This study explores the process of identity creation in the Caribbean archipelagic space by examining the last five centuries of Grenada’s layered history through detailing and analyzing the major... Show moreThis study explores the process of identity creation in the Caribbean archipelagic space by examining the last five centuries of Grenada’s layered history through detailing and analyzing the major human-environment interactions that have transformed its landscape, particularly following the invasion of Europeans since the 17th century and the establishment of plantation agriculture and slavery (utilizing enslaved Africans and their descendants), village settlements and subsistence agriculture, and much later tourism. It will analyze its landscape transformations by examining land use and settlement patterns of its human occupants from the Indigenous Kali’nago to its current inhabitants via the concept of creolization. Centuries of interactions between and among these various groups of people and the Grenadian environment have created a landscape best described as a palimpsest where layer upon layer of interactions intertwine, overwrite and blend with each other through time. Yet leaving glimpses or blurred pictures of impacts in various and discernable ways, thus creating a long-term biography of this islandscape. By examining the Grenadian palimpsest and analyzing the concept of landscape identity through historical representations and memory-traces embedded in the Creole cultural landscape this study explores the relationship between people and the landscape over time. Show less
In today's 'onlife' era, online and offline realities are intimately intertwined. This dissertation focuses on a specific expression of this interconnectedness: 'digital doppelgangers'. The focus... Show moreIn today's 'onlife' era, online and offline realities are intimately intertwined. This dissertation focuses on a specific expression of this interconnectedness: 'digital doppelgangers'. The focus is on visual digital doppelgangers, i.e. digital manufactured images of man. This dissertation aims to gain insight into the role that such doppelgangers play in the formation of human identity and self-understanding, using three disciplinary angles. The ‘image aspect’ of digital doppelgangers is explored through a visual culture studies/ media studies lens; the ‘human aspect’ through a philosophical anthropology/ philosophy of technology lens; and finally, the ‘identity aspect’ and unheimliche dimensions through a philosophical anthropology/ psychoanalysis lens. Three cases will elaborate on these themes: selfies, internet memes and deepfake videos. Drawing on the work of Helmuth Plessner, I show that man can be understood as a "doppelganger". The inevitable unheimlichkeit that results from this gets a more or less fixed character in visual digital doppelgangers. An important conclusion is that regulation of digital doppelgangers should not be so much focused on the (impossible) elimination of digital unheimlichkeit, but on preventing situations in which digital doppelgangers no longer can be adjusted. Living humanely in the onlife world requires being able to live the lives of our digital doppelgangers, too. Show less
Centuries of intense and involuntary migrations deeply impacted the development of the creolised cultures on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. This volume describes... Show moreCenturies of intense and involuntary migrations deeply impacted the development of the creolised cultures on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. This volume describes various forms of cultural heritage produced on these islands over time and whether these heritages are part of their ‘national’ identifications. What forms of heritage express the idea of a shared “we” (nation-building) and what images are presented to the outside world (nation-branding)? What cultural heritage is shared between the islands and what are some real or perceived differences? In this book, examples of cultural heritage on these three islands ranging from sports to questions of reparations, from museums to digital humanities, from archaeology to music, from language and literature to tourism, and from visual art to diaspora policies are compared to developments elsewhere in the Caribbean. Show less
Nakane, Ikuko; Maree, Claire; Ewing, Michael C. 2023
