Motley lots on liminal islands of an Order

Abstract

The relationship between the maltese islands and the sea has been an ever-present constant throughout the centuries. Indeed this liquid boundary was, and to some extent still is, the major factor that shaped the islands’ and the islanders’ identity and destiny. At times an insulator, at others a hyper-conductor, the sea’s character varies according to what the people were able to do with it, either exploiting it as a means of communication and for generating wealth or fearing it as a source of calamity and peril. However, it would be deceptive and somewhat misleading to consider the islands as being totally isolated or otherwise at any given moment of their history. To get a more realistic insight into the question of the degree of isolation, one can use Broodbank’s scale with two terminals, one representing total independence, the other complete integration with the outside world. The islands then can be seen to move, gradually or rapidly, or remain stationary along this scale during different periods of time according to the peoples’ perception of the sea and the subsequent lack or creation of a seafaring culture.