Island ceremony and submerged worlds

Abstract

Chandler and Pugh’s (2021) ambitious undertaking is to understand how islands have not only become emblematic sites within a wide range of Anthropocene scholarship, but also ‘generative forces’ at the center of Anthropocene thinking. At the core of their analysis is the idea of ‘relational entanglements’, which are embodied through the four organizational devices they have identified of resilience, patchworks, correlation and storiation, each being different modalities of relational thinking. In this commentary, I reflect on both the promise and limits of this Anthropocene Islands project, engaging with its generativity to also push against its boundaries. I emphasize the origins of relational thinking in Caribbean theory; question the materiality of islands as sites for Anthropocene thinking; and posit the significance of Caribbean, Pacific Islander, and Indigenous animistic and shamanistic spiritual practices for being in ceremony with geo-spiritualities that connect human beings with submerged worlds.