TAIWAN SOCIETY FOR PACIFIC STUDIES
▲ Synopsis
The Pacific world can be seen as a “oceanic continent,” mapped throughout the ages by migrations and exchanges. In its midst, islands are the vantage points from which different mapping strategies have been taking and are still taking place, offering a variety of viewpoints on the Pacific, its contours and its dynamics.
This conference – the first one organized by the Taiwan Society for Pacific Studies – aims at identifying the ways of mapping the Pacific in time and space that have been developed by islanders, especially by Austronesian populations. Such “mapping” has taken place through migration roads, tales, songs and genealogies, as well as by astronomic or geographic charts and artistic renderings. Taking these representations both in their irreducible variety and as an organic whole may help a new generation of scholars to challenges the usual ways of looking at the Pacific world, thus enabling the inhabitants of this “oceanic continent” to enrich and develop the interactive process through which they understand their history and destiny.
In other words, the objective of this conference is twofold: (a) accounting for the diversity of the “mappings” of the Pacific continent so as to challenge and renew historical, geographical and ethnographic insights on this part of the world; (b) allowing a younger generation of scholars to compare the insights they have gained in confronting local and global knowledge. Researchers from Taiwan the island between the Asian continent andthe Pacific, believed to be the starting point of Austronesian expansion into the Pacific, being the periphery and the core at the same time will also present their perceptions of this oceanic continent as it is observed and imagined from Taiwan.
The conference agenda will be divided into four sub-topics:
– Routes and Migrations
Mapping of the Pacific in terms of itineraries, migrations and spatial dynamics.
– Methods of Mapping
Mapping through tales, genealogies, drawings and pictograms, history of modern mapping, mapping perspectives according to locations…
– Sacred Space-Times
Sacred elements in traveling and mapping, missionary routes and their rationale, conversions, new religions and the blurring of traditional religious mappings…
– Alliances and Conflicts
Maritime Law and the drawing of boundaries, boundaries and conflicts around natural resources, fishing rights, garbage disposal; representations of the Pacific space and diplomatic strategies.
▲ Conference date
16-17 February, 2011
▲ Pacific Life Sustainability Awards
Four prizes will be awarded at the end of the conference to grass root leaders or communities that have made a significant contribution to cultural diversity, sustainable development and spiritual empowerment in the Pacific world.
▲Conference Agenda
Contact:
Li-chun Lee 李禮君
juneljlee@gmail.com