Place Out of Place: a Pohnpeian Chiefdom in Kansas City

This article describes the formation of the Kansas City area as a section in the Pohnpeian sociopolitical system. Pohnpeian chiefdoms are traditionally marked out as ‘sections’ of land on the island of Pohnpei. Pohnpeians’ connection to their land is powerful and imbued with meaning but the Compact of Free Association propels Pohnpeian out‐migration to the United States. As the immigrant population of Pohnpeians in Kansas City increased, a paramount (tribal district) chief organized the ‘Section Over Heaven of Kansas City’ at the urging of collaborating Pohnpeian Kansas City residents. As the only fully functioning section outside of Pohnpei, the Kansas City section chief assigns chiefly titles, conducts tribute feasts, and incorporates the location into the Pohnpeian sociopolitical system. By integrating people and environment in meaningful ways, the Kansas City section creates a Pohnpeian place, separated from Pohnpeian land, integrated into Pohnpeian chieftainship. Pohnpeians in the United States refer to Kansas City as a Pohnpeian place in part on the basis of the paramount chief's organization of the Kansas City section.     

Memorializing Race in the Deep South: The 'Good Darkie' Statue,Louisiana, USA

Abstract

The period between World War I and World War II saw the development of several memorials commemorating African Americans in the Southern USA. The 'Good Darkie' is unique amongst these in being a life-size bronze statue. It was erected in Natchitoches, northwestern Louisiana in 1927, where it remained in a prominent position in the centre of the town until it was taken down in 1969, ending up in the Louisiana State University Rural Life Museum where it is displayed as the statue of 'Uncle Jack'. The various meanings and values given to the statue over the last 80 years, from acceptable paternalism to its politicization in the 1960s, to the criticism currently levelled at its use make this an important case study in public commemoration. This paper explores the various meanings given to the statue by different social groups, which reveal how the concept of race, and solutions to the 'race problem' of the Southern USA have evolved over time.     

Place, Culture and Identity: Summer Music in Upper Galilee

The Kfar Blum festival is an annual chamber music festival at a kibbutz in northern Israel involving three public bodies. Soon after its inauguration, it was dominated by audiences of élite groups who gave it a specific character and made it a highly desirable social event. The demand created for participation caused the festival to change in character, and what had been an artistic celebration became a cultural commodity. This challenged the overall purpose of the festival and brought changes in artistic direction, as new audiences were sought through programmes with wider appeal. The Kfar Blum festival is an example of a contested arena reflecting social trends in Israel. Place becomes a metaphor for social trends.     

Perilous shipwreck, misery and unhappiness: the British military at Tristan da Cunha, 1816–1817

After losing the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon was exiled to St Helena. As part of the arrangements to keep him secure, the British annexed the island of Tristan da Cunha to deny its possible use to French rescue forces. The military remained on the island for fifteen months, an unpleasant experience, especially given the loss of 55 people in the wreck of H.M.S. Julia in 1817. Using evidence from holdings in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, this paper studies the experiences of the British on the island during 1816 and 1817, illuminating the chaotic military operation and also the difficulties of habitation on Tristan da Cunha. However, the present population of the island traces its origin back to one of the garrison who remained there after 1817.     

Place, networks, space: theorising the geographies of social movements

This essay examines how geography affects the different types of networks underlying social movements. The principal argument of the paper is that networks forged in particular places and at great distances play distinctive yet complementary functions in broad-based social movements. Not only does the articulation of these different types of networks result in complementary roles, but it also introduces key relational dynamics affecting the stability of the entire social movement. The purpose of the paper is therefore threefold: to provide a conceptual framework for interpreting the complex geographies of contemporary social movement networks, to stress the contributions of place-based relations in social movements and to assess how activist places connect to form 'social movement space'.     

Place, national identity and post-socialist transformations: an introduction

This paper serves as an introduction to this theme issue on the topic of post-socialist identity politics surrounding nation building, national identity and nationalism. It presents an overview of the key processes of post-socialist identity formation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the former Soviet Union (FSU) in order to contextualise this collection of papers. This introduction outlines the key processes of identity formation and the treatment of nationalism under conditions of state-socialism, and then identifies the main processes of identity formation which have emerged in discourses surrounding nations and nationalities in post-socialist CEE and the FSU. A short account of each of the papers in the theme issue is then presented to identify the common strands of their analyses of post-socialist nationalisms.