Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2016

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Anthropology

Advisor

Marc Edelman

Committee Members

Gary Wilder

Jacqueline N. Brown

Mandana Limbert

Erik Swyngedouw

Subject Categories

Social and Cultural Anthropology

Keywords

Sovereignty, Natural Resources, British Empire, Argentina, Falkland Islands, Islas Malvinas

Abstract

This ethnographic and historical project examines how the settlers of the Falkland Islands (In Spanish, Malvinas) are constructing themselves as “natives” through new forms of governance over energy resources. Three decades after a violent war that cemented the archipelago’s British status, offshore oil discoveries led Argentina to renew its sovereignty claim. In response, the Falkland Islanders held a 2013 referendum on self-determination, in which 99.8% voted to remain British, with just three dissenters out of 1,517 valid votes. Most of the Islanders are white settlers, making their invocation of self-determination different from that of former colonial subjects with aboriginal rights. Unlike comparable settler colonies predicated on the elimination of the native, there is no historical trace of a pre-colonial indigenous population on the islands. To understand how the settlers are securing rights to territory and resources, this project examines debates around political, economic and ecological stability. The research incorporates participant observation, analysis of colonial letters and reports, and interviews collected during 20 months of fieldwork in the Falklands/Malvinas, Argentina and the United Kingdom. Drawing on this data, chapters explore contradictory practices of territorialization, through aspects of displacement, enclosure, peoplehood, personhood, infrastructure, science and nature. The dissertation concludes that by claiming self-determination, the Falkland Islanders are crafting a settler colonial protectorate for hydrocarbon production through popular consent to British sovereignty.

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