaviour of all four species. Following relocation, both non-human primate species were found to spend more time interacting socially with group members and abnormal behaviours remained low for all four species. Malayan tapirs and crested macaques chose to spend more time in areas out of public view post-move, whilst Malayan sun bears were more visible to visitors in their new environment. We demonstrate the value of giving animals choice and control over how they interact with their surroundings, the importance in investment in behavioural monitoring throughout translocation events and add to the knowledge-base of this understudied area.Modern zoos strive to construct habitats which both enable and encourage animals to engage in species-specific behaviour, without compromising their visibility to visitors. Here, we present the findings of a within-zoo move to a custom-built exhibit (Islands at Chester Zoo, UK) with respect to the behaviour of four mammal species; the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii), crested macaque (Macaca nigra), Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus) and the Malayan sun bear (Helarctos malayanus). We used full activity budgets along with Compositional Data Analysis (CoDA) to gain insight into how the move to a more naturalistic exhibit influenced behaviour. Engagement in abnormal behaviour remained low during the study period for all four species, suggesting no adverse responses to the change in environment. Following the move, both the non-human primate species spent more time engaged in positive social interactions with conspecifics, highlighting the importance of social support during enclosure moves. Time spent visible to the public was largely unaffected by the enclosure move for the Sumatran orangutan, whilst the movement to a new environment increased visibility for the Malayan sun bear and decreased visibility for the crested macaque and Malayan tapir. We demonstrate the value of monitoring behaviour throughout the translocation of zoo-housed species and outline the positive behavioral impacts of providing individuals with naturalistic, species-appropriate environments.

Changing island society following the opening of the island bridge and Sustainable Development of Island Society of Korea

When an island, an isolated space, is connected to land or other islands, it brings many changes. In other words, the change in traffic conditions is an important variable altering and determining the characteristics of the island. The objectives of this study were to examine the changes in the island region due to the construction of the land to island bridge and propose policy measures for the sustainable development of the changing island society. It is undeniable that the opening of the land to island bridge has a profound impact on the lives of islanders, the economic conditions of the island, and the environment. They change the island as fast as the dramatic change in transportation (from ships to cars). Although it is impossible to go against this trend, it is necessary to ponder the conservation of each island’s unique value, the ontology of the island, before constructing the land to island bridge. If so, what should be prepared to create a sustainable island society after opening the land to island bridge? First, sufficient discussion should be made on the construction of the land to island bridge. Second, when the land to island bridge will be constructed, it is needed to increase the receptive capacity of the islanders during the construction period. Third, a long-term development plan specifically for the island should be established before the land to island bridge is completed. Fourth, it is necessary to develop content using local resources instead of letting outsiders consume island space. Fifth, the changing island society must prepare a third place for maintaining the community.

Introduction: Island Narratives of Persistence and Resistance

This introduction to our special issue “Island Narratives of Persistence and Resistance” focuses on the ongoing proliferation of neocolonial, neoimperial and neoliberal constructions of the island in western and continental texts and discourses. It discusses the double and paradoxical logic of the island trope – which simultaneously suggests confinement and freedom, isolation and connection, over- and underdevelopment, inclusion and exclusion – and the evident material effects that these persistent figurations continue to have on the lives of islanders. It then places the focus on the mechanisms of resistance to these island narratives as exemplified in a range of fiction and non-fiction works from or about various island locations: Singapore, Vanuatu, Samoa, Nauru, Manus Island, the Bahamas, St Lucia, New Zealand, Staten Island, and the island continent of Australia. The essays engage with recognizable tropes and uses of the island: islands of exception and offshores, treasure and trash islands, island fortresses and militarized zones, fantasy and tourist islands.