Before 1936, musical practices in Palestine relied heavily on colloquial poetry, especially in rural communities, which constituted most of the population. During the first half of the twentieth... Show moreBefore 1936, musical practices in Palestine relied heavily on colloquial poetry, especially in rural communities, which constituted most of the population. During the first half of the twentieth century, Palestinian music evolved as a reflection of the social, cultural, and political evolution of Palestinians. Palestinian music-making evolved exponentially resulting in the expansion of various folk tunes into shaʿbī songs, the creation of the Palestinian qaṣīda song genre, new compositions of instrumental music for traditional and Western music formations, the establishment of choirs and children music programing, and active engagement in composing in the styles of the dominant Egyptian genres of the time as well as muwashshaḥāt.In 1948, the vast majority of Palestinians were displaced, and musicians found themselves at the frontier of implementing new political and cultural visions in the countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Therefore, the continuation of the musical narrative in the West Bank did not seem attainable. By the early 1950s, Palestinian musicians and intellectuals developed a vocabulary that reflected the topography, scenery, culture, dialects, and history of al-Mashriq, one that is independent of Egypt’s. Their input, intuition, experience, and convictions of various Palestinian musicians helped to make the music scene in Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan what they are today. Show less
This multidisciplinary volume brings together scholars and writers who try to come to terms with the histories and legacies of European slavery in the Indian Ocean. The volume discusses a variety... Show moreThis multidisciplinary volume brings together scholars and writers who try to come to terms with the histories and legacies of European slavery in the Indian Ocean. The volume discusses a variety of qualitative data on the experience of being a slave in order to recover ordinary lives and, crucially, to place this experience in its Asian local context. Building on the rich scholarship on the slave trade, this volume offers a unique perspective that embraces the origin and afterlife of enslavement as well as the imaginaries and representations of slaves rather than the trade in slaves itself. Show less
De mailboten die in de periode 1850-1940 tussen Nederland en Nederlands-Indië voeren, vormden een microkolonie: een gecomprimeerde versie van de koloniale samenleving. Tijdens de zeereis zaten... Show moreDe mailboten die in de periode 1850-1940 tussen Nederland en Nederlands-Indië voeren, vormden een microkolonie: een gecomprimeerde versie van de koloniale samenleving. Tijdens de zeereis zaten witte nieuwkomers, ervaren reizigers en het inheemse (scheeps)personeel gedurende meerdere weken onder wisselende weersomstandigheden op een beperkte oppervlakte met elkaar opgescheept. Geen wonder dat er veel romans en korte verhalen zijn geschreven over het leven aan boord, verhalen vol extreme emoties, harde botsingen en bijzondere lotsverbindingen. Aan de hand van een analyse van 43 reisverhalen laat Coen van ’t Veer zien hoe in de contact zone van het schip de koloniale identiteit wordt gerepresenteerd en geconstrueerd.De idealen die hierbij een rol spelen, bewegen mee op de golven van het koloniale politieke getij. Op subtielewijze laten deze koloniale mechanismen nog steeds hun sporen na in onze postkoloniale samenleving. Show less
One of the tasks of the Royal Netherlands Navy in Tydeman's lifetime was the hydrographic survey of the seas at home and in the colonial waters. The hydrographic expertise of naval officers could... Show moreOne of the tasks of the Royal Netherlands Navy in Tydeman's lifetime was the hydrographic survey of the seas at home and in the colonial waters. The hydrographic expertise of naval officers could also be applied to other endeavours like scientific expeditions.In the second half of the nineteenth century private scientific societies took the initiative to engage in maritime research. Contact between scientists and the Navy resulted in naval assintance in scientific research. The Navy took part in polar expeditions and in scientific explorations in the tropics. As a junior officer Gustaaf Tydeman was involved in hydrographic surveij in the East Indies and in Dutch coastal waters. Tydeman was commanding officer of H. Neth. MS Siboga during the oceanographic expedition in the East Indian Archipelago in 1899-1900. He continued his years in the Navy as commanding officer of the Royal Naval College, of large ships and of a squadron of ships in teh East Indies. He was promoted to flagofficer in his command of the Naval establishment in Amsterdam. His achievements as hydrographer and commanding officer of a ship on a scientific expedition and author of several publications made his naval career exceptional. Show less
This dissertation explores the causation of mass conversions to Islam in Bolaang-Mongondow and to Protestant Christianity in Sangir-Talaud and Minahasa (North Sulawesi, Indonesia) in the eighteenth... Show moreThis dissertation explores the causation of mass conversions to Islam in Bolaang-Mongondow and to Protestant Christianity in Sangir-Talaud and Minahasa (North Sulawesi, Indonesia) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It demonstrates that despite deviations in particularities, the mass conversions to world religions in these regions broadly shared similar causations. It places emphasis on particular periods in the nineteenth-century when the Dutch colonial state centralized political authority and imposed census-based monetary taxation with the aim of commercializing the economy. It points to these reforms as the immediate triggers that enabled both Dutch apical rulers and especially indigenous apical rulers to weaken the authority of subaltern chiefs. It illustrates that these reforms were weaved into the religious conversion agenda of rulers as a strategy to further consolidate authority by depriving the subaltern chiefs of their functionally undifferentiated and socially embedded authority. As such, this dissertation shows that the apical rulers could expand their political and economic reach while paving the way for their claimed subjects to access prestigious religious identities, which had hitherto been exclusive to the ruling elite. Show less
This dissertation points out the stark inequalities of segregated criminal justice in nineteenth-century Java and analyses this unequal system in practice, shown by an actor-focused approach... Show moreThis dissertation points out the stark inequalities of segregated criminal justice in nineteenth-century Java and analyses this unequal system in practice, shown by an actor-focused approach and through a framework of legal pluralities. Ravensbergen searched for the conflicts occurring around the green table of the 'pluralistic courts'(landraden and ommegaande rechtbanken) where the non-European population was tried by Javanese and Dutch court members, and Islamic and Chinese legal advisors. The pluralistic courts, the only places in Java where all regional power structures met and actively worked together, were courtrooms of many conflicts. The courts were also in interaction, and conflict, with other state institutions, together all furthering the project of colonial state formation. By taking this approach, Ravensbergen shows how it was not only inequality, but also uncertainty and injustice, that were central to colonial criminal justice imposed on the local population. Show less
University of Colour in Amsterdam demonstrated against the neoliberal university and the perpetuation of coloniality in the curricula. Rhodes Must Fall in Cape Town specifically focused on the... Show moreUniversity of Colour in Amsterdam demonstrated against the neoliberal university and the perpetuation of coloniality in the curricula. Rhodes Must Fall in Cape Town specifically focused on the Fanonian concept of ‘putting the last first’. Both Rhodes Must Fall and the University of Colour centred historically marginalised voices as an aim of the decolonised university. The book argues that epistemic justice requires an unlearning and relearning of being/becoming that is the decolonised self; reimagining the relationship between pedagogy and community, theory and lived experience. It attempts to rethink theoretical frames such as Freudian psychoanalysis from a decolonial feminist perspective. This books seeks to share and encourage more dialogue towards achieving decolonised universities. Show less
This thesis discusses the negotiation of custom in the Landraad, a judicial forum set up by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), in eighteenth-century Sri Lanka. The Landraad had a majority of VOC... Show moreThis thesis discusses the negotiation of custom in the Landraad, a judicial forum set up by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), in eighteenth-century Sri Lanka. The Landraad had a majority of VOC officials and a subordinate minority of local headmen. It was a space in which agency was multifarious. The nuances of everyday practice as studied here reveal both rejection and manipulation by local actors. This in turn informs us of everyday life in early-modern colonialism. A choice of laws came into play, that choice being significant at varying degrees for different areas of the law such as evidence, inheritance, land and marriage law. Based on over a hundred cases brought forward by men and women from the Galle district in southern Sri Lanka, the lived experience of legal pluralism is emphasised. This thesis adds an empirical study and the insights of socio-legal studies of legal pluralism to the existing literature on Roman-Dutch law in Sri Lanka. While there was inevitable conflict, in practice the local normative order was as much a social fact for the early colonial rulers as Roman-Dutch law. Show less
