R. van Ginkel

‘Texelian at heart’: The articulation of identity in a Dutch Island society*

Some anthropologists perceive an increasing nationalisation or even globalisation of cultures and identities. Others, however, stress that in many places villagers assert their right to a local identity. This article discusses how the inhabitants of the Dutch island of Texel have renegotiated and articulated their identity within the context of processes of nation building and state formation in the Netherlands. It aims to show that nationalisation of culture and localisation of identity are inextricably intertwined.

[Review of: C. Epstein (2008) The power of words in international relations: birth of an anti-whaling discourse]

Whales currently belong to an animal category that some dub ‘‘charismatic megafauna’’ or ‘‘flagship species.’’ They appeal to the sentiments of millions of people, who feel outraged should any harm be done to these ‘‘gentle giants.’’ Less than half a century ago, the public’s mood was quite different. Modern whaling was romanticized, and cetaceans were regarded as a commercial commodity that yielded raw material that could be processed into a variety of consumable products. Their widespread killing went largely unquestioned. However, the stand toward whales and whaling changed almost overnight. From the oceans’ common pool riches, whales quite suddenly turned into sacrosanct symbols of the marine environment. Killing whales was regarded to be ethically and morally wrong first by a small vanguard of environmentalists who subsequently won mass support in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. The first high-profile protests against whaling were only launched in the early 1970s. Initially, environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as Greenpeace—founded in 1974—aimed their actions at highly endangered species of whales, but soon all species were lumped together as the whale that was threatened by extinction and had a moral right to live. This anthropomorphized ‘‘super whale’’ soon came to symbolize all endangered species and even the endangered planet as a whole. The anti-whaling movement waxed formidably and its dogmas gained the upper hand and state acceptance. By 1982, an international moratorium on commercial whaling was in place. In the hegemonic normative order, whaling had become unacceptable, inconceivable, and hence was denormalized. From being novelists’ culture heroes, in less than a decade whalers became the ‘‘civilized’’ world’s villains. In popular culture, the heroes were now the whales. In The Power of Words in International Relations, social scientist Charlotte Epstein carefully outlines and analyzes the debates that brought about this change. Her main argument is that it was the ‘‘powerful discourse’’ that altered the whales’ plight. As a consequence, she focuses heavily on what the social actors in the discursive dispute have said, including their underlying ideas, concepts and categorizations, and the entwinement of discourse and material interests. This, according to Epstein, largely determines what people do to whales. Taking her cue from Foucault, Bourdieu, and many other congenial discourse and praxis theorists, she argues that Society and Natural Resources, 23:1023–1025 Copyright # 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0894-1920 print=1521-0723 online DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2010.492775