Reflecting on Fragility and Strength in Island Societies

2020/10/12

I have been fascinated by the cultures of Oceania since my undergraduate days. For 40 years since then, I have lived my life engaged in cultural anthropological research on the island world, repeatedly conducting live-in fieldwork on small islands in Oceania. When I am in Japan, my body has even reached a state where I find myself desperately longing for the harsh tropical sunlight under the equator and the blessing of the occasional cool breeze.

My research has covered various topics somewhat indiscriminately, including eschatological thought arising amidst the chaos of colonization by European powers, the process of social change caused by the introduction of European-style modern land legal systems, and demographic studies. However, for over 10 years now, I have been focusing on research alongside Toru Yamaguchi and others from the Juku Faculty of Letters. We study the impact of sea-level changes and the intensification of weather disasters caused by global climate change on small island societies, as well as the resilience (the ability to restore or recover from distortions caused by external forces) of local societies. I have been repeatedly conducting fieldwork on atoll islands in Micronesia and Polynesia. Atoll islands are small-scale islands built on a foundation of ring-shaped coral reefs; they are low and flat, less than four meters above sea level, with thin soil, sparse terrestrial flora and fauna, and no fresh water on the surface other than collected rainwater.

During the course of my fieldwork, I witnessed the ongoing fury of climate change on atoll islands, which are among the most fragile environments on Earth. I felt anger at the injustice: the burden of negative distortions accumulated on this planet over many years, triggered by the activities of continental "civilization," is erupting first in small island societies. These societies are isolated from continents, poor in living resources, positioned at the extreme periphery of the world by "modernity," and have been continuously toyed with by colonial rule that was indifferent to proper infrastructure development.

Of course, the conclusion of my research is not merely an indictment of injustice and anger. What deserves attention is the strength to survive developed by the people of small island societies as they live through this double intersection of fragility: the fragility of the natural environment and the man-made fragility created by continuous marginalization through "civilization" and "modernity." That strength is the power of flexibility—the ability to survive by dramatically changing even social structures and political organizations in response to distortions caused by external forces, including the fury of nature. I believe there is an inexhaustible amount we can learn from this power of flexibility.