Maritime Trade of the Malabar Coast and the Portuguese in the Sixteenth Century /
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This volume provides a thorough investigation into the dynamics of the maritime trade conducted on the Malabar Coast and the role of the Portuguese in it. It brings out several hitherto lesser known details about the part played by the Indian as well as foreign merchants. The Portuguese, in fact, depended on the merchant financiers of Germany and Italy besides the Flemish traders right from the inception of their maritime enterprise in the Orient. Copper in large quantity was imported into the Malabar Coast from various parts of Europe as part payment for the purchase of pepper and other spices from south western coast of India and for minting of coins. Initially for a quarter of a century the Marakkar merchants worked as collaborators of the Portuguese on the Malabar Coast. When the interest of the Marakkars was overlooked by the Portuguese in favour of the Portuguese settlers, the former turned against the latter. Though the Portuguese did not permit anybody else to deal in spices and other goods declared as monopoly items for three quarters of a century, they had to negotiate written contracts with the foreign merchant firms to bring cash and commodities to the Malabar Coast for direct purchases and for delivering the cargo at the India House in Lisbon against the stipulated price on the basis of these contracts. Unlike the English, the Dutch, the Danes and the French, the Portuguese conducted their trade in the name of the king.
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1 online resource (436 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753488
The encoded Cirebon mask : materiality, flow, and meaning along Java's Islamic northwest coast /
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In The Encoded Cirebon Mask: Materiality, Flow, and Meaning along Java's Islamic Northwest Coast , Laurie Margot Ross situates masks and masked dancing in the Cirebon region of Java (Indonesia) as an original expression of Islam. This is a different view from that of many scholars, who argue that canonical prohibitions on fashioning idols and imagery prove that masks are mere relics of indigenous beliefs that Muslim travelers could not eradicate. Making use of archives, oral histories, and the performing objects themselves, Ross traces the mask's trajectory from a popular entertainment in Cirebon-once a portal of global exchange-to a stimulus for establishing a deeper connection to God in late colonial Java, and eventual links to nationalism in post-independence Indonesia.
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1 online resource (xvi, 374 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004315211 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Europeans as Coastal Brokers in the West and West-Central African Slave Trade (1680-1720) /
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The years between 1680 and 1720 saw the intensification of the regional slave trade in West Africa. Previous scholarship has focused almost exclusively on Africans and Afro-descendants as brokers in the region, placing Europeans as Atlantic intermediaries. Europeans as Coastal Brokers in the West and West-Central African Slave Trade (1680-1720) argues that not only was European mediation in Africa deeply interwoven with endogenous trade networks, but also that it was eagerly desired by the powerful potentates of the hinterland as a means of increasing their political and economic power over the region. Examining the interconnected interests of coastal authorities and Europeans, this book demonstrates that Europeans were the key brokers in the diversification of slave trade routes to the shore.
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1 online resource (294 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004730946
An ethnography of a Vodu shrine in southern Togo : of spirit, slave, and sea /
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In this book, Eric Montgomery and Christian Vannier provide an ethnographically informed text on the cultural meanings and practices surrounding the gods and metaphysics of Vodu, as they relate to daily life in an ethnic Ewe fishing community on the coast of southern Togo. The authors approach this spirit possession and medicinal order through "shrine ethnography," understanding shrines as parts of sacred landscapes that are ecological, economic, political, and social. Giving voice to practitioners and situating shrines and Vodu itself into the history and political economy of the region make this text pertinent to the social changes and global relevance of Millennial Africa.
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1 online resource (ix, 306 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004341258 :
0169-9814 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Practical Imperialist : Letters from a Danish Planter in German East Africa 1888-1906 /
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This book provides a rare opportunity to follow the daily life on and around plantations and towns in the first years of the German colonial presence in East Africa, as seen through the eyes of a Danish master farmer working for the German East Africa Company. There are few memoirs and personal letters from these years, and existent letters are primarily by explorers, colonial officials, missionaries or the occasional settler. Lautherborn's material provides one of the very few entry points into the daily business of colonial expansion and consolidation in the early years of German East Africa as seen through the eyes of a practical man trying to do a job in a complex and changing world.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047408468
9789004147423
Ganga to Mekong : A Cultural Voyage through Textiles. Foreword by Kapila Vatsyayan /
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Textiles have been the binding factor in the cultural history of India and Southeast Asia from times immemorial. As the foremost currency they were carried by the traders from the banks of river Ganga to the fertile areas around the river Mekong and to the rich spice islands of Suvarnadwipa, Indonesia. Over the centuries, these textiles turned into vehicles of culture that built the foundation for an enduring multi-layered and multi-coloured relationship. The painted textiles from the Coromandel coast, the block-printed fabrics and the doubleikat patola from Gujarat enticed Southeast Asian royalty and masses alike. These trade textiles, considered ritually powerful and imbued with magical qualities played an integral role in binding India with Southeast Asia while becoming a part of the regional folklore, ceremonies and rituals. Over time they were seamlessly assimilated into the local culture. This cultural amalgam was here to stay as solid as the rocks of Borobudur and Konark and as intricately woven as the double-ikat patola which is the cultural legacy of India in Southeast Asia.
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1 online resource (220 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004752498