Colonial Sources Research Articles

A Most Splendid Company: The Coronado Expedition in Global Perspective

This remarkable volume marks the culmination of more than three decades of research tracing Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s expedition to Tierra Nueva. Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint demonstrate in painstaking detail precisely how a massive land-based enterprise with hundreds of Spaniards and thousands of Native allies made a round trip journey of nearly four thousand miles between 1539 and 1542. The Flints reveal that the main objective of the expedition was to reach Asia to obtain luxury goods. Indeed, the wealthiest European participants brought their finest attire to display their “personal status and group membership with pomp and pride” (155). Native warriors adorned themselves with elaborate headdresses and “eagle and jaguar body suits” for similar reasons (170). Yet Asia remained out of reach for most of those who participated in the expedition. After word spread that Tierra Nueva was “far, far away from China,” Spanish conquistadores neglected to return to New Mexico for nearly another forty years (305).In contrast, Native allies such as the Nahua elected to live among the Ashiwi (252) and the other “pueblos of Cíbola” (208). Native leaders pursued their own agendas in a parallel rather than subordinate hierarchy to Coronado and his officers. Similarly, allegiance among lower-ranking Natives “was first and foremost to their own leaders and communities” and only indirectly “to the hierarchy of Spanish governance, culminating in the viceroy, don Antonio de Mendoza” (138). A close reading enables the Flints to suggest that Native auxiliaries may have viewed the expedition as a way to engage in battle and secure social advancement (130).In the main, the expedition relied on Native arms, Native translators, and Native guides. Having located a muster roll prepared at Compostela in February 1540, the Flints reveal that “of the 286 men listed, 260 (or 90 percent)” declared that they had Native arms and armor either solely or in addition to European equipment (168). The overwhelming reliance on Indigenous arms and knowledge induced much anxiety among Spaniards, who “alternated between uncritical acceptance of information and direction provided by local Natives and apprehensive distrust of proffered guidance”; this eventually led to the notorious execution of the Indian guide known as El Turco (211).Because of the biases inherent in colonial primary sources, the Flints can make only brief references to the subalterns who made up a significant part of the expedition. The ethnocentrism of Spanish conquistadores meant that women and slaves typically were disregarded unless they performed some remarkable feat. Nonetheless, the Flints astutely infer that the tortilleras, meaning Native women who made tortillas by the thousands each day, literally “made the expedition possible” (201). Moreover, the Flints note that a large portion of the expedition included enslaved “Moors/Muslims from North Africa” (201).Another key point is that Antonio de Mendoza, rather than Coronado, was the mastermind of the expedition. Initially, Mendoza had been captivated by fray Marcos de Niza’s reports of Cíbola, which allegedly comprised “seven very great ciudades” (84). However, Mendoza had learned a valuable lesson from the infighting that splintered the Pizarros’ ventures in Peru. Consequently, Mendoza enlisted an inner circle of some three hundred men who had close personal ties to him or to one of his loyal associates (135). Mendoza’s strategy explains in large part why so much documentation exists for an expedition that failed to achieve its main objective.In addition to this superb monograph, the Flints have also provided an excellent companion database at coronado.unm.edu. Undoubtedly, scholars and students of colonial Mexico and the Southwest will continue to reap the benefits of the Flints’ solid research for decades to come.

Broadening Histories of Designed Landscapes: The Case of the Gembrook Nurseries and the Dandenong Ranges/Koran Warrabin Range

ABSTRACT This article examines how complex food production systems developed by Kulin Nation people over centuries in the physical landscape around Emerald, in the Dandenong /Koran Warrabin Range/s east of Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) were transformed in the late nineteenth century, through colonisation and, especially, the operations of C. A. Nobelius’ Gembrook Nurseries, into the largest commercial fruit tree nursery in the Southern Hemisphere. Using the colonial archive and contemporary sources, the research demonstrates shared aspects of landscape resources and infrastructures as they were used by both Kulin Nation and settler communities, and also some of the fundamental differences in modes of access to these resources. Photographic evidence in particular documents how the scale and speed of change through industrial-scale colonial horticulture massively impacted the landscape within a matter of years, if not seasons, resulting in disruption to and destruction of Indigenous landscape systems. This analysis seeks to address the ways in which Australian histories can continue to be re-framed to better acknowledge and respect Australian Aboriginal histories, and confirms the importance of revisiting historically settler-focused understandings and heritage assessments of Australian landscapes to better acknowledge the complex uses and values of these places for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land where I live and work, the people of the Kulin Nations, and pay respect to their Elders and other Aboriginal people.

Local Legitimacy and Tax Policy: Qaids as Part of a Composite State in Colonial Tunisia

AbstractThe colonial history of Tunisia has long been dictated by colonial sources that made the qaid (an official in charge of fiscal attributions), from the viewpoint of the capital city, a local notable and often a prevaricator. This study proposes to reconsider the relationship between government and regional power in the colonial context by drawing on the recent work of Ottoman studies about provincial elites. The article studies the fiscal reforms of the interwar period in a cereal-growing region of Tunisia, relying on sources in Arabic produced by the qaids, namely the administrative correspondence between local authorities, the prime minister, and colonial controllers. This article describes the role of qaids in the negotiation between national law and local specificities and finally highlights the role of decentralization and a local way of thinking about the state in the 1930s. It contributes to colonial history and the history of taxation by highlighting the territorial fractures in North Africa and the agency of local actors under the protectorate.

Saving the Last Unicorns: The Genetic Rescue of Florida’s Pillar Corals

As stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) swept through the Florida Reef Tract, one of the most severely impacted species was the iconic pillar coral, Dendrogyra cylindrus. As the species’ population experienced a precipitous decline, a collaborative rescue project collected colony fragments for safekeeping at onshore and offshore nursery facilities. Between 2015 and 2019, a total of 574 fragments representing 128 genotypes were collected. These are currently dispersed among five facilities where they continue to provide opportunities to (1) refine best husbandry practices for D. cylindrus, (2) develop treatment options for SCTLD that have been adapted for use on other species, (3) maximize growth and fragmentation to provide the live tissue needed for eventual restoration, and (4) provide a source of parent colonies for assisted sexual reproduction and new genetic diversity. With the wild pillar coral population in Florida at the end of 2020 at less than 6% of its known 2014 population and continuing to decline, the rescued ex situ colonies represent the entirety of the restoration potential for this species in Florida.

Liberation and Biographical Narrative in Mozambican Historiography: The Struggle in Cabo Delgado, 1962–1974

Over the last 25 years, memoirs and testimonies have appeared in Mozambique recounting the life stories of participants in the armed struggle for national independence led by FRELIMO (1964–1974). Most of the protagonists have remained loyal to FRELIMO and many have had political careers after independence. Their memoirs have been published in the course of reinforcing the Frelimo party’s political dominance in the early 21st century. Although some scholars are dismissive of the usefulness of this corpus as historical source material, the article argues that close reading provides an understanding of the often messy, contradictory experience that participants in the struggle lived through, and the outcome of which was far from predictable. Starting with a discussion of developments in the study of ‘life writing’ within the cultural studies discipline and pointing to examples of analogous bodies of work in Kenya and the Soviet Union, the article presents an informed analysis of the struggle against the Portuguese colonial armed forces in one crucial theatre of conflict, Cabo Delgado province. Our reading brings out the details of liberation warfare, including internal struggles over strategy and tactics, as well as lessons learned from overcoming military and political obstacles and setbacks. We conclude that the memoirs contribute materially to Mozambican historiography by allowing us to look behind a linear or triumphalist vision of liberation history, by confirming outlines suggested in earlier work based mainly on colonial military sources, and by illuminating more precisely than hitherto possible the relevance of particular roles and individuals.

Buffoons and sorcerers: witchcraft, entertainment, and evil professions in colonial sources on pre-Hispanic Nahuas

When Spaniards arrived in 1519 in Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital in central Mexico, they marveled at the architectural constructions that gave splendor to the city and at the masterpieces of indig...

Commodifying Culture In A Frontier Area: The Utilization of Madurese Culture for Developing Tourism in the Eastern Tip of Java Island, Indonesia

This study aimed to analyze the reasons that the Regent of Bondowoso chose Madurese culture to be a tourist destination for Bondowoso Regency, and the impact of the commodification of Madurese culture on the welfare of the Bondowoso community. The theory of commodification and historical method were used in this study. The primary data were collected through participatory observation, interview, and colonial sources (documentation), while secondary data were collected from various sources which include published works, results of related studies, and related government reports. The population was the Madurese community in Bondowoso Regency. The results of the study had proven that Madurese Culture like Kerapan Sapi and Sapi Sonok (cow’s beauty contest) had been contesting in front of the public since the Dutch colonial period, while Ronteg Singo Ulung, Pojien Dance and Petik Kopi ritual had been used as tourism commodities in Bondowoso Regency since 2017. In this importance, the Regent of Bondowoso chose Madurese culture as a lure for tourists; both domestic and foreign tourists. This action was to improve the welfare of the community, as well as generating revenue for the Regional Government and Village Government.

Ghosts in the archive: The palestinian villages and the Decolonial archives

The article drives from the Israeli colonial archives and seeks to crack their structure, foundations and imagination. It wishes to establish a counter postcolonial/decolonial archive, based on colonial sources, while taking into consideration the specific condition of the Israeli colonialism and settler colonialism, and mainly the repressive administration of the colonial archives. While colonial bodies and archives erase the indigenous history and past, the counter archive aims to return them to their original population and to the pubic-sphere, calling for democratization processes. It will be established on the ruins of the Israeli colonial archive, will tell the story of the Palestinian villages that their population was uprooted and exiled (before and after exile), the story of the Palestinian population who remained in Palestine under military regime, strangers in the house; the erasure and attempt to control Palestinian historiography and culture to support official Israeli narrative. The decolonial archive will also gather indigenous materials in colonial archives, point out the physical and interpretative forces exerted on them, cleanse them of their biased interpretation and focus on structuring a reading that differs from the original colonial designation. It will restore them to indigenous history, enabling the construction of an alternative multi- layered database, different from the one-sided characteristic of colonial archives. The proposal then is to turn the Israeli colonial archive–corrupt, oppressive and destructive, into a more autonomous site–not only the materials themselves but also the way they are contextualized, read and interpreted.

Reshaping the World: Debates on Mesoamerican Cosmologies

Mesoamerican cosmology is characterized by three concepts: a universe consisting of layered realms, the sacred 260-day calendar, and the reciprocal relationship between gods and people. The concept of a multilayered universe has dominated modern scholarship, which has often depicted the cosmos as three separate, multilayered tiers. The authors of Reshaping the World: Debates on Mesoamerican Cosmologies challenge this long-standing pan-Mesoamerican model. This compelling collection of essays revises our understanding of the connections between the earth, sky, and underworld by emphasizing the fluidity and dynamic interplay between these spaces. As suggested by the volume subtitle's use of the plural (“cosmologies”) and the cover image (a muwieri, a relatively unexplored Wixarika object), Mesoamerican cosmological systems were varied and ever evolving.Within the evangelization process of New Spain, ancient cosmological structures were reconfigured by the Spanish in an effort to render them comprehensible within preexisting and dominant worldviews. In the early twentieth century, Eduard Seler proposed that the Mexica cosmos were composed of thirteen celestial layers and a nine-layered underworld, an interpretation that became the standard for the entirety of Mesoamerica. Using this historiographical context as a point of departure, Reshaping the World contains nine chapters split between three thematic parts, spanning from the Classic period (250–900 CE) through the twenty-first century. Ana Díaz's insightful introduction distills the volume's three objectives: redefine ancient Mesoamerican cosmological structures as put forth by the colonial documentary record, reevaluate the prevailing notion that the universe is composed of thirteen and nine vertically structured levels, and propose new cosmological models for this diverse region (p. 5). The authors support their arguments by skillfully connecting archaeological, anthropological, ethnohistoric, epigraphic, and iconographic evidence from across Mesoamerica. This refreshing approach to a long-debated topic reinforces and elaborates on existing insights into the processes of religious transformation in the Americas.The volume's first part explores central Mexico through the lens of early modern texts, both Indigenous manuscripts and European books. The first essay, by Jesper Nielsen and Toke Sellner Reunert, asserts that the prevailing interpretation of the Mesoamