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AndrewKerrProject 5 - 05 Jan 2010 - Main.EbenMoglen
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| | | I am exploring the intersection of land policy and the cultural, social and political history of Guam, focusing on the US imperial project from the late-19th to mid-20th century. The overriding value of the territory to the US has been its strategic location in the Western Pacific. The martial logic of possessing the island has exerted a gravitational pull on the island's economic geography, as land owned by the indigenous Chamorro has gradually been transferred to the US govt/ military, through "conquer," tax default, eminent domain and outright purchase.
This process of acquisition is significant given traditional Chamorro conceptualizations of land. It has been imputed mythic/ religious importance as part of the spiritual fabric of the community. In addition, the Chamorro typically assigned collective ownership to village property. Thus, capitalization of land -- and with it, fragmentation -- has been a catalyst in Guam's transformation from an interdependent to an increasingly nuclear/ individualistic society. I also intend to look at some of the symptoms of this transition, e.g. an exponential increase in rates of youth "delinquency" (a word/ notion previously not part of the Chamorro lexicon in "pre-contact" Guam). I also intend to examine how land dislocation traces Guam's transition from a primarily agricultural economy to one based on tourism and serving the needs of the US military. I am looking for parallels between Guam's coloring as a geopolitical nexus and that of the Caribbean islands in the 17th century Atlantic world, e.g. conceptualizing military capability as a unit of economic/ political utility a la sugar. | | | A Campaign for Political Rights on the Island of Guam, 1899-1950, Penelope Bordallo Hofschieder (CNMI Division of Historic Preservation, 2001)
Colonizing Hawai'i: The Cultural Power of Law, Sally Engle Merry (Princeton University Press, 2000) | |
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- I think the problem here, Andrew, is that you haven't focused your inquiry enough to ask an actual question, one with a question mark at the end, that primary sources can help you to answer. You're essentially collecting material for an anthropology monograph on the cultural change associated with US colonization of Guam. That's too large a task for you in this place, and doesn't give enough structure to your inquiry. This is one of the differences between historical inquiry and other forms of social understanding: historical writing takes as its primary object the ascertainment of what has happened. It can be, indeed must be, understood as an interpretive activity: one of our most distinguished historians spent an entire career urging graduate students to "explain a change." But the task of explanation begins from the detailed characterization of the "change," which is a chartable social process unrolling in time.
- Moreover, we're trying to do legal history, so understanding the legal aspect of the process that concerns us, whatever it is, is salient. The most useful thing you can do, I think, is to ask yourself what question your sources are going to be used to answer. That in hand, you will make rapid progress.
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