Multiple Island Temporalities: “Island Time” and the Spatialisation of Slowness on the Dalmatian Island of Dugi otok

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the notion of “island time” as a metaphor for addressing the multiple island temporalities emerging in the community of Sali, the biggest settlement on the southern shore of Dugi otok. In general, temporalities are conceived as the mode and the rhythm of being, entangled within the thick web of social, cultural, spatial, economic, gendered, and ideological transformations. The concept of “multiple temporalities”, inspired by the time studies and the anthropology of thime theoretical framework, points to the processes of diverse temporal frames and rhythms overlapping, intertwining, and coexisting. The focus of this paper is on the emergence of linčarnica, a triangular slope in the port of Sali. Based on ethnographic research, the paper will address the problems involved in the social and cultural creation of “island time”, popularly known as time moving at a slower pace. By problematising the concept of temporality at the crossroads of Mediterranean studies, island studies, time studies, and Balkan studies, the paper will address questions of specific, island-triggered, and socially performed atmospheric “island time” rebranded for the purpose of tourism and imagined within the specific cultural and social milieu of Dalmatia.

Keywords: multiple island temporalities, social construction of time, Dugi otok island, Dalmatia, linčarnica, localization of slowness, laziness, fjaka