Pacific Passages : World Culture and Local Politics in Guam

Politically, global space is now divided to the last inch between formally sovereign nation-states. No spot on the map goes un-belonged. Together, the aggregate of states constitutes world society, which in this study is treated as a worldwide form of culture: world society as culture. By being diffused, this world culture generates isomorphic institutions and structures at the local and global levels. It is in effect the most powerful cultural model we live by. This study investigates past and present processes of cultural diffusion at the level of social political contestations on the island of Guam. As a possession of the United States, Guam is one of the last remaining colonies in the world. By being a liminal in a world society of sovereign political enteties, and by being the colony of one of the prototypes of the contemporary state, the United States, the case of Guam makes visible central features of world culture. The local-level politics of Guam is interpreted with the help of ethnographic material about public hearings, court cases, political elections, indigenous rights movements, official strategies of cultural standardization, and more.