As Marquesans in French Polynesia face a warming Pacific Ocean, coral decline, and an increased likelihood of cyclones and tsunamis (Gillie 1997; Sylvat and Wilkinson 2011; United Nations 2005), discourses and narratives related to anthropogenic climate change have rapidly become a part of contemporary social life on the islands, challenging and remolding Marquesans’ senses of identity. Moreover, the Marquesas Islands have become an increasingly popular tourist destination, which contributes to 80% of the local economy. The economic significance of tourism combined with the ecological changes have rapidly shifted Marquesans’ sense of self, particularly as demonstrated through indigenous material culture. While Marquesan “material culture” (Lévi-Strauss 1963) has been reclaimed and revalued by Marquesans and tourists alike, material production processes have tended to contribute to the destruction of the ecological environment and depletion of local resources. Simultaneously, anthropogenic climate change has resulted in reduced yields for locally-sourced raw materials integral to the continuation of these industries (Gornall et al. 2010; McMillan et al. 2014; Thaman and Clarke 1993). The tourist market is thus a complex and contradictory site at which local identity and material practices converge with the stark realities of global environmental and economic change. This research asks: how is the very nature of collective identity, in “traditional” societies or others, being challenged by swift ecological and climate change? How might models of tourism, economic viability, and agricultural exploitation need to be revised and reorganized in ways that take into account new kinds of identities and imaginaries, new forms of collective action, or the re-mobilization of “older” forms of collectivity and economic activity? In the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia, I examine how Marquesans draw upon their history, sense of self, sense of culture, sense of stability, and sense of precocity to remake both who they are and/through the objects that reflect who they are. / Anthropology

This master thesis focuses on body modifications, mainly tattooing. The aim is to present the tattooing in a broader context and show its link to many aspects of people's lives that was evident especially in traditional tribal societies before the colonization era. The attention is paid to the Maori culture and the Marquesas Islands because their tattoos used to have high art value and formed the inseparable part of the inhabitants' lives. At the same time it describes the up-to-date situation in the western culture, where the body modification is very popular. It also mentions the current tattoo projects happening in the Czech Republic. Information are taken from several books available in Czech, especially the work written by Martin Rychlík "Tetování, skarifikace a jiné zdobení těla" and many electronic books in English. Information about the tattoo and body art news comes from the websites where the interested people meet and write their observations and articles about the present events. The conclusion shows that body modifications and body adornments are as old as a mankind. They appear in all cultures and do not have only the aesthetic function. They are the important source of information about social position, family relation, wealth, past experience, etc. Tattoos and the other body...

The Western imagination has ascribed histories and identities of the Marquesas Islands throughout centuries of evolving discourses and representations as a paradoxical paradise, bolstering colonialist ideologies of social evolutionary theory. The islands have either been represented as backwards on a social scale to justify Western dominance, or have been represented as being in a state of authentic human nature out of colonial guilt and imperialist nostalgia. These representations reveal a paradox in which the Marquesas is ascribed in the Western imagination as a degenerate space, yet also as a space where the regeneration of human nature is made possible— provided that a time-backwards Marquesas is dependent on a civilized West.