Ocean Imperatives: analysing shipping infrastructure for the study of maritime networks in Southeast Asia

How did Southeast Asia transform from a hub of prehistoric coastal networks into a transregional interdependent port system by the early modern period? To answer this question, which is crucial to understanding the historical developments of polities along the Indo-Pacific region, this presentation proposes to examine the synergetic nature of shipping infrastructure in order to push current boundaries that place the focus on trade goods.

Art and Ocean Objects of Early Modern Eurasia

During the early modern period, objects of maritime material culture were removed from their places of origin and traded, collected and displayed worldwide. Focusing on shells and pearls exchanged within local and global networks, this monograph compares and connects Asian, in particular Chinese, and European practices of oceanic exploitation in the framework of a transcultural history of art with an understanding of maritime material culture as gendered. Perceiving the ocean as mother of all things, as womb and birthplace, Chinese and European artists and collectors exoticized and eroticized shells' shapes and surfaces. Defining China and Europe as spaces entangled with South and Southeast Asian sites of knowledge production, source and supply between 1500 and 1700, the book understands oceanic goods and maritime networks as transcending and subverting territorial and topographical boundaries. It also links the study of globally connected port cities to local ecologies of oceanic exploitation and creative practices.

Art and Ocean Objects of Early Modern Eurasia

During the early modern period, objects of maritime material culture were removed from their places of origin and traded, collected and displayed worldwide. Focusing on shells and pearls exchanged within local and global networks, this monograph compares and connects Asian, in particular Chinese, and European practices of oceanic exploitation in the framework of a transcultural history of art with an understanding of maritime material culture as gendered. Perceiving the ocean as mother of all things, as womb and birthplace, Chinese and European artists and collectors exoticized and eroticized shells’ shapes and surfaces. Defining China and Europe as spaces entangled with South and Southeast Asian sites of knowledge production, source and supply between 1500 and 1700, the book understands oceanic goods and maritime networks as transcending and subverting territorial and topographical boundaries. It also links the study of globally connected port cities to local ecologies of oceanic exploitation and creative practices.

Book review: H. P. Ray, Coastal Shrines and Transnational Maritime Networks Across India and Southeast Asia

H. P. Ray, Coastal Shrines and Transnational Maritime Networks Across India and Southeast Asia. Routledge, 2021 Hardback, 255 pages, ISBN: 978-0-3677-0804-7 Price: ₹995.