A benign marine monster, the Amabie, a prophetic yōkai from Japanese folklore, became popular, initially in Japan and, rather rapidly on a global scale, assumed a prominent position, becoming an icon for the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments were caught between choices to either privilege lives or economies and eugenics reared its head as a spectre from the historical past. The COVID-19 pandemic dragged us to contemplating the possibilities of a plague that, rather than being confined to the global south’s ‘invisible’ territories of diseases, heavily affected the global north and with the prospect of wiping out a large number of the world’s population in a similar manner to that of the 1918 influenza epidemic. The years 2020–2022 engraved our existence with epidemiological and political monstrosities that will not be forgotten for quite some time. The Amabie: A Japanese Prophetic Chimera and Chronotope Amid Political Monstrosities 10.21463/shima.163.This research analyses the fluid contacts, complementarity and historical dependencies between the Macaronesian islands that promoted not only a feeling of belonging to supranational Iberian monarchies, but also a sense of belonging to the same region formed by a Portuguese and Spanish population of extra-peninsular origin with its nexus being its insularity. In short, social, economic and cultural development is determined by the related dynamic ocean environment, i.e., the Atlantic. That is, their proximity to Africa, their link to America and their dependence on Europe. The island areas that are being addressed are conditioned by their geographical location in relation to their surrounding territories. The objective of this study is to ascertain the historical origin of the identity of the Macaronesian islander. Consequently, the construction of human island identity involves a contrast with the other, the non-islander. The Historical Origin of the Atlantic Identity of the Islands of Macaronesia 10.21463/shima.160Įvery individual who has not been born on an island is a foreigner, an intruder.Primary and other credible sources, including demographics, document the events surrounding Herstory. Almost three decades later, Lieutenant Lowry visiting from the Sparrowhawk dubbed her a cantankerous “old maid” for her concern that girls aged 13, 14, and 15 were too young for marriage male dominance had reasserted itself. While still a teenager, Mary Ann Christian became the inspiration for Mary Russell Mitford’s exquisite protagonist in Christina: The Maid of the South Seas: A Poem (1811). This created a female- dominated milieu within which Many Ann Christian operated with a strong degree of agency across social hierarchies involving island and empire actors, and spatially with her on- and off-island movements. After a violent first decade, and one death to a natural cause, the male population was reduced to a sole male survivor – John Adams. Mary Ann Christian (1793-1866) was the only daughter of chief Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian and his Tahitian consort Mauatua who settled on Pitcairn Island in 1790. Mary Ann Christian, Exercising Social and Spatial Agency: An isolated island case 10.21463/shima.140.In the case of the Morgawr, a faux tradition seems to have inspired genuine belief.
While folk traditions are the bedrock of the folkloresque, the two are distinct. The creation of the Morgawr and then its subsequent development as an expression of folklore allows for a consideration of how it fits into the idea of the folkloresque, a term advanced by Foster and Tolbert to describe cultural expressions that draw on folklore for inspiration, mimicking tradition but representing something that is distinct.
Originally part of a prank in 1976, stories of the cryptid have evolved, attracting enthusiasts in Cornwall, but also internationally thanks to the Internet.
Unlike many cryptids that derive from a foundation of folk tradition, the Morgawr began as a hoax. It draws on the belief held by many that prehistoric creatures survive, thriving in deep waters. The Morgawr is a sea monster that is reputed to swim along the southern coast of Cornwall, Britain's far south west peninsula.