Winning candidate for research grant will study microtoponymy of Formentera's gregal micro-regions

Out of seventeen total project proposals, all investigating topics related to the social sciences and humanities, the Formentera Island Council has completed its selection of the project to receive the Council's own investigative research grant. The grant will be awarded to Vicent Ferrer and Raquel Guasch for their project “Eco-toponymical study of the gregal micro-communities of the island of Formentera”.

Applications for the grant, in accordance with the basic groundwork approved by Council, were open to research on topics related to the social sciences and humanities that specifically involved the historical and artistic heritage of Formentera.

It is the objective of the winning project to gather microtoponymical information of the marine, coastal and land-based varieties regarding the gregal microcommunities of Formentera, whose ensemble includes the Sant Ferran de ses Roques parish. The goal is to gather information on the microtoponymy of the entire island of Formentera before it is lost among currents of globalisation.

An evaluative commission was given the charge of reviewing the applications presented. Having read the entirety of applications, the commission proposed awarding the grant to the project that had received the highest marks during review. The committee was presided over by the councilor of the Office of Culture and Local Heritage of Formentera, a secretary assigned by the Office of Secretary and four designated representatives assigned with consideration for each candidate project. Likewise, by suggestion from the evaluative commission, the Formentera Council will assign a grant director to follow the progress of the project.

The researchers' primary methodological resource will be fieldwork with oral participants, toward the end of gathering data on the different models of living in existence on the island over the course of XX century. Now at the start of the XXI century, the Formentera natives who have lived through important historical moments such as the Civil War, emigration to America, exile, the first years of the island's local tourist industry, the accelerated changes to the physiognomy of the island, etc. For these reasons it is now more urgent than ever that research delve into this private and intimate facet of history: memory.

The oral history of Formentera presents multiple faces and permits an in-depth study of numerous aspects of local history: technology, industry, tilling of local land, navigation, gastronomy, popular literature, traditional medicine, botany and fauna, etc. The project will thus constitute a watershed study with respect to three different elements:
It is at once the continuation and compliment of an already-begun research project, and it orients this previous research toward a general description of the toponymy of the island.
It can be considered a transversal project because the data obtained and catalogued as part of the research will stand to affect not only the philology, but every dimension of culture and history on Formentera.
It is also a project that will serve educational purposes, given that it anticipates practical data for young researchers of oral history, whose function is of extreme importance in the current context of social change.

The zone of study will be limited to the micro-communities of Ses Roques, Sa Punta, El Molí-s'Estany i ses Salines. Work will encompass the totality of territories within the Sant Ferran parish, an area which also includes the islands of Espalmador and S'Espardell.

Research to be conducted under the grant must be carried out within a period of twelve months beginning the day after notification of the award of the grant. The grant promises a total of 6,000€ for research, the same figure associated with the previous award.

The Office of Culture and Local Heritage is to have priority at the time of publishing the investigative results, if this is deemed advantageous. Acceptance of the grant and delivery of the study are equivalent to an authorisation by the part of the author for the Council to publish results.

This round of applications has signalled a continuation of the precedent set by Formentera's Office of Culture and Local Heritage in promoting scientific research and study. These studies, providing data based on scientific methodology, are necessary to the establishment of new avenues of action related to Formentera.