31.12.2014
26.12.2014
20.12.2014
The Allure of Ugliness Is the unattractive female character ascending?
By Will Boast
Literature—unlike TV and film, essentially free of visual images—should offer a forum in which we can examine the lives of women without immediate appraisals of appearance. Yet the women who appear in our fiction are also unrealistically, disproportionately beautiful. From Pamela to Emma, Daisy Miller to Daisy Buchanan—the likes of poor Jane Eyre are wildly outnumbered. As Adelle Waldman has argued on the New Yorker’s Page Turner blog, our most perceptive, fair-minded novelists recognize beauty as construct and contrivance, “a subject with profound repercussions for both men and women,” but most writers still casually create female characters who are near-perfect specimens anyway. Lionel Shriver, writing in New York magazine, talks about the temptation fiction writers face to “describe primary characters (especially women) as physically striking—on the assumption that […] being eye-catching will make them more likable.” In genre fiction, market pressures can be explicit. The fantasy writer Erika Johansen says that, while her novel The Tearling was in submission, several editors asked if she might revise her ordinary-looking heroine to “make her pretty.” More than 150 years after Brontë, sympathy for a female character is still yoked to physical beauty.
A critical study of literary and popular fiction, however, argues that the less-than-beautiful heroine has lately been ascendant. In Plain & Ugly Janes: The Rise of the Ugly Woman in Contemporary American Fiction, editor and scholar Charlotte M. Wright plucks out a “thin but discernible thread of plain, at times even homely, heroines” and traces it to contemporary works by Alison Lurie, Russell Banks, Lorie Moore, Katherine Dunn, and others. The less-than-beautiful woman has been allowed to step out of her supporting roles as spinster and old maid and into stories of her own, Wright argues. For Wright, this movement represents a critique of our beauty-mad culture—one made most sharply when writers create female characters who aren’t just plain but explicitly ugly.
One such writer—not included in Wright’s survey but in many ways an exemplar of her argument—is the Swiss-German novelist, Peter Stamm, who with his recently published seventh work of fiction, All Days Are Night, has now produced two novels in a row centered on the complex, often subversive figure that is the ugly woman. Stamm is well established in Europe, where his methodical storytelling and precise, ultra-spare prose have garnered him several important literary prizes. He finally gained wider recognition in the U.S. with his last novel, Seven Years (2010). Its narrator, Alex, a handsome student of architecture, begins dating his colleague Sonia. She is intelligent, cultured, and so stunning that when she walks into a café, “the whole place turned to stare.” Simultaneously, Alex begins an affair with Ivona, an illegal Polish immigrant and Sonia’s opposite in nearly every way. Alex and Sonia marry and start an architectural firm together. But Sonia is sexually reserved—“like one of those dolls whose clothes are sewn onto their bodies”—and Alex can’t keep himself from continuing to visit Ivona.
Literature—unlike TV and film, essentially free of visual images—should offer a forum in which we can examine the lives of women without immediate appraisals of appearance. Yet the women who appear in our fiction are also unrealistically, disproportionately beautiful. From Pamela to Emma, Daisy Miller to Daisy Buchanan—the likes of poor Jane Eyre are wildly outnumbered. As Adelle Waldman has argued on the New Yorker’s Page Turner blog, our most perceptive, fair-minded novelists recognize beauty as construct and contrivance, “a subject with profound repercussions for both men and women,” but most writers still casually create female characters who are near-perfect specimens anyway. Lionel Shriver, writing in New York magazine, talks about the temptation fiction writers face to “describe primary characters (especially women) as physically striking—on the assumption that […] being eye-catching will make them more likable.” In genre fiction, market pressures can be explicit. The fantasy writer Erika Johansen says that, while her novel The Tearling was in submission, several editors asked if she might revise her ordinary-looking heroine to “make her pretty.” More than 150 years after Brontë, sympathy for a female character is still yoked to physical beauty.
A critical study of literary and popular fiction, however, argues that the less-than-beautiful heroine has lately been ascendant. In Plain & Ugly Janes: The Rise of the Ugly Woman in Contemporary American Fiction, editor and scholar Charlotte M. Wright plucks out a “thin but discernible thread of plain, at times even homely, heroines” and traces it to contemporary works by Alison Lurie, Russell Banks, Lorie Moore, Katherine Dunn, and others. The less-than-beautiful woman has been allowed to step out of her supporting roles as spinster and old maid and into stories of her own, Wright argues. For Wright, this movement represents a critique of our beauty-mad culture—one made most sharply when writers create female characters who aren’t just plain but explicitly ugly.
One such writer—not included in Wright’s survey but in many ways an exemplar of her argument—is the Swiss-German novelist, Peter Stamm, who with his recently published seventh work of fiction, All Days Are Night, has now produced two novels in a row centered on the complex, often subversive figure that is the ugly woman. Stamm is well established in Europe, where his methodical storytelling and precise, ultra-spare prose have garnered him several important literary prizes. He finally gained wider recognition in the U.S. with his last novel, Seven Years (2010). Its narrator, Alex, a handsome student of architecture, begins dating his colleague Sonia. She is intelligent, cultured, and so stunning that when she walks into a café, “the whole place turned to stare.” Simultaneously, Alex begins an affair with Ivona, an illegal Polish immigrant and Sonia’s opposite in nearly every way. Alex and Sonia marry and start an architectural firm together. But Sonia is sexually reserved—“like one of those dolls whose clothes are sewn onto their bodies”—and Alex can’t keep himself from continuing to visit Ivona.
19.12.2014
12.12.2014
De Federatieve Textiel Grossiers' Beurs in de RAI Tropenmuseum, Fotobureau
Op deze foto is de Federatieve Textiel Grossiers' Beurs te zien, die in januari 1955 gehouden werd in de RAI. Bezoekers van de RAI kregen onder meer een glimp te zien van de tentoonstelling "Kleur op Doek", die van 1 december 1954 t/m 20 februari 1955 te zien was in het Tropenmuseum. Ook werden door het KIT demonstraties gegeven van het vervaardigen, het versieren en het dragen van weefsels in tropische landen. Links is een pop voorstellende een geisha met een Japanse kimono te zien, daarachter een pop voorstellende een Creoolse vrouw uit Suriname, gekleed als kotomisi.
05.12.2014
01.12.2014
30.11.2014
gumbo
Initially, I focus on how the film* engages performativity, focusing as it does on
problematizing notions of essential blackness. One of the ways in which the film
engages this critique is by pointing out how, at the very least, gender, class, sexuality
and region all impact the construction of blackness. Indeed, the title of the film
points to the ways in which race defines, as well as confines, African Americans. The
recurrent trope used by Riggs to illuminate the multiplicity of blackness is gumbo, a
dish that consists of whatever the cook wishes. It has, Riggs remarks, ‘‘everything
you can imagine in it.’’ This trope also underscores the multiplicity of blackness
insofar as gumbo is a dish associated with New Orleans, a city confounded by its
mixed race progeny and the identity politics that mixing creates. The gumbo trope is
apropos because, like ‘‘blackness,’’ gumbo is a site of possibilities. The film argues
that when African Americans attempt to define what it means to be black, they
delimit the possibilities of what blackness can be. But Riggs’ film does more than just
stir things up. In many ways it reduces the heat of the pot, allowing everything in the
gumbo to mix and mesh, yet maintain its own distinct flavor. Chicken is distinct
from andouille, rice from peas, bay leaves from thyme, cayenne from paprika. Thus,
Riggs’ film suggests that African Americans cannot begin to ask dominant culture to
accept their difference as ‘‘others’’ until African Americans accept the differences
that exist among themselves.
...
Ultimately, Black Is . . . Black Ain’t performs what its title announces: the simultaneity
of bodily presence and absence, being and becoming. Although Riggs offers his
own gumbo recipe that stands in for blackness, he does so only to demonstrate that,
like blackness, the recipe can be altered, expanded, reduced, watered down. At the
same time, Riggs also asks that we not forget that the gumbo (blackness) is contained
within a sturdy pot (the body) that has weathered abuse, that has been scorched,
scoured, and scraped, a pot/body that is in the process of becoming but nonetheless
is.
Unlike queer theory, quare theory fixes our attention on the discursive constitution
of the recipe even as it celebrates the improvisational aspects of the gumbo and
the materiality of the pot. While queer theory has opened up new possibilities for
theorizing gender and sexuality, like a pot of gumbo cooked too quickly, it has failed
to live up to its full critical potential by refusing to accommodate all the queer
ingredients contained inside its theoretical pot. Quare theory, on the other hand,
promises to reduce the spillage, allowing the various and multiple flavors to
co-exist—those different flavors that make it spicy, hot, unique and sumptuously
brown.
* marlon riggs, black is ... black ain't, usa 1995
aus: Patrick Johnson. "Quare" studies, or (almost) everything I know about
queer studies I learned from my grandmother
Gumbo
Shrimp-Gumbo mit Reis
Gumbo ist ein würziges, mit dunkler Mehlschwitze (Roux) angedicktes Eintopfgericht der US-amerikanischen Südstaatenküche.
Herkunft
Der Begriff gumbo ist wahrscheinlich abgeleitet von dem angolanischen Wort kingombo für Okra, häufig eine Zutat des Gerichts. In der Literatur wird oft angeführt, bei Gumbo handele es sich um eine Variante der Bouillabaisse, aber diese Theorie wird von mehreren Autoren bezweifelt. Wesentliche Unterschiede bestehen darin, dass die französische Fischsuppe nur kurz gekocht wird, während Gumbo lange Zeit köcheln muss und eine gebundene Suppe ist. Außerdem enthält eine Bouillabaisse ausschließlich Fisch und Meeresfrüchte, nie zusätzlich Fleisch. Alte Kochbücher aus New Orleans unterscheiden klar zwischen Gumbo und Bouillabaisse. Anzunehmen ist dagegen ein Einfluss durch Rezepte der Choctaws, die ebenfalls Meeresfrüchte verwendeten. Die Zubereitung erinnert außerdem an afrikanische Suppen, die Okra enthalten.
Gumbo ist in der gesamten Südstaatenküche zu finden, ist jedoch typisch für die kreolische und die Cajun-Küche.
Zutaten
Gumbo wird häufig mit Meeresfrüchten (oft Krabben oder Shrimps aus dem Golf von Mexiko) oder Geflügel (Ente, Huhn, Wachteln), geräucherten Würsten wie der Andouille und Tasso, eine Art Schinken, aber auch mit anderem, gerade verfügbaren Fleisch und der „Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit“ (Holy Trinity) der Cajun-Küche (Staudensellerie, milde grüne Gemüsepaprika und Zwiebeln) zubereitet.
Als Grundlage wird eine braune Roux (Mehlschwitze) zur Bindung verwendet, sie gibt dem Gumbo auch den typischen nussigen Geschmack. Sie ist in kreolischen Gumbos, die zusätzlich auch Tomaten enthalten können, eher hellbraun, während die Cajun-Variante mit einer dunkelbraunen Roux hergestellt wird.
Klassisch verwendet man zur weiteren Bindung des Gumbos entweder Okraschoten (meist im Meeresfrüchte-Gumbo) oder Filé-Pulver (gemahlene Blätter des Sassafrasbaums), das ursprünglich als Ersatz benutzt wurde, wenn keine Okraschoten verfügbar waren. Gumbo wird relativ stark gewürzt und mit frisch gekochtem Reis serviert.
problematizing notions of essential blackness. One of the ways in which the film
engages this critique is by pointing out how, at the very least, gender, class, sexuality
and region all impact the construction of blackness. Indeed, the title of the film
points to the ways in which race defines, as well as confines, African Americans. The
recurrent trope used by Riggs to illuminate the multiplicity of blackness is gumbo, a
dish that consists of whatever the cook wishes. It has, Riggs remarks, ‘‘everything
you can imagine in it.’’ This trope also underscores the multiplicity of blackness
insofar as gumbo is a dish associated with New Orleans, a city confounded by its
mixed race progeny and the identity politics that mixing creates. The gumbo trope is
apropos because, like ‘‘blackness,’’ gumbo is a site of possibilities. The film argues
that when African Americans attempt to define what it means to be black, they
delimit the possibilities of what blackness can be. But Riggs’ film does more than just
stir things up. In many ways it reduces the heat of the pot, allowing everything in the
gumbo to mix and mesh, yet maintain its own distinct flavor. Chicken is distinct
from andouille, rice from peas, bay leaves from thyme, cayenne from paprika. Thus,
Riggs’ film suggests that African Americans cannot begin to ask dominant culture to
accept their difference as ‘‘others’’ until African Americans accept the differences
that exist among themselves.
...
Ultimately, Black Is . . . Black Ain’t performs what its title announces: the simultaneity
of bodily presence and absence, being and becoming. Although Riggs offers his
own gumbo recipe that stands in for blackness, he does so only to demonstrate that,
like blackness, the recipe can be altered, expanded, reduced, watered down. At the
same time, Riggs also asks that we not forget that the gumbo (blackness) is contained
within a sturdy pot (the body) that has weathered abuse, that has been scorched,
scoured, and scraped, a pot/body that is in the process of becoming but nonetheless
is.
Unlike queer theory, quare theory fixes our attention on the discursive constitution
of the recipe even as it celebrates the improvisational aspects of the gumbo and
the materiality of the pot. While queer theory has opened up new possibilities for
theorizing gender and sexuality, like a pot of gumbo cooked too quickly, it has failed
to live up to its full critical potential by refusing to accommodate all the queer
ingredients contained inside its theoretical pot. Quare theory, on the other hand,
promises to reduce the spillage, allowing the various and multiple flavors to
co-exist—those different flavors that make it spicy, hot, unique and sumptuously
brown.
* marlon riggs, black is ... black ain't, usa 1995
aus: Patrick Johnson. "Quare" studies, or (almost) everything I know about
queer studies I learned from my grandmother
Gumbo
Shrimp-Gumbo mit Reis
Gumbo ist ein würziges, mit dunkler Mehlschwitze (Roux) angedicktes Eintopfgericht der US-amerikanischen Südstaatenküche.
Herkunft
Der Begriff gumbo ist wahrscheinlich abgeleitet von dem angolanischen Wort kingombo für Okra, häufig eine Zutat des Gerichts. In der Literatur wird oft angeführt, bei Gumbo handele es sich um eine Variante der Bouillabaisse, aber diese Theorie wird von mehreren Autoren bezweifelt. Wesentliche Unterschiede bestehen darin, dass die französische Fischsuppe nur kurz gekocht wird, während Gumbo lange Zeit köcheln muss und eine gebundene Suppe ist. Außerdem enthält eine Bouillabaisse ausschließlich Fisch und Meeresfrüchte, nie zusätzlich Fleisch. Alte Kochbücher aus New Orleans unterscheiden klar zwischen Gumbo und Bouillabaisse. Anzunehmen ist dagegen ein Einfluss durch Rezepte der Choctaws, die ebenfalls Meeresfrüchte verwendeten. Die Zubereitung erinnert außerdem an afrikanische Suppen, die Okra enthalten.
Gumbo ist in der gesamten Südstaatenküche zu finden, ist jedoch typisch für die kreolische und die Cajun-Küche.
Zutaten
Gumbo wird häufig mit Meeresfrüchten (oft Krabben oder Shrimps aus dem Golf von Mexiko) oder Geflügel (Ente, Huhn, Wachteln), geräucherten Würsten wie der Andouille und Tasso, eine Art Schinken, aber auch mit anderem, gerade verfügbaren Fleisch und der „Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit“ (Holy Trinity) der Cajun-Küche (Staudensellerie, milde grüne Gemüsepaprika und Zwiebeln) zubereitet.
Als Grundlage wird eine braune Roux (Mehlschwitze) zur Bindung verwendet, sie gibt dem Gumbo auch den typischen nussigen Geschmack. Sie ist in kreolischen Gumbos, die zusätzlich auch Tomaten enthalten können, eher hellbraun, während die Cajun-Variante mit einer dunkelbraunen Roux hergestellt wird.
Klassisch verwendet man zur weiteren Bindung des Gumbos entweder Okraschoten (meist im Meeresfrüchte-Gumbo) oder Filé-Pulver (gemahlene Blätter des Sassafrasbaums), das ursprünglich als Ersatz benutzt wurde, wenn keine Okraschoten verfügbar waren. Gumbo wird relativ stark gewürzt und mit frisch gekochtem Reis serviert.
28.11.2014
GITTE VILLESEN: Even now to explain everything would be difficult
GITTE VILLESEN:
Even now to explain everything would be difficult
23.11.2014
Spectacular Rhetorics
Spectacular Rhetorics is a rigorous analysis of the rhetorical frameworks and narratives that underlie human rights law, shape the process of cultural and legal recognition, and delimit public responses to violence and injustice. Integrating visual and textual criticism, Wendy S. Hesford scrutinizes “spectacular rhetoric,” the use of visual images and rhetoric to construct certain bodies, populations, and nations as victims and incorporate them into human rights discourses geared toward Westerners, chiefly Americans. Hesford presents a series of case studies critiquing the visual representations of human suffering in documentary films, photography, and theater. In each study, she analyzes works addressing a prominent contemporary human rights cause, such as torture and unlawful detention, ethnic genocide and rape as a means of warfare, migration and the trafficking of women and children, the global sex trade, and child labor. Through these studies, she demonstrates how spectacular rhetoric activates certain cultural and national narratives and social and political relations, consolidates identities through the politics of recognition, and configures material relations of power and difference to produce and, ultimately, to govern human rights subjects.
About The Author(s)
Wendy S. Hesford is Professor of English at the Ohio State University. She is the author of Framing Identities: Autobiography and the Politics of Pedagogy, a co-author of Rhetorical Visions: Writing and Reading in a Visual Culture, and a co-editor of Just Advocacy? Women’s Human Rights, Transnational Feminisms, and the Politics of Representation and Haunting Violations: Feminist Criticism and the Crisis of the “Real.”
11.10.2014
View of slavery Atlanto-centric? Report of symposium Slavery in the Dutch empire
View of slavery Atlanto-centric? Report of symposium Slavery in the Dutch empire
In the Netherlands slavery is usually associated with Atlantic slavery. The current view of slavery might even be called 'Atlanto-centric'.
Wrongly so, was the opinion of the three young researchers who spoke at this symposium organized on September 25 by IISH-KNAW. Figures presented by IISH researcher Matthias van Rossum - some of which were previously unpublished - showed for example, that slavery in the Dutch empire in the East was on a similar scale as in the West.
In the seventeenth century the slave trade in the VOC areas was even more extensive than that under Dutch control in the West. This ratio was not reversed until the second half of the eighteenth century.
Slavery on a large scale
For Ulbe Bosma, senior researcher of the Institute and professor at the VU, slavery was not a new phenomenon in the East, but he stressed the importance of global comparative research. He introduced the symposium based on Bruno Laskers book Human Bondage in Southeast Asia, which already made a case for a comparative and long-term perspective on the development of various forms of forced labour in 1951.
The presentations of both Matthias van Rossum and Kate Ekama (PhD candidate at the University of Leiden) showed clearly that - at least where it concerned slavery - it was not a 'mild native' version, but slavery on a large scale in many sectors of the economy. Besides, slaves were also traded and owned by VOC employees in significant numbers.
The presentations were based on 'fresh' research and were full of new insights into the diversity of slavery in the Dutch Empire. Kate Ekama, for instance, discussed the cultural interaction, origin, position and opportunities of slaves in Colombo, Ceylon on the basis of a lawsuit.
Iberian slavery
Leiden researcher Karwan Fatah Black - who represented the West during this evening - highlighted slavery in the city of Paramaribo. He described this urban slavery as a form of labour integrated in the household, where the private and commercial deployment of slaves were intertwined. This form existed throughout the Dutch Empire, and before that already in the Portuguese sphere of influence. Fatah-Black even went as far as stating that research into the history of Iberian slavery is of great importance to obtain insight into the roots of Dutch slavery.
This 'knowledge under development' took its toll on the room, which consisted largely of an audience with a broad range of interests. The existing view of Dutch slavery that many had was turned a little on its head by what was presented here.
Adjust the old view?
The definition of slavery remained a recurring theme throughout the evening (distinguishing characteristics that came up were among others: sellable property, traded and shipped over long distances, the legal position (as a witness or victim of crime) etc,). Several questions from the audience were about this and gave the impression that people were looking for similarities and differences with the standardized view of slavery as known on the plantations in the West. The latter was further underlined by KITLV director Gert Oostindie, in the final conclusion.
That this search was not ready yet at the end of the evening, is quite understandable. The presentations lead, after all, to the updating of an old existing view and more new questions ... and more research.
Tamira Combrink
-------
Minisymposium: Slavernij in het Nederlandse imperium
Datum: 25 september 2014
Locatie: Trippenhuis, Kloveniersburgwal, Amsterdam
Twee slavingen. Collectie KITLVHet debat over het slavernijverleden beperkt zich in Nederland meestal tot de Atlantische slavenhandel. Minder bekend is dat in de vroegmoderne tijd (1600-1800) ook in Azië grote aantallen slaven verhandeld werden. Nederlanders in dienst van de Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie vervulden hierin zelfs een grote rol. Hoewel gekenmerkt door complexere handelsstromen, deden de omvang van het slavenbezit en de slavenhandel in Azië niet onder voor die in de Nederlandse Atlantische invloedssfeer.
In deze bijeenkomst - organiastie IISG en KNAW - worden de vormen van slavernij in het vroegmoderne Nederlandse imperium onder de loep genomen. Dit gebeurt aan de hand van voorbeelden uit verschillende gebieden (Paramaribo, Colombo en Batavia). Wat voor werk deden de slaven? Waar en hoe werden zij verhandeld? En hoe werkte de slavernij in de verschillende gebieden in latere eeuwen door?
Programma
18.00 uur
Inleiding Ulbe Bosma (IISG/KNAW)
Kate Ekama (Universiteit Leiden)
Casus: Slavernij in Colombo
Karwan Fatah- Black (Universiteit Leiden)
Casus : Slavernij in Paramaribo
Matthias van Rossum (IISG/KNAW)
Casus: Slavernij in Batavia
Synthese Gert Oostindie (KITLV/KNAW)
Moderator: Aukje Lettinga (IISG/KNAW)
20.00 uur Borrel
http://socialhistory.org/en/news/view-slavery-atlanto-centric-report-symposium-slavery-dutch-empire
In the Netherlands slavery is usually associated with Atlantic slavery. The current view of slavery might even be called 'Atlanto-centric'.
Wrongly so, was the opinion of the three young researchers who spoke at this symposium organized on September 25 by IISH-KNAW. Figures presented by IISH researcher Matthias van Rossum - some of which were previously unpublished - showed for example, that slavery in the Dutch empire in the East was on a similar scale as in the West.
In the seventeenth century the slave trade in the VOC areas was even more extensive than that under Dutch control in the West. This ratio was not reversed until the second half of the eighteenth century.
Slavery on a large scale
For Ulbe Bosma, senior researcher of the Institute and professor at the VU, slavery was not a new phenomenon in the East, but he stressed the importance of global comparative research. He introduced the symposium based on Bruno Laskers book Human Bondage in Southeast Asia, which already made a case for a comparative and long-term perspective on the development of various forms of forced labour in 1951.
The presentations of both Matthias van Rossum and Kate Ekama (PhD candidate at the University of Leiden) showed clearly that - at least where it concerned slavery - it was not a 'mild native' version, but slavery on a large scale in many sectors of the economy. Besides, slaves were also traded and owned by VOC employees in significant numbers.
The presentations were based on 'fresh' research and were full of new insights into the diversity of slavery in the Dutch Empire. Kate Ekama, for instance, discussed the cultural interaction, origin, position and opportunities of slaves in Colombo, Ceylon on the basis of a lawsuit.
Iberian slavery
Leiden researcher Karwan Fatah Black - who represented the West during this evening - highlighted slavery in the city of Paramaribo. He described this urban slavery as a form of labour integrated in the household, where the private and commercial deployment of slaves were intertwined. This form existed throughout the Dutch Empire, and before that already in the Portuguese sphere of influence. Fatah-Black even went as far as stating that research into the history of Iberian slavery is of great importance to obtain insight into the roots of Dutch slavery.
This 'knowledge under development' took its toll on the room, which consisted largely of an audience with a broad range of interests. The existing view of Dutch slavery that many had was turned a little on its head by what was presented here.
Adjust the old view?
The definition of slavery remained a recurring theme throughout the evening (distinguishing characteristics that came up were among others: sellable property, traded and shipped over long distances, the legal position (as a witness or victim of crime) etc,). Several questions from the audience were about this and gave the impression that people were looking for similarities and differences with the standardized view of slavery as known on the plantations in the West. The latter was further underlined by KITLV director Gert Oostindie, in the final conclusion.
That this search was not ready yet at the end of the evening, is quite understandable. The presentations lead, after all, to the updating of an old existing view and more new questions ... and more research.
Tamira Combrink
-------
Minisymposium: Slavernij in het Nederlandse imperium
Datum: 25 september 2014
Locatie: Trippenhuis, Kloveniersburgwal, Amsterdam
Twee slavingen. Collectie KITLVHet debat over het slavernijverleden beperkt zich in Nederland meestal tot de Atlantische slavenhandel. Minder bekend is dat in de vroegmoderne tijd (1600-1800) ook in Azië grote aantallen slaven verhandeld werden. Nederlanders in dienst van de Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie vervulden hierin zelfs een grote rol. Hoewel gekenmerkt door complexere handelsstromen, deden de omvang van het slavenbezit en de slavenhandel in Azië niet onder voor die in de Nederlandse Atlantische invloedssfeer.
In deze bijeenkomst - organiastie IISG en KNAW - worden de vormen van slavernij in het vroegmoderne Nederlandse imperium onder de loep genomen. Dit gebeurt aan de hand van voorbeelden uit verschillende gebieden (Paramaribo, Colombo en Batavia). Wat voor werk deden de slaven? Waar en hoe werden zij verhandeld? En hoe werkte de slavernij in de verschillende gebieden in latere eeuwen door?
Programma
18.00 uur
Inleiding Ulbe Bosma (IISG/KNAW)
Kate Ekama (Universiteit Leiden)
Casus: Slavernij in Colombo
Karwan Fatah- Black (Universiteit Leiden)
Casus : Slavernij in Paramaribo
Matthias van Rossum (IISG/KNAW)
Casus: Slavernij in Batavia
Synthese Gert Oostindie (KITLV/KNAW)
Moderator: Aukje Lettinga (IISG/KNAW)
20.00 uur Borrel
http://socialhistory.org/en/news/view-slavery-atlanto-centric-report-symposium-slavery-dutch-empire
11.09.2014
SOULEIADO
DIE WIEGE DES SOULEIADO
Achtzehn Kilometer südlich von Avignon liegen sich - nur durch die breite Rhone getrennt - die beiden historischen Städtchen Beaucaire und Tarascon gegenüber.
Hier steht ein elegantes Haus aus dem 17. Jahrhundert als Gedenkstätte zu Ehren desjenigen, dem es fast im Alleingang gelang, ein aussterbendes Handwerk nicht nur am Leben zu erhalten, sondern darüber hinaus in ein florierendes Gewerbe zu verwandeln.
Im 17. Jahrhundert brachten levantinische Kaufleute die farbenfrohen, handbedruckten indischen Stoffe in die Provence, die sich unter dem Namen Indiennes bald so großer Beliebtheit erfreuten, dass man begann, sie auch vor Ort herzustellen, insbesondere in Tarascon.
Der Absatz bei den französischen Seiden- und Wollstoffen ging daraufhin derartig zurück, dass die neuen Stoffe von Ludwig XIV verboten wurden, was jedoch die Nachfrage nur noch mehr anheizte.
Als Charles Demery 1933 die letzte Textilfabrik Tarascons von seinem Onkel übernahm, wurden dort nur noch Tücher für die auf den Feldern arbeitenden Frauen hergestellt.
Basler Handelsgesellschaft
Führende schweiz. Handelsgesellschaft, gegr. 1859 als Missions-Handlungs-Gesellschaft, seit 1928 B. Bis 1917 lag die Geschäftsleitung bei der Basler Mission. Kapitalgeber sind wenige Basler Familien. Die B. belieferte Missionsstationen an der Goldküste (heute Ghana) und in Südindien mit europ. Waren und betrieb Grosshandel mit Palmöl, Kakao und Baumwolle. Ab 1882 dienten Webereien und Ziegeleien in Südindien als Arbeitsplätze sowie als Stätten der Erziehung für Bekehrte. 1916 beschäftigte die B. weltweit 6'500 Personen. 1916-19 enteignete Grossbritannien nach und nach den als feindlich eingestuften Besitz der B. in Afrika und Indien. Die Rückgabe erfolgte 1928 (Goldküste) bzw. 1952 (Indien). 1921 gründete der Präs. der B., Wilhelm Preiswerk, die Union Trading Company International (UTC) als Betriebsgesellschaft für die Goldküste. 1928 löste sich die B. von der Basler Mission und wandelte sich in eine Holding-Gesellschaft um. Handel und Produktion wurden danach durch die UTC als Tochtergesellschaft der B. ausgeübt. Gemäss der statutar. Verpflichtung ging stets ein Teil des Gewinns an christl. Werke. In den 1960er Jahren erzielte die B. mit ca. 6'000 Beschäftigten Umsätze von ca. 1 Mrd. Fr. Die UTC war bis in die 1970er Jahre v.a. in Nigeria und Ghana (Betrieb von Farmen, Ausbildungszentren und Warenhäusern, Verkauf von Autos und Landwirtschaftsmaschinen, Export von Kakao) sowie in Deutschland und der Schweiz (Textilproduktion) tätig. Polit. Veränderungen um 1960 (Dekolonisierung) und die Abwertung afrikan. Währungen Ende der 1980er Jahre zwangen zur örtl. Diversifikation. 1995 umfasste die weltweite Tätigkeit der UTC International AG den Handel und die Produktion von Konsumgütern auf allen Kontinenten. 1977-96 war sie zudem Mehrheitsaktionärin von Jelmoli. Die Muttergesellschaft B. AG zählte 1990 ca. 8'000 Beschäftigte und wies einen Umsatz von ca. 2,8 Mrd. Fr. aus. 1997 fusionierte die UTC International AG mit der B. AG. Diese war 1998 in Umwandlung in eine Finanz-Holding ohne operative Tätigkeit begriffen.
Archive
– SWA, Dossiers B. und UTC
Literatur
– G.A. Wanner, Die Basler Handels-Gesellschaft AG, 1859-1959, 1959
– R. Fischer, Die Basler Missionsindustrie in Indien 1850-1913, 1978
Autorin/Autor: Niklaus Stettler
Archive
– SWA, Dossiers B. und UTC
Literatur
– G.A. Wanner, Die Basler Handels-Gesellschaft AG, 1859-1959, 1959
– R. Fischer, Die Basler Missionsindustrie in Indien 1850-1913, 1978
Autorin/Autor: Niklaus Stettler
Textilwaren-Katalog der Basler Missions-Handlungs-Gesellschaft
Die kulturelle Prägung der Stickerinnen und Sticker und der Ort der Herstellung schlugen sich nicht nieder; man konnte die in Indien gefertigte Ware kaum von europäischer unterscheiden.
Gegründet 1859 ursprünglich zur Versorgung der Missionsstationen mit europäischen Waren für den Lebensunterhalt, entwickelte sich die Missions-Handlungs-Gesellschaft immer mehr zum Arbeitgeber für Missionierte, sei es, weil sie in ihrem angestammten Umfeld wegen ihrer Hinwendung zum Christentum keine Arbeit mehr fanden oder weil sie von den Einflüssen ihrer ursprünglichen Kultur ferngehalten werden sollten. Neben dem Handel mit «Kolonialwaren» (Kakao, Palmöl) boten vor allem Ziegeleien und textilverarbeitende Betriebe Arbeitsplätze für die Bekehrten. Im Laufe der Zeit jedoch gewannen merkantile Interessen immer stärker die Oberhand, und die Missionsgebiete selbst wurden als Abnehmer von Schweizer Produkten zunehmend wichtiger. Bedruckte Baumwollstoffe in vermeintlich typisch afrikanischen Mustern und Farben wurden in Glarus für den afrikanischen Markt gefertigt.
Die Basler Mission zog sich nach und nach von der Missions-Handlungs-Gesellschaft zurück: 1917 gab sie die Geschäftsleitung ab, 1928 löste sich die Gesellschaft von der Basler Mission und wurde in «Basler Handelsgesellschaft » umbenannt. Ein Teil des Gewinns war nach wie vor für christliche Aufgaben bestimmt, aber die starke Verflechtung mit der Basler Mission hatte ein Ende gefunden.
Musterbuch mit Stoffmustern («waxprints») der Fa. Hohlenstein
 |
| http://www.hmb.ch/de/sammlung/textilkunst/201322-musterbuch-mit-stoffmustern-waxprints-der-fa-hohlenstein.html |
Afrikanische Frauen mit langen, reich drapierten Kleidern aus farbenfrohen und stark gemusterten Stoffen bekleidet, wie man sie auch in Basel bei (allzu) seltenen Gelegenheiten sieht - das erscheint oberflächlich wie der Inbegriff authentischer, ungebrochener afrikanischer Kleidungstradition. Doch die meisten dieser prachtvollen Stoffe werden nicht in Afrika, sondern in Europa für den afrikanischen Markt hergestellt; der Anteil der in Afrika, vor allem Ghana, produzierten Stoffe ist vergleichsweise gering. Diese «waxprints» genannten Stoffe imitieren indonesische Batikstoffe, sind aber nicht wie diese in einem komplizierten und langwierigen Ausspar-verfahren gefärbt und bedruckt, sondern nur gedruckt. Neben den Hauptproduzentenländern Grossbritannien und Niederlande, die bis heute die begehrtesten unter diesen Stoffen herstellen, gab es in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts auch Schweizer Produzenten, die für den afrikanischen Markt druckten.
Das Musterbuch enthält die Kollektion der Firma Hohlenstein in Glarus, die solche Stoffe im Auftrag der Basler Handelsgesellschaft produzierte. Diese war 1859 als Missions-Handlungs-Gesellschaft gegründet worden. Ursprünglich war die Handelsgesellschaft mit dem Zweck, die Missionsstationen im heutigen Ghana und Südindien mit europäischen Waren zu versorgen, gegründet worden. Bald weitete sich der Handel aus, und auch afrikanische Erzeugnisse wie Kakao, Baumwolle und Palmöl gelangten in grossen Mengen nach Europa. Bis 1917 hatte die Geschäftsleitung bei der Basler Mission gelegen; 1928 löste sich die nun «Basler Handelsgesellschaft» genannte Gesellschaft von der Basler Mission, führte aber nach wie vor einen Teil des Gewinns für die Missionsarbeit ab.
Abonnieren
Posts (Atom)