Join us for a panel on names, authority, and power at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Name Society. Papers in this panel include:
“Toponyms and the creation of a Taiwanese Indigenous village” by Rik De Busser, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
This talk explores how the complex layering of toponyms in the Taiwanese Indigenous village of Rinari is a result of its relatively recent creation, reflecting the intricate power dynamics between Indigenous communities and various external governmental and non-governmental organizations. Rinari is a village inhabited by Paiwan and Rukai people that was constructed by the government in the aftermath of typhoon Morakot in 2009 and settled by four Indigenous communities. This talk discusses how this resulted in an overlap of traditional and non-traditional toponymic systems and explores how this affects the linguistic landscape of the new village.
“Onomastic Conflicts in Maritime Spaces: “Gulf of Mexico or America?” and Other Naming Battles at Sea” by Cari Didion, Governors State University, USA, & Michel Nguessan, Governors State University, USA
Maritime placenames are deeply entwined with sovereignty, law, and diplomacy, functioning as tools of territorial assertion and international influence. This paper examines onomastic conflicts in contested seas, beginning with the rhetorical provocation of renaming the “Gulf of Mexico” as the “Gulf of America” to illustrate how nomenclature shapes perceptions of jurisdiction and legitimacy. Through comparative analysis of disputes such as Persian Gulf/Arabian Gulf, Sea
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