Discussions about colonial chieftaincy in Africa have tended to focus upon the ways in which indirect rule structured and framed traditional authority; for the majority of contemporary historians... Show moreDiscussions about colonial chieftaincy in Africa have tended to focus upon the ways in which indirect rule structured and framed traditional authority; for the majority of contemporary historians of British colonialism the question has been to what extent Lord Lugard’s blueprint for effective native administration, The Dual Mandate, invented, shaped, and restructured political and social identity. Whilst acknowledging the importance of these neo-traditional perspectives which focus much on the ways in which colonial frameworks ethnicised and tribalised African society, this thesis argues that indirect rule was as much a spatialising process as it was a tribalising one. Colonial tools of territoriality mapped politics in geographically bounded ways and as a result associating power with place began to assume new importance in the ways African leadership was defined, and given authority. By further exploring the spatial context of traditional power in colonial Malawi through the example of a Tumbuka chief named Timothy Chawinga, this thesis reveals new conclusions about the nature of chieftainship in Northern Malawi. It also provokes new questions about how we understand the role of African traditional authorities more generally, in both the past and the present. Show less
This study of an indigenous community combines the use of archival documents with evidence from archaeological excavations to offer an anthropological analysis, drawing on the concepts of... Show moreThis study of an indigenous community combines the use of archival documents with evidence from archaeological excavations to offer an anthropological analysis, drawing on the concepts of dialogics, doxa, and practice to show how we can understand historically obscured people and histories. A network of pueblos de indios integrated themselves in colonial society in Honduras through service in a coastal watch, while resisting exploitation beyond the legal requirements of encomienda. The circulation of people between towns as spouses allowed for the sharing of colonial experiences and tactics of persistence. This network perpetuated indigenous practices, including the cultivation, circulation, and use of cacao, likely for ritual, and the use of chipped stone tools. Masca, later known as Candelaria, was one such indigenous town located in the district of San Pedro Sula. Its people identified as a community defined by the presence of their houses, church, agricultural fields, and cacao plantations. The community used a variety of techniques to persist under colonization until the nineteenth century. These included exploiting the colonial legal system, the continued use of indigenous family name by community elites, moving the entire community to avoid violence, and exploiting the casta system to change the perceived identity of individuals. Show less
Dit boek beschrijft het koloniaal bestuur en de lokale politieke op Aruba tussen 1816 en 1955. Deel één beschrijft de Arubaanse ervaring met koloniaal bestuur tot 1922. Aruba was onderhorig aan het... Show moreDit boek beschrijft het koloniaal bestuur en de lokale politieke op Aruba tussen 1816 en 1955. Deel één beschrijft de Arubaanse ervaring met koloniaal bestuur tot 1922. Aruba was onderhorig aan het bestuur op Curaçao, waar de gouverneur de spil in het bestuur was. De Koloniale Raad had weinig bevoegdheden en de eilanden buiten Curaçao waren niet vertegenwoordigd Raad. Daar voerden commandeurs, na 1848 gezaghebbers, het bestuur. Lokale colleges als het Vredegerecht, de Adviserende Commissie en de Raad van Politie hadden weinig invloed. De invoering van stemrecht in 1869 bracht weinig verandering. Wel drongen landraden aan op bestuurshervorming en investeringen ten behoeve van Aruba. De grondwetswijzigingen van 1901 en 1922 beloofden hervorming, maar die bleef uit. Deel twee beschrijft de de Separacionbeweging. In 1924 vestigde de olie-industrie zich op Aruba. In 1946 formuleerden de Verenigde Naties het zelfbeschikkingsrecht. Arubanen streefden naar afscheiding van de kolonie en een directe band met Nederland: Separacion! In 1948 stelde de commissie Aruba-Curaçao een federatie tussen de eilanden voor; de separatisten trokken aan het kortste eind. In 1954 kwam het Statuut voor het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden tot stand en een jaar later de Staatsregeling van de Nederlandse Antillen. De epiloog spreekt de ontwikkelingen sinds 1955. Show less
This thesis investigates the structural changes in the agrarian society in Western parts of Sri Lanka as seen in the mid and late eighteenth century in the context of the encounter with the Dutch... Show moreThis thesis investigates the structural changes in the agrarian society in Western parts of Sri Lanka as seen in the mid and late eighteenth century in the context of the encounter with the Dutch United East India Company (VOC) administration. It attempts to understand the developments in the period from the vantage point of the peasantry, particularly by looking at the ways in which the peasants were affected by the Dutch colonial intervention and how they adjusted themselves to the changing economic and political reality. One of the characteristic features of the VOC rule was the higher degree of exploitation of peasant compared with the situation under pre-colonial rulers, because economic interests of the former was much higher than the latter. This situation brought about a break down of the structural equilibrium of the system of production and taxation. It is mainly within this context of structural break down that this study try to understand the long lasting changes in the social and economic setting. It discusses the changes in the production system with special reference to land utilization and labour organisation, changing aspects of the land tenure system, emergence of new class differentiations and new dynamics of caste formation. Show less
