This thesis focuses on the period at the end of the nineteenth century when knowledge of the colonized cultures and their histories became an integral part of European imperial policies. In the...Show moreThis thesis focuses on the period at the end of the nineteenth century when knowledge of the colonized cultures and their histories became an integral part of European imperial policies. In the search for tools legitimizing their overseas venture, architecture turned out to be one of the most visual and lasting tools for boosting such efforts. It is precisely by exploring this aspect of empire-building through architecture that my thesis attempts to redress the lacunae of historical research on colonial architecture as a measure for studying colonial history. Conventional historiography has largely neglected this aspect of empire-building, leaving much of it for architects, urbanists and art historians to deal with. Most of the scholarly contributions to colonial architecture have not yet been able to sufficiently expose the underlying imperial designs or the socio-cultural processes behind such building projects. In this thesis, I have made attempts to trace these processes and examine them from a comparative perspective using Foucault’s power/knowledge dimension. By pitching the three former Asian colonies of British-India, Dutch-Indies and French-Indochina next to each other and analysing the hybrid architecture found in their main public buildings, the ways in which the colonial government tried to impress the people through their building styles can be revealed. They resorted to the incorporation of often randomly mixed local architectural elements into buildings which looked European otherwise. This resulted in buildings depicting hybrid architectural styles. Such designs reflected a self-proclaimed European mastery in managing knowledge of the colonized cultures. In trying to claim their legitimacy as new rulers, colonial governments went to great lengths, using the visual qualities of architecture to shield a relatively weak system. The erection of confident and mighty stone facades, however, did little to bury the lingering orientalist prejudices and the inherent unequal status of the colonizers and the colonized. In fact, the knowledge on local histories generated by the colonizers helped create local identities that gave a boost to the upcoming nationalistic movements. But there were interesting differences among the colonies though, that this comparative exercise laid bare. The nuances manifested in the different colonies in terms of the willingness to spend financial resources, the often conflicting objectives between colonial institutions, the effects of shifting colonial policies and the paradoxical underlying principles that defined those policies, and other contextual factors, led to differences in imperial policies and their consequent architectural plans. By probing into these differences as well as by highlighting the similarities cutting across all the three colonies, my thesis contributes to understanding the varying shades of colonialism through the seemingly silent yet starkly telling structures.Show less
This study investigates two different type of indigenous students from Indonesia who earned their degree from Faculty of Law Leiden University in the late colonial period. Their family background,...Show moreThis study investigates two different type of indigenous students from Indonesia who earned their degree from Faculty of Law Leiden University in the late colonial period. Their family background, academic support in Leiden, nationalist movement and also the different life that they must encountered in the Netherlands shifted their choice once they came back to the colony. The first type of Leiden graduate associated themselves with the colonial legal system in order to sustain colonial authority in Indonesia. The second type was them who decided to either work under the colonial administration but showing nationalistic stance or them who stood against colonial authority by opening law firms independently and joining political activities. The main focus of this thesis is to explore more on some cases which portrays the outcome of these Leiden graduates and their involvement in colonial legal system in the Dutch East Indies.Show less
This thesis is a comparative study of the works of two artists from the Low Countries, Frans Balthazar Solvyns and Jan Brandes, who worked in two different cities - Calcutta and Batavia - in the...Show moreThis thesis is a comparative study of the works of two artists from the Low Countries, Frans Balthazar Solvyns and Jan Brandes, who worked in two different cities - Calcutta and Batavia - in the late 18th century. In doing so, it identifies connections between the art produced and the existing discourses of ethnography, natural science and art. The thesis uses insights from these discourses to understand knowledge production in the period and the role played by art in this process. The cultural context of this art production is also explored through an examination of publications of the Asiatic Society and the Bataviaasch Genootschap - “learned societies” that were founded in the late 18th century in the two colonial cities. Thus, the thesis attempts: a) to describe the knowledge production activities of the late-18th century in the colonies, with art as the focus and point of departure, and b) to thereby analyse and understand the period in terms of the transition from rariteitenkabinets of the post-Renaissance period to the state sponsored knowledge creation of the 19th century. In doing so, the thesis addresses the links between knowledge and power and analyses essentialism as an effect of the application of scientific thought and illustration to ethnography.Show less
This Master thesis on archaeology and cultural heritage management of the Caribbean and Amazonia was written at the University of Leiden, Faculty of Archaeology. The special emphasis in this...Show moreThis Master thesis on archaeology and cultural heritage management of the Caribbean and Amazonia was written at the University of Leiden, Faculty of Archaeology. The special emphasis in this research is on finding out which role the Amerindian past and archaeology play in a Surinamese image of the past. The research design in the first place needed to reveal the past perception of individual people with a Surinamese Caribbean background. The interviewees who participated in this research however were Surinamese migrants who are living since many years in the Netherlands. The approach taken to reveal the past emphasis of individuals from the Surinamese community was through holding semi structured open interviews. The Surinamese community in the context of this research consists of groups of people that share their experience and memory on Suriname within communication, both in the Netherlands and their mother-country. It is within this community that an image of the Surinamese past is being constructed. A key note to the research is that the past is a present construct. From this point of departure multiple pasts do exist. People in their own diversity, within different environments, have to deal with personal socio-cultural realities. This implicates that a meaningful past for Surinamese people needs to be constructed from their individual and community perspectives. This research applied insights from memory theory, archaeological theory, heritage theory and a more anthropological example to show that such a construct asks for people’s balanced historical involvement and community concern. Community concern demands reciprocal involvement that should accomplish mutual understanding. The goal of this thesis is to show that archaeology can be a tool in accomplishing shared understanding and concern from doing research after past happenings and cultural environments. The thesis further advocates engaged archaeology as a tool to create shared understanding. Engaged archaeology does not only imply that an archaeologist should listen to society and people’s concern in order to find topics for research. It even more asks for stimulating participation of people in past interrogation and creating an open critical attitude towards personal perceptions and those of others. The role of the archaeologist in this process of past communication is one of being an example to people with respect to care about archaeological heritage and involvement in both the past and people’s present environment. As an archaeological professional, who executes a profession that primarily is concerned with people, the archaeologist’s task is to facilitate involvement and provide society with critical questions on people’s past supposition. The practice of archaeology in itself needs to be a research environment where people communicate their understandings and from this realize a more inclusive community of involved people that show interest in their surroundings and each other. There can be worked towards a more stable future from contemporary knowledge or understanding about the past. Besides the interview technique, in order to find out more on people’s past concern this research aimed for application of methods from the social sciences. These were methods like discourse analysis and grounded theory. From the interrogation a better understanding of contemporary Surinamese community was accomplished. It made clear that Amerindians in Suriname in general were perceived as being unchanged. From a Western colonial perspective they did not bring about much development and their culture was regarded primitive. Their political, economic and cultural significance was neglected within the culturally diverse and divided Surinamese colonial community. From contemporary and continuous political and societal shifts reorientation on those people who are indigenous to Suriname as well as on other groups in society however is needed in order to create communality. The recommendation to Surinamese society is that ongoing conceptualization on the past and people in society, is necessary in order to accomplish a stable community.Show less
The Japanese colonial scholar Yanaihara Tadao (1893-1961) has long been considered a liberal scholar who, despite wartime Japan's totalitarian regime and contrary to popular opinion, heroically...Show moreThe Japanese colonial scholar Yanaihara Tadao (1893-1961) has long been considered a liberal scholar who, despite wartime Japan's totalitarian regime and contrary to popular opinion, heroically defended the rights of the colonised. Nevertheless, much of what he wrote was based on imperialist assumptions of backward, undeveloped, barbaric 'natives' and the idea that colonialism as a system of global politics is fundamentally just and even desirable. In this thesis, I trace the origins of the positive image of Yanaihara “the liberal thinker”, and contrast this image with a reading of Yanaihara as an “imperialist.” In doing so, I show that for a good understanding of the nature of Yanaihara's thought, it is crucial to be aware of both these sides to his work. To illustrate the relevance of this awareness, I also discuss the findings of two recent publications concerning Yanaihara that fruitfully abandon the unequivocally good opinion earlier scholarship had formed of him.Show less
Research master thesis | History: Societies and Institutions (research) (MA)
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This thesis is about two scientific expeditions to Dutch New Guinea.The first to the Wisselmeren (1939)just before the Second World War, the second to the Sterrengebergte (1959) a few years before...Show moreThis thesis is about two scientific expeditions to Dutch New Guinea.The first to the Wisselmeren (1939)just before the Second World War, the second to the Sterrengebergte (1959) a few years before the transfer of Dutch New Guinea to Indonesia. These expeditions were organized by the Dutch Royal Geographic Society (Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap or KNAG). Many disciplines were involved: zoology, botany, geology, anthropology and many more specialisations. This research looks specifically at the interaction between the colonial state and the scientific expedition and the knowledge resulting from this relationship. Therefore it focuses on colonial anthropology and the changing notions of race and the 'other'.Show less
Research master thesis | History: Societies and Institutions (research) (MA)
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In this thesis I have attempted to determine to what degree the colonial discourse(the publicly expressed world view and moral codes of the ruling colonial elites)in the Netherlands-Indies...Show moreIn this thesis I have attempted to determine to what degree the colonial discourse(the publicly expressed world view and moral codes of the ruling colonial elites)in the Netherlands-Indies conflicted with the phenomenon of colonial hybridity. I have distilled the colonial discourse from the writings of multiple researchers and confronted this with everyday reality. I have gained my data about everyday in the Netherlands-Indies from the biographical interviews contained in the SMGI collection at the KITLV institute and from a pair of Indies writers. What I have found during my research was that everyday reality was far more hybrid and that people would associate and mix with other ethnic groups far more than the colonial discourse as spread by the colonial elites would suggest. The thesis itself is in Dutch.Show less
