Anthropology Essay: Events and Occurrences Shaping Oceania's Future

This anthropology essay examines the impact of external events on the lives of people in Oceania, focusing on the Marshall Islands and the broader Pacific region. The essay analyzes Teresa Teaiwa's article, "Bikinis and Other Pacific n/oceans," which explores the symbolism of the bikini bathing suit and its connection to nuclear testing, and Peter Rudiak-Gould's article, "Climate Change and Accusation: Global Warming and Local Blame in a Small Island State," which discusses the effects of global warming and the local perceptions of blame. The essay considers how events like the Second World War, nuclear testing, and climate change continue to shape daily life in Oceania, keeping Epeli Hau'ofa's critical arguments about Oceania in mind. It highlights the complex interplay of external forces, cultural traditions, and self-perception in the face of environmental and social challenges.

Running head: ANTHROPOLOGY (PEOPLE OF OCEAN)
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Anthropology (People of Ocean)
Student Name
Institution Affiliation

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Anthropology (People of Ocean)
There several events and occurrences that make a significant impact on our lives and
shape the future generations to come. External events may develop our everyday life
consciously or unconsciously. The Second World War created suffering and chaos in Oceania,
particularly in the Marshall Islands. Today the adverse effects of global warming are already
wreaking havoc, especially in atoll nations. This article discusses Teresa Teaiwa's article,
"Bikinis and Other Pacific n/oceans" and Peter Rudiak-Gould's article "Climate Change and
Accusation: Global Warming and Local Blame in a Small Island State" to explain how such
external events continue to shape the everyday life while keeping Epeli Hau'ofa's critical
arguments about Oceania in mind. Global warming is an issue that has taken center stage in
many debates among scientists, scholars, and environmentalists.
Who is to be blamed most for climate change? This is a question that runs in the mind of
every individual conscious of the environment. Rudiak-Gould in the article, "Climate Change
and Accusation: Global Warming and Local Blame in a Small Island State" focuses on the
Marshal Islands which consist of a low-lying coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Most Americans
are familiar with these islands due to the famous Bikini Atoll disaster of 1954 that was as a result
of U.S. nuclear testing. Despite the Marshall Islands have a very low carbon fingerprint merely a
tenth of the American carbon fingerprint, the Pacific Islanders do not blame others for the threats
that they are likely to face, (Change, 2014). External events such as industrialization which we
have very little or no control determine our everyday life. The increased carbon emission causes
the impact of global warming all over the world, and this can be felt in the Pacific islands. The
local islanders do not blame the most industrialized nations for the climatic change as it is likely
to be. The author thus researches why the Pacific Islanders have the notion of collective blame

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and not specifically on most industrialized states. Rudiak-Gould says, "The fact that foreigners,
too, contribute to climate change is not denied, it is simply ignored, for it is irrelevant to what
Marshallese discourse cares so dearly about, which is locals' loyalty or disloyalty toward
tradition" (Peter Rudiak-Gould, 2014). The Marshallese blame themselves for abandoning their
local tradition and adopting the western culture that includes activities such as driving cars and
running air conditioners that contribute to global warming. The perception of the local people on
the cultural decline has contributed to the self-blame among the Marshallese.
Teresa Teaiwa's article, "Bikinis and Other Pacific n/oceans" mainly addresses the
military and tourist notions of the Pacific. The author tries to portray the connection between the
bikini bathing suit and nuclear testing. At the beginning of the article, the author gives detailed
nuclear examination on Pacific islands and focuses on Bikini Atoll for a very long time. The
article eventually ends with a description of the activities of the Nuclear Free and Independent
Pacific movement. The bikini bathing suit is more of a symbolic concept that portrays the life of
the Pacific Islanders. The bikini suit reveals and conceals specific body parts. Symbolically, the
bikini suits can be seen as a way to expose the female to depoliticize them, and at the same time,
it conceals the bodies of the Pacific Islanders to politicize them as well, (Teresa Teaiwa's, 2015).
Marxist and feminist theorists also argue that the bikini suit is an expression of the nasty colonial
reality that used the female body inappropriate to divert attention from the decolonizing efforts
of the locals. The bikini suits can be used as a way to show that the Pacific islanders welcomed
the colonialists with open arms and offered little resistance; hence it is used to conceal the
opposition.
The Pacific Islands were used for the testing of nuclear weapons that caused a lot of
destruction. The bikini suit was used to celebrate atomic power despite the devastation that took

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place during the experiment. The bikini suit is a culture that has been carried from one
generation to another, and it is a well-known dressing among the Pacific islands, (Thomas,
2012). The bikini suit and the tourist notion have continued to shape the everyday activities of
the local Pacific islanders unconsciously.
In summary, our everyday life is affected by external events that we have little or no
control over them. For instance, the people of the Pacific Islands had no control over the military
nuclear testing and the control rule, but the impact of these events have been engraved
permanently in their life.

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References
Change, I. C. (2014). Mitigation of climate change. Contribution of Working Group III to the
Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 1454.
Peter Rudiak-Gould (2014) .Climate Change and Accusation-Global Warming and Local Blame
in a Small Island State. Current Anthropology Volume 55, Number 4, August 2014. New
York
Teresa Teaiwa (2015). “Bikinis and Other Pacific n/oceans”, New York Press,
Thomas, N. (2012). “We Were Still Papuans": A 2006 Interview with Epeli Hau'ofa. The
Contemporary Pacific, 24(1), 120-133.