Transoceania: Connecting the World beyond Eurasia.
This chapter engages with Chris Hann's concept of Eurasia and his focus on interconnectedness and commonalities within the 'supercontinent', which is conventionally throught of as divided into two continents, Europe and Asia. As Hann and others show, the idea of 'Europe' is based on particular Western geographical imaginaries that have only relatively recently become hegemonic on a universal scale. Taking the interconnected singularity of the ocean rather than the Eurasian supercontinent as a starting point for understanding non-Eurocentric connectivities, I propose a new paradigm - Transoceania. Transoceania foregrounds the seafaring peoples who have always been mobile, thereby connecting various continents and oceans basins beyond territorially bounded nation-state and homogeneous national histories. In doing so, I am responding to Hann's plea for a more thorough engagement with the Indian Ocean world, specifically by focusing on maritime connectivities.
https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0282.10
Edyta Roszko
