Appropriating Space

Antarctic Imperialism and the Mentality of Settler Colonialism

Datos Bibliográficos

ID23731978
AutoresAdrian Howkins (0000-0002-9615-2337, autor de correspondencia)
Año2010
Páginas29-52
Fecha de publicación2010-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoCHAPTER
RevistaMaking Settler Colonial Space (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditorialPalgrave Macmillan UK (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/9780230277946_3
OpenAlexW2482827678
ISBN9780230277946
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas15

Throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, colonial powers frequently used the rhetoric of ‘empty lands’ to justify their actions. Almost always, of course, such rhetoric was nothing but myth: used to legitimate violence and dehumanise Indigenous inhabitants. In one continent, however, colonial powers laid claim to a territory that really was empty: Antarctica. The southern continent is the coldest, the windiest and the driest place in the world. More than 98 per cent of its land surface is covered in ice and there is perpetual darkness over much of the continent during the long Antarctic winter. Uniquely among the world’s continents, Antarctica has no Indigenous human population. Although the surrounding oceans teem with life, the continent itself supports no flora or fauna larger than a flea. In a sense, there is nothing to appropriate but space itself. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Archaeology · Colonialism · Ethnology · Geography · Indigenous · Mythology · Nothing · Population · Rhetoric · Sociology · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Classics · Demography · Ecology · History · Philosophy · Polar Research and Ecology