Creole Spatiality and Pitcairn Island: A Comment on Feinberg and Mawyer's Ethos Special Issue 'Senses of Space'

Abstract

I read with interest Mawyer and Feinberg's (2014) editorial introduction and the articles in their edited issue of 'Ethos' (42:3). It is heartening to learn discussions about frames of reference and the spatialization of cognition, thought, languages, and cultures across and within the varied contexts and contacts of sea and islands are not passe. Their 'multiple-models' approach to space-in-culture and culture-in-spatial cognition is pertinent; considering 'multiple models within the lives of members of particular communities [means] that different actors may have differential commitments to and experiences of those models' (Mawyer and Feinberg 2014:244 referring to D'Andrade and Strauss 1992). As a comment on and an addendum to the Feinberg and Mawyer work, I speculate about the role of individual actors and small groups in creating spatial mixings. I consider how such multiplicities may become represented as amalgams in the spatial language of a small island. My case study is Pitcairn Island. The expression I explicate is 'creole spatiality'.