How the Islanders are presented on the Internet

The trobriand islanders have attracted much attention in the different forms of media owing to their unique and noticeable culture. Thus they may have attracted unnecessary attention leading to unwanted criticism and hence misrepresentation of their culture. Culture is unique in and to every society and language forms a basic element in culture as it shapes it.

The Trobriand Islands are famous for being the ‘Island of love’ and this has led to population boom, combined with other factors. The population increase has caused huge food shortages and serious health problem (Ilya 2009). However, food shortages are not unique to the Islanders alone as it a global problem facing man y parts of the continents in Africa, Asia and other places. The carrying capacity of many ecosystems have been exceeded in many places due to population increase and other environmental factors that lead to global climate change and land degradation.

The sexual practice among the Trobriands is another feature that has been in the focus of man y internet blogs especially the tourist companies that seek to make the Islands a tour destination. However, this has not taken into account the anthropological strategies and methods of study and ends up not bringing out the true picture of the Islanders but create a promiscuous society.
Magic has been another theme in the Trobriand Islanders where it has been perceived as the main religious practice, however, most of the societies turn to magic to seek answers that science religion may not provide.

There has been massive misrepresentation and misinterpretation of the Trobriand islanders in the media. This is especially so in films and other electronic media. This has been especially in the film industry where ethnographic films have not adhered to the philosophical and methodology with which to presented the islanders reality. The acting in itself appears to aggravate the problem of misrepresenting these societies. The fact that the film makers want to capture the attention of the audience makes them reduce reality to something like getting the correct ethnographic facts and focusing the camera on the right place. When this is done the film imposes some authority of truth in their interpretation but which in fact is may be the filmmakers’ perception of truth. For example in the film ‘survival’ theme in the hunters (John Marshal 1956) and ‘death’ theme in dead birds by Robert Gardner 1961 where in both films, the filmmakers created their own themes and used it as the central focus if the film.

In their sex life, the Trobrianders have been presented as one of the most promiscuous by the electronic media thus painting such culture as barbaric and violation of human rights to an extent, this has been as a result of the film makers to present their own isolated parts that make up the whole system of culture. At the same time all communities express some form of religion and mostly turn to magic when in dire need as a complex solution to problems and answers that science or religion may not explain depending on the knowledge base of the given society. In some areas the islanders have been shown as involving great practices of magic with no form of religion at all.

They have also been presented as trying to survive where they are victims of environment and are obsessed with survival in all their activities; however, communities are able to adopt to their environment through culture