Island in the Stream: An Ethnographic History of Mayotte

"It is clear that Lambek’s way of relating to ‘his’ islanders – giving full scope to emotions and mutual efforts toward understanding – and his special talent in relating such small-scale events to wide philosophical horizons have produced another beautiful book, opening up new perspectives on time and how people – both anthropologists but also ‘their’ people – can deal with time."

Peter Geschiere, University of Amsterdam, Anthropologica

"Michael Lambek’s study of the vicissitudes of Mahorais 'in the stream of time' recognizes the importance given to Mayotte’s shifting relationship to France, culminating (for now) in Mayotte’s incorporation as a départmente d’outre-mer (DOM) of France in 2011. But Lambek is mainly concerned with how Maorais relate their changing ideas and practices of streams of times in their larger circumstances to their shifting understanding of being in the world: the nature of experience, and the relationship of experience to awareness, or consciousness, of selves and others."

Gillian Feeley-Harnik, Professor Emerita in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan

"The product of more than 40 years of scholarship and intimate engagement with the lives of people of Mayotte, Island in the Stream is a work of depth and maturity, written with the subtlety, vividness, and analytic dexterity that we have come to expect from Michael Lambek. The main themes of how life has changed over this period for people in Mayotte, how they themselves view the past, present, and future, and their own historical consciousness – as evidenced in their actions and their articulated reflections – are shown to be fundamentally ethical concerns. So, this is also a work about ethical engagement – of the Mahorais and of the ethnographer."

Janet Carsten, Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh

"Michael Lambek’s name is synonymous with Mayotte anthropology, and his engagement here, across so impressive a professional arc, is a gift to the field. In Island in the Stream, Lambek provides refreshingly unique insights that enable the reader to encounter three masterful 'ethnographic histories' at once: of Mayotte and its people, of the anthropologist himself, and, finally, of his expertise in a corpus of theory. As one advances through the book’s chronologically-ordered essays, one looks forward at every turn to learning what might transpire next in terms of these entwined histories. This is a wonderful read, a delightfully informative journey from its start on through to the very last page."

Lesley Sharp, Barbara Chamberlain and Helen Chamberlain Josefsberg ‘30 Professor of Anthropology at Barnard College and Senior Research Scientist in Sociomedical Sciences in the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University