2017, Session 398 "On the margins? Thinking through marginality in the Holocene Mediterranean" (original) (raw)

Abstract

The small islands of the Mediterranean are generally considered to be marginal spaces, lying on the edge of mainstream cultural phenomena occurring on the mainland (according to the “core-periphery-margin” model). While we might acknowledge such marginality in terms of limited resources and productivity, islands can also become critical nodes in networks of interaction, usually thanks to their location along maritime routes. This is especially the case during the Bronze Age, when extensive travel across the Mediterranean is first documented. The experience of interaction, which can be heightened given the small size of the islands, results in the formation of third space cultures and hybridisations, as communities go through periods of cultural self-definition and remodelling. Drawing on case-studies from the small islands of the central Mediterranean, this paper will discuss how they experienced alternating periods of (relative) centrality and marginality, the possible reasons and effects. This requires taking into account both external and internal factors, large- and small-scale processes. While being part of a network potentially empowered islanders at times, it also exposed them to fluctuations in such networks, so that different strategies were necessary to ensure community survival. This was not always easy for small island communities, who have a tendency to specialise rather than diversify, making them ultimately vulnerable to periodic abandonment and recolonisation, i.e. multiple “cycles of integration”.

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