Islands Connect: People, Things, and Ideas Among the Small Islands of the Western Indian Ocean

Abstract

Edward Alpers takes up the central themes of the volume by testing the ideas of connectivity, smallness, translocality, and the unique situation of islands against case studies of the Comoro and Mascarene Islands. His chapter thus both tests Burkhard Schnepel’s introductory chapter and anticipates other chapters in the volume. Rather than employ a simple network model, with its linear, bidirectional implications, Alpers interrogates the utility of the subterranean metaphor of the rhizome as a way to understand transregionalism. The chapter concludes by suggesting that a modified network approach best allows for integrating a wide range of methodologies and historical evidence.