Connectivity in Motion: Island Hubs in the Indian Ocean World

460 Pages·2018·5.24 MB·English

by  Burkhard Schnepel

PALGRAVE SERIES
IN INDIAN OCEAN
WORLD STUDIES
CONNECTIVITY
IN MOTION
Island Hubs in the
Indian Ocean World
Edited by Burkhard Schnepel
and Edward A. Alpers
Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies
Series Editor
Gwyn Campbell
McGill University
Montreal, Canada
This is the first scholarly series devoted to the study of the Indian Ocean
world from early times to the present day. Encouraging interdisciplinar-
ity, it incorporates and contributes to key debates in a number of areas
including history, environmental studies, anthropology, sociology, politi-
cal science, geography, economics, law, and labor and gender studies.
Because it breaks from the restrictions imposed by country/regional
studies and Eurocentric periodization, the series provides new frame-
works through which to interpret past events, and new insights for pre-
sent-day policymakers in key areas from labor relations and migration to
diplomacy and trade.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14661
Burkhard Schnepel · Edward A. Alpers
Editors
Connectivity in
Motion
Island Hubs in the Indian Ocean World
Editors
Burkhard Schnepel Edward A. Alpers
Institute for Social and Cultural Department of History
Anthropology University of California, Los Angeles
Martin Luther University of Los Angeles, CA, USA
Halle-Wittenberg
Halle, Germany
Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies
ISBN 978-3-319-59724-9 ISBN 978-3-319-59725-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59725-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017943667
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
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C
ontents
Part I Themes
1 Introduction 3
Burkhard Schnepel
2 Islands Connect: People, Things, and Ideas Among the
Small Islands of the Western Indian Ocean 33
Edward A. Alpers
3 Small Island Hubs and Connectivity in the Indian Ocean
World: Some Concepts and Hypotheses from Historical
Anthropology 57
Andre Gingrich
4 Displaced Passengers: States, Movements,
and Disappearances in the Indian Ocean 93
Godfrey Baldacchino
v
vi CONTENTS
Part II Case Studies: Swahili Coast, Zanzibar and the Comoros
5 The Role of Kilwa in the Trade of the
Western Indian Ocean 111
Gwyn Campbell
6 Zanzibar, the Indian Ocean, and Nineteenth-Century
Global Interface 135
Jeremy Prestholdt
7 Ali Mfaume: A Comorian Hub in the Western Indian
Ocean 159
Iain Walker
8 Multifaceted Identities, Multiple Dwellings:
Connectivity and Flexible Household
Configurations in Zanzibar Town 181
Kjersti Larsen
Part III Case Studies: Mid-Ocean Archipelagos
9 A Hub of “Local Cosmopolitans”: Migration and
Settlement in Early Eighteenth to Nineteenth-Century
Port Louis 209
Vijayalakshmi Teelock
10 The Making of a Hub Society: Mauritius’ Path from
Port of Call to Cyber Island 231
Burkhard Schnepel
11 Dis/Entangled Hubs: Connectivity and Disconnections
in the Chagos Archipelago 259
Steffen F. Johannessen
12 Big Men Politics and Insularity in the Maldivian
World of Islands 289
Boris Wille
CONTENTS vii
13 Considering the Island Capital Male’ as a Hub for
Health-Related Mobilities 319
Eva-Maria Knoll
Part IV Case Studies: South and Southeast Asia
14 From Salsette to Socotra: Islands across the Seas
and Implications for Heritage 347
Himanshu Prabha Ray
15 Serendipitous Connections: The Chinese Engagements
with Sri Lanka 369
Tansen Sen
16 Changing Connectivity in a World of Small Islands:
The Role of Makassar (Sulawesi) as a Hub Under Dutch
Hegemony 397
Jürgen G. Nagel
17 Ambon, a Spicy Hub: Connectivity at the Fringe
of the Indian Ocean 421
Keebet von Benda-Beckmann
Index 447
e C
ditors and ontributors
About the Editors
Burkhard Schnepel is a Professor of Social Anthropology at the Martin
Luther University in Halle, Germany, and a Fellow at the Max Planck
Institute of Social Anthropology. His research has focused on East Africa,
east India, and the Indian Ocean world, as well as on theories and the
history of social anthropology.
Edward A. Alpers is a Research Professor in the Department of History
at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of East
Africa and the Indian Ocean (2009) and The Indian Ocean in World
History (2014).
Contributors
Godfrey Baldacchino is a Pro-Rector (International Development
and Quality Assurance) and Professor of Sociology at the University of
Malta, Malta; UNESCO Co-Chair (Island Studies and Sustainability)
at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada; Editor Emeritus,
Island Studies Journal; and President, International Small Islands Studies
Association (ISISA).
Keebet von Benda-Beckmann is a Professor emerita of Social
and Legal Anthropology. She was head of the Project Group Legal
ix
x EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
Pluralism and currently is an associate of the Department of Law and
Anthropology at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in
Halle, Germany. Her research in Indonesia and the Netherlands focuses
on legal pluralism, social security, governance, and on the role of religion
in disputing processes.
Gwyn Campbell is a Canada Research Chair and Founding Director
of the Indian Ocean World Centre, McGill University. Specializing
in Indian Ocean world history, his publications include An Economic
History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750–1895 (Cambridge, 2005) and
David Griffiths and the Missionary “History of Madagascar” (Brill, 2012).
Andre Gingrich is a Director of the Institute for Social Anthropology at
the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Royal Swedish
and Austrian Academies of Sciences. His research focuses on the anthro-
pology and history of southwestern Arabia (Saudi Arabia and Yemen)
and the methods and history of social anthropology.
Steffen Fagernes Johannessen is a Postdoc in Industrial Heritage
at the Department of Culture, Religion, and Social Studies, University
College of Southeast Norway, and Assistant Professor at BI Norwegian
Business School, Department of Communication and Culture. He
received his Ph.D. from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg,
Germany, with a thesis on the Chagossian Diaspora in 2016.
Eva-Maria Knoll is a researcher and group leader at the Institute for
Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna. Her
research focuses on medical anthropology, anthropology at the intersec-
tion with life sciences, health-related mobility, and tourism. Currently
she investigates the impact of inherited anemia in the Republic of
Maldives.
Kjersti Larsen is a Professor of Social Anthropology and African
Studies at the Department of Ethnography, Numismatics, and Classical
Archaeology, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. Her
research focuses on ritual and performance; knowledge, morality, and
gender; identity, mobility, and belonging in African societies and the
Indian Ocean Region.
Jürgen G. Nagel is a Professor of History with a special focus on the
subject “History of Europe in the Wider World” at the FernUniversität
Hagen, Germany. His research includes the history of cross-cultural