Suchergebnisse

In this essay written in 2004, Françoise Vergès and Carpanin Marimoutou explore the ways in which processes and practices of creolization occurred in Réunion Island. They argue that creolization must be analyzed within the historical, political and cultural context in which they emerge. Vergès and Marimoutou reflect on these processes -- frictions, conflicts, and exchanges among slaves, settlers, migrants, and indentured workers from Madagascar, Mozambique, Gujarat, Bengal, France, Tamil Nadu, Southern China, Malaysia, Vietnam., who were brought or came on the uninhabited island, colonized by the French in the 17th century. The authors also looked at the post-colonial moment, the French policies of assimilation and repression in the 1960s-1970s. For them, vernacular cultural practices and memories of struggle continue to work as counter strategies against local and national reactionary politics. In their conclusion, Vergès and Marimoutou look at the current form of globalization and its consequences on processes of creolization.

Abstract
Studies of coffee production and consumption are dominated by emphases on Latin American production and American consumption. This paper challenges the Atlantic perspective, demanding an equal emphasis on the Indian Ocean world of Eastern Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. A geographical approach to historical as well as contemporary patterns of coffee production and consumption provides an opportunity to rethink the nature of coffee as a global commodity. The Indian Ocean world has a much deeper history of coffee, and in recent decades, has witnessed a resurgence in production. The nature of this production is distinct, providing an opportunity to rethink dependency theories. Coffee in the Indian Ocean world is more likely to be produced by smallholders, countries are less likely to be economically dependent on coffee, farmers are more likely to harvest polycultures, and countries represent both consumers and producers. A balanced emphasis of Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds allows us to better understand coffee production and consumption, together telling a more balanced, global story of this important commodity.

Like the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean has been a privileged site of cross-cultural contact since ancient times. In this special issue, our contributors track disparate movements of people and ideas around the Indian Ocean region and explore the cultural implications of these contacts and their role in processes that we would come to call transnationalization and globalisation. The nation is a relatively recent phenomenon anywhere on the globe, and in many countries around the Indian Ocean it was a product of colonisation and independence. So the processes of exchange, migration and cultural influence going on there for many centuries were mostly based on the economics of goods and trade routes, rather than on national identity and state policy.

The Indian Ocean remains the least studied of the world's geographic regions. Yet there have been major cultural exchanges across its waters and around its shores from the third millennium B.C.E. to the present day. Historian Edward A. Alpers explores the complex issues involved in cultural exchange in the Indian Ocean Rim region over the course of this long period of time by combining a historical approach with the insights of anthropology, art history, ethnomusicology, and geography. The Indian Ocean witnessed several significant diasporas during the past two millennia, including migrations

On December 26, 2004, a gigantic earthquake ripped apart the floor of the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sumatra. The force of the quake sent a tsunami in all directions toward unprotected shores and unwarned populations, many in remote areas or secluded vacation spots. Within 12 hours, more than 200,000 people had been killed, and many more left injured or homeless, their livelihoods destroyed. Cities and villages lay in ruins. Even the geography of the earth was changed. But as the affected countries, with help from around the world, struggled to recover, scientists warned that the next deadly tsunami could come at any time. The question remains whether the world will be any more prepared for the next one. Read how the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami changed the way nations are tracking natural-disaster warnings in an effort to prevent future disasters.

To appreciate the extraordinary role of the Indian Ocean in world history you have to compare it with other seas. This is where long-range, high-seas navigation was probably born. Myth credited Buddha with feats of pilotage. The legendary Persian royal ship-builder, Jamshid, was said to have crossed 'the waters and passed from region to region with celerity'