scholarly journals Dutch Colonial Anthropology in Indonesia

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-369
Author(s):  
Jean Kommers ◽  
Léon Buskens

AbstractAttempts to assess the results of colonial anthropology in Indonesia faced some problems, which, until recently, have not been dealt with properly. Therefore, in a newly published comprehensive history of anthropology in the Netherlands, several studies focused on the character, rather than on the substance of colonial anthropology. In the case of Dutch colonial representations of Indonesia, 'colonial anthropology' appears to be an assemblage of various disciplines that constituted a fragmented whole (Indologie; Dutch Indies Studies) from which today's Dutch academic anthropology emerged. However, projection of current conceptions of anthropology into the colonial past resulted in a tendency to neglect some major characteristics of early representations that are imperative for the interpretation of these representations. Besides, a rather limited familiarity amongst present-day anthropologists with the way in which Dutch colonial politics became immersed in international discourses resulted in misappraisal of an essential change in colonial knowledge: the shift from local to analytical representations, deeply affecting the portrayal of Indonesian cultures. In colonial knowledge production, emphasis moved from ethnographic particularism to essentialist conceptions like 'Knowledge of the Native'. This shift also had serious consequences for the academic position of ethnology amongst other colonial disciplines. Until recently, this misappraisal could escape notice because students of Dutch colonial anthropology were insufficiently aware of the effects on interpretation of the great variety of disciplinary discourses, so characteristic for Dutch colonial studies. Therefore, we will here concentrate on these effects and on the growing intertwinement of knowledge and politics which was directly related to the international orientation of colonial policy that became increasingly prominent after the mid-nineteenth century.

1991 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Fasseur

In 1976 I published an article in the Acta Historiae Neerlandicae (an annual series of publications in English on the history of The Netherlands, alas abruptly discontinued in 1982 for financial reasons) in which I tried to summarize the main causes of the decline of the cultivation system in Java (Fasseur, 1976, 143–62). Being then a young and ambitious historian with little respect for the big names in the field of Indonesian sciences, I stated that the literature on the cultivation system contained many misunderstandings as to the origins of the ‘decay’ of the system. In this connection I mentioned in particular Wertheim's well-known study on Indonesian Society in Transition and Clifford Geertz's stimulating essay on Agricultural Involution (1963). Although this latter book is certainly not without its shortcomings, it has greatly obliged all historians by reviving the interest in the role played by the cultivation system in the development of Java during the last century and a half. The period of the cultivation system, in the words of Geertz, was ‘the classic stage’ of colonial history, ‘the most decisive of the Dutch era’. Although I did not realize that fully in 1975, it was thus an opportune moment to publish, twelve years after Geertz's provocative study, a doctoral dissertation on the history of the system. The main flaw of Geertz's work was its weak historical component. The only ‘historical’ data Agricultural Involution provided, were borrowed from an agricultural atlas ofJava published in 1926.


1957 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 591-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert van Niel

This year academic circles in the Netherlands are celebrating the centennial of the birth of C. Snouck Hurgronje; Arabist, scholar of Indonesian affairs, and formateur of Dutch colonial policy. Most Dutch scholars and many students of Indonesian affairs would readily agree that few men have had as intimate acquaintance with the Indonesian archipelago and its people and have had as wide a reputation as an expert on this part of the world as the late Snouck Hurgronje. Unfortunately his writings and policies are known to English-reading scholars only at second hand. Except for a few brief articles, only his books, Mekka and The Achehnese, and his lectures in Mohammedanism have appeared in English. Other important writings have appeared in German and French, but the great bulk are in Dutch. There are presently plans to translate some parts of Snouck Hurgronje's collected works and also to make available certain writings which were done after the collected works were published, but the publication plans for these translations and reprints are still indefinite.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 152-168
Author(s):  
Tiina Aikas

In recent years we have witnessed a growing contemporary use of Sámi offering places by various actors, for example tourists, the local population and contemporary pagans. Hence, sites that the heritage authorities and researchers have seen as belonging to the past have gained new relevance. Nevertheless, Sámi religion is often presented in museums in relation to history and prehistory. Sámi culture has been presented in museums and exhibitions since the nineteenth century. In pointing out that this long history of museum displays affects how Sámi culture is presented in contemporary museums, Nika Potinkara (2015:41) suggests that we can renew, comment on or question the old presentations. This article explores the representations of Sámi religion in four museums and exhibitions in Northern Finland, and will answer the following research question: How is Sámi religion presented and what kind of themes are present? Here museums are studied as arenas for the dissemination of results of knowledge production. What kind of image of Sámi religion do they share?    


Bionomina ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
NEAL WOODMAN

All else being equal, the principle of priority in zoological taxonomic nomenclature gives precedence to the earliest name for a particular taxon. Determining the origin of some late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century taxonomic names, however, can be vexing, particularly when the history of a name was never completely documented in contemporary synonymies. The authorship and date for Orycteropus Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1796: 102, the genus-group name for the African aardvark, Orycteropus afer (Pallas, 1766), has been variously ascribed to at least four authors other than É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Using digitally imaged publications now available in a variety of internet-accessible libraries, I traced the comprehensive history of the name and show how and, to some extent, why its origin became obscured. É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s original description was re-published twice, most likely to make the description more widely available. Rather than reinforce his authorship for the name, however, the surprising consequence of the multiple publications was to cast doubt on it.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-162
Author(s):  
Christiane Schwab

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the rise of market-oriented periodical publishing correlated with an increasing desire to inspect the modernizing societies. The journalistic pursuit of examining the social world is in a unique way reflected in countless periodical contributions that, especially from the 1830s onwards, depicted social types and behaviours, new professions and technologies, institutions, and cultural routines. By analysing how these “sociographic sketches” proceeded to document and to interpret the manifold manifestations of the social world, this article discusses the interrelationships between epistemic and political shifts, new forms of medialization and the systematization of social research. It thereby focuses on three main areas: the creative appropriation of narratives and motifs of moralistic essayism, the uses of description and contextualization as modes of knowledge, and the adaptation of empirical methods and a scientific terminology. To consider nineteenth-century sociographic journalism as a format between entertainment, art, and science provokes us to narrate intermedial, transnational and interdisciplinary tales of the history of social knowledge production.


2019 ◽  
pp. 93-109
Author(s):  
Anne Dykstra

Joost Halbertsma’s Lexicon Frisicum, published by his son Tjalling in 1872, was the first dictionary to contain modern Frisian, spoken in the Dutch Province of Friesland. As such, it is considered the basis of modern Frisian lexicography. In his dictionary, Halbertsma focuses much attention on the cultural and linguistic history of the Frisians. At the same time, he was very concerned with the Netherlands as a free civil state, and he used ancient Frisian customs and habits to comment on the national and political situation of his time. Dykstra addresses criticism levelled at Halbertsma’s dictionary, such as that it lacked internal consistency and coherence, tends to digress, and uses Latin as meta-language, making it largely inaccessible to Halberstma’s contemporaries. Even with its shortcomings, Dykstra evaluates the ways in which Halbertsma’s Lexicon Frisicum provides insight into various aspects of nineteenth-century linguistics, lexicography, culture, and cultural nationalism.


2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes W. Hofmeyr

Met die 450e herdenking van die Heidelbergse Kategismus as vertrekpunt, word met die huidige en die vorige artikel gepoog om lig te werp op die plek, die rol en die interpretasie van die opstanding van Jesus Christus in veral Sondag 17 en 22, spesifiek in die konteks van twee besondere eras in die Nederduitse Gereformeerde (NG) Kerk. In die vorige artikel is allereers ’n bespreking gevoer oor die Heidelbergse Kategismus (HK). Daar is gekyk na die resepsie van die betrokke HK-geloofsartikels in die era van Andrew Murray, spesifiek teen die agtergrond van die negentiende-eeuse liberale teologie in Nederland. In die huidige artikel word soortgelyk gekyk na die resepsie van die betrokke HK-geloofsartikels in die NG Kerk na 2000, teen die agtergrond van die herverskyning van die negentiende-eeuse liberale teologie in die vorm van die Jesus Seminaar, die Nuwe Hervorming en ondersteuners daarvan binne die NG Kerk. Sowel die negentiende-eeuse liberale stryd in die NG Kerk asook die stryd oor die opstanding in die NG Kerk van die eerste dekade van die een-en-twintigste eeu, soos verder in hierdie artikel sal blyk, was gekenmerk deur kontekstueelbepaalde uniekhede. Die gemene deler was dat albei deel was van tye van teologiese vrysinnigheid. In die lig van hierdie bespreking word tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat die NG Kerk tans, betreffende haar identiteit as gereformeerde kerk waarskynlik in ’n kritieke geloofs- en toekomskrisis verkeer. Dit impliseer kommerwekkende gevolge vir haar Skrifverstaan en getuienis as belydenis en belydende kerk van Jesus Christus en haar toekoms. Alleen duidelike visie, verantwoordelike leierskap en ’n herontdekking van die verlossingskrag van Christus se kruis en opstanding sal herstellende, positiewe en dinamiese oplossings kan bied om sodoende die NG Kerk te red van ’n snelwentelende afwaartse spiraal.With the 450th celebrations of the origin of the Heidelberg Catechism (HC) in mind, the main aim of this and the previous article is to focus on the place, role and interpretation of the doctrine of the resurrection in HC (Sunday 17 and 22), within two very specific and critical eras in the history of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) in South Africa. The first article focused on the reception of the HC in the time of Andrew Murray during the nineteenth century, and specifically against the background of the then liberal theology in both the Netherlands and South Africa. In this current article I look at the reception of the same HC articles (Sunday 17 and 22) in the DRC after 2000, against the background of the reappearance of the nineteenth century liberal theology in the Netherlands, and specifically with reference to the Jesus Seminar, the New Reformation and those sympathetic to the latter in the DRC. Both these nineteenth- and twenty-first-century developments had their own unique contexts but what they had in common were a specific theological liberal mindset. In view of this discussion it is concluded that the DRC as a reformed church is not only caught up in an identity crisis, but even in a survival crisis of no small proportions. This also has serious implications for its use of Scripture and its confessional character. Only strong vision, able leadership and a rediscovery of the redeeming power of the cross and resurrection of Christ will be able to provide a remedial, positive, and dynamic solution, saving the DRC from an ever downward spiral.


2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 623-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
UGANDA SZE PUI KWAN

AbstractThe University of London was the first institution in the United Kingdom to establish a professorship in Chinese. Within a decade of the first half of the nineteenth century, two professorships in Chinese were created at its two colleges: the first at University College in 1837 and the second at King's College in 1847. Previous studies of British sinology have devoted sufficient attention to the establishment of the programme and the first Chinese professorship. However, despite the latter professorship being established by the same patron (Sir George Thomas Staunton; 1781–1859) during the same era as the former, the institutionalisation of the Chinese programme at King's College London seems to have been completely overlooked. If we consider British colonial policy and the mission of the Empire in the early nineteenth century, we are able to understand the strategic purpose served by the Chinese studies programme at King's and the special reason for its establishment at a crucial moment in the history of Sino-British relations. Examining it from this perspective, we reveal unresolved doubts concerning the selection and appointment of King's first Chinese professor. Unlike other inaugural Chinese professors appointed during the nineteenth century at other universities in the United Kingdom, the first Chinese professor at King’s, Samuel Turner Fearon (1819–1854), was not a sinophile. He did not translate any Chinese classics or other works. His inaugural lecture has not even survived. This is why sinologists have failed to conduct an in-depth study on Fearon and the genealogy of the Chinese programme at King’s. Nevertheless, Samuel Fearon did indeed play a very significant role in Sino-British relations due to his ability as an interpreter and his knowledge of China. He was not only an interpreter in the first Opium War (1839–1842) but was also a colonial civil servant and senior government official in British Hong Kong when the colonial government started to take shape after the war. This paper both re-examines his contribution during this “period of conflict and difficulty” in Sino-British relations and demonstrates the very nature of British sinology.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-65
Author(s):  
M R Hasanov

The Article examines the preconditions of the struggle of the mountaineers Sevres-Eastern Caucasus in the 20-50-ies of the XIX century On the basis of analysis of sources and existing literature reveals the principal causes of the struggle of the mountaineers against the colonial policy of tsarism and the local rulers. It stresses that the dissatisfaction of the highlanders was caused by construction on arable land fortresses, device the so-called fortified lines with the Cossack settlements, permanent mobilization of the local population to build roads, fortresses, requirements, burdensome taxes and the heavy duties and activities assigned to mountain communities and possession of the king's officers and the commandant of managers to intervene in the internal life of the highlanders. The article talks about the brutal repression used by the Royal officials in relation to the unhappy mountaineers - the burning of entire villages, destruction of crops and grain reserves, the destruction of the gardens - all this aroused the indignation of the mountaineers and led to the struggle against tsarist oppression and local feudal lords. The article is subjected to criticism the concept of M. M. Bliev, if the mountaineers lived by raids on their neighbors. His thesis is that in the first half of the nineteenth century the mountaineers have experienced a period of expansion of tribal relations, not only clarifies the issue of their struggle in the 20-50 years of the XIX century, but also confuses the history of the peoples of the region. The publication highlights how local authorities based on the Royal arms, brutally oppressed rank and file of the highlanders, were taken from their last horse or bull, the last under the grain in the tax bill. The article presents material about the ill-treatment of Aslan-Khan Kyurinsky and the other lords with their subordinates. The feudal lords levied a population with taxes and duties at its discretion, enriched by direct robbery. Therefore, according to the article, the idea of anti-colonial protest in the minds of the highlanders were merged with the anti-feudal aspirations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 159-164
Author(s):  
Judyta Kuznik

This article focuses on the book Het andere postkoloniale oog, edited by Michiel van Kempen and published in 2020 by the publishing house Verloren. This book had the goal to present never before mentioned aspects of the colonial history of the Netherlands and its influence on cultural practices of the colonised cultures within the last four centuries. Because of the numerous contributions amassed there, the article discusses in depth only a few. These contributions distinguished themselves either through an original academic approach to the topic or the positioning with regard to postcolonial theories usage. The first part of this book involves the need for the re-evaluation of the Dutch colonial history in many parts of the world, to name Suriname as an example. This re-evaluation is highly relevant, as is comes in a time when recent social movements push the mostly unknown parts of the Dutch colonial history into the spotlight. In the second part, this is followed by an attempt to answer the question whether postcolonial theories are essential for the writing bound to the colonial history of the Dutch. As is shown by some contributions, postcolonial theories can stimulate new discussions, especially in cases which do not fit the existing theoretical schemes. And yet, it seems that they are not crucial in discussions about the influence between colonised cultures, though their use might prove fruitful. The article closes with an evaluation of the analysed texts.


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