In reply to:
I suppose the key is not whether the people live on a literal island but the degree of isolation from other parts of the world they experience.
I would like to add to that a rider about the effect of population size on the insularity or otherwise of island dwellers. In the Western world it is hard to get more geographically isolated than NZ, however NZers by and large are anything but insular. Although NZ is almost 25% larger geographically than Great Britain, its tiny population means that insularity is a luxury it has never been able to afford. One consequence of this hads been to overvalue the history of other parts of the world, while devaluing our own - "we're too small to count." It does mean that the hypothetical "average well-educated NZer" is very outward in his or her weltanschauung, particularly when contrasted with the inaularity already remarked upon as common in the US.