Prior to the abolishing of Apartheid rule in 1994 several major South African white writers wrote a novel set on a South African farm. Likewise, in the decades that preceded the institutionalising... Show morePrior to the abolishing of Apartheid rule in 1994 several major South African white writers wrote a novel set on a South African farm. Likewise, in the decades that preceded the institutionalising of Apartheid, several farm novels were published, but with an entirely different message. In Unheimlich moederland insights from several disciplines are used to show how major changes in social-economic relations, land rights and the construction of cultural identity in and between these two periods were reflected on farms and in farm novels. Das Unheimliche (The Uncanny) – those things within ones own realm that are strange and therefore frightening – , a concept coming from Freud, but also used by structuralists and cultural critics, proofs to be capable to explain certain effects of (post-)colonalism and interculturality. Uncanny for instance, were the rising dead or venging powers of nature that in late 20th century farm novels undermined white hegemony. Death is a plural metaphor: in a literary as well as in a social context, it refers to transgressing boundaries, change and chaos but also to land rights and patrimonie and from there to the establishing of spatial and identifying boundaries. In text as in real life, the structure of a rite de passage (separation, liminality, reintegration) is being used to link death to life, and thus to control it. Show less
"Tribal Art Traffic" traces the movements of hundreds of thousands of masks, statues, amulets, shields, pieces of cloth, utensils, and weapons from overseas tribal cultures to and within North... Show more"Tribal Art Traffic" traces the movements of hundreds of thousands of masks, statues, amulets, shields, pieces of cloth, utensils, and weapons from overseas tribal cultures to and within North Atlantic societies, in colonial and post colonial times. While the focus is on the relatively small Low Countries and their huge overseas territories, the Belgian Congo and the Netherlands East Indies, related developments in three adjacent colonial powers, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, are also covered, as are links to the United States. This book charts the means and places through which tribal objects circulated and continue to circulate: colonial trading posts, missionary posts, attics and cellars, living rooms, museums, flea markets, monasteries, auction houses, artists' studios, private collections, and art galleries. In the second part of the book dealers, collectors, and curators relate their more recent experiences with objects-in-motion. This chronicle of European taste, trade and desire sketches the emergence of a western market for tribal art in the course of the twentieth century. Show less
As a study of the colonial situations of first millennium BC Sardinia, this book is as much an investigation into colonialism as a sociological category, as it explores the specific historical... Show moreAs a study of the colonial situations of first millennium BC Sardinia, this book is as much an investigation into colonialism as a sociological category, as it explores the specific historical conditions of a particular region. Taking a fresh look at colonialism in Mediterranean archaeology from a so-called postcolonial point of view, it examined the archaeologically relevant features of this perspective in conjunction with other current ideas about society, human agency and material culture in order to sketch the contours of a postcolonial archaeology of colonialism. These ideas are subsequently elaborated and practically applied in a detailed study of rural settlement in west central Sardinia. The archaeological evidence for this is provided by the (preliminary) results of the Riu Mannu survey carried out in west central Sardinia since 1992 as well as by a wealth of existing published and archived data. Considering themes such as the (re)creation of identities and cultural resistance, this study especially looks into the ways in which people deployed material culture and inhabited the landscape in order to cope with the colonial situations. Comparing these specific instances of colonialism finally leads to a consideration of historical contingency and structure in colonial situations and to an assertion of the centrality of identity in colonial situations. Show less
