| At the end of the 20thcentury,Pitcairn Islands（hereinafter referred to as Pitcairn）has become well-known to the world for its long-standing phenomenon of sexual practice between adult men and minor girls.As the sovereign state of Pitcairn,the United Kingdom has conducted a prosecution of this social behavior in 2004.This prosecution exposes the collision and conflict between the Pitcairn’s traditional culture and the British mainstream civilization.The particularity of Pitcairn’s society determines that this prosecution has not only legal significance but also cultural significance.Based on this,this thesis selects Pitcairn’s Unique Prosecution as the research object and draws on Social Conflict Theory to explore the civilizational conflicts between the West and the non-West,mainland and islands beyond the prosecution.This thesis presents the ins and outs of the prosecution through a literature study.It provides an analysis of the conflict in this paper in terms of its roots,nature,classification and function with reference to the Social Conflict Theory’s understanding of the elements of social conflicts.This thesis therefore proceeds from the following chapters:the Introduction part provides an introduction to the background of the study,the current state of research,the theoretical framework and the thesis structure.Chapter 2 presents the causes,process and outcomes of the prosecution.The author identifies the dilemmas and controversies encountered in the prosecution process by combing through them,thus laying the foundation for conflicting factors beyond the prosecution.Chapter 3 explores the root causes of the conflict.The first is the material roots,including two aspects.One is the British competition for resources based on the unique geography of Pitcairn and its rich marine resources.Another is the inability of Pitcairn to keep pace with the UK in terms of the political and legal developments due to British long-standing political neglect on Pitcairn.The second is the non-material root,that is,the unique historical foundation of Pitcairn has led to the concept of sexual culture that differs from that of mainland Britain.Chapter 4 analyzes the inherent operating logic of the conflict,and first reveal that the essence of conflict is the confrontation of Pitcairn’s traditional culture with Britain’s modern civilization.Besides,the author combines the nature of Pitcairn’s ethical event and analyzes the duality of Pitcairn’s deviant behavior,revealing the relation between deviant behaviour and groups conflicts.Chapter 5 explores the functions of the conflict based on the contradictions between Pitcairn and the Western world as revealed by the prosecution,looking into the influence of the prosecution comprehensively and objectively.The thesis finds out that the conflict has positive functions on the one hand,such as enhancing self-unity and self-identity within the Pitcairn community,promoting the opening and modernization of Pitcairn and improving the British political administration to a certain extent.On the other hand,the conflict has negative functions,for example,the development of Pitcairn itself has begun to face many challenges from globalization,its native culture is threatened and the degree of British hegemony over Pitcairn has increased.Chapter 6 is the conclusion.Based on the analysis of Chapters 3 to 5,the research has discovered the vulnerable position of Pitcairn in the face of the conflict and has provided some suggestions for the development path of small human communities like Pitcairn.Thus,this paper not only provides a new perspective for the study of Pitcairn’s Unique Prosecution,but also further enriches the object of writing in the field of Area studies under the foreign language majors.At the same time,this study’s excavation of the developmental logic of the small,traditional human society of Pitcairn is useful in complementing the doctrinal understanding of those relatively isolated and small human societies. |
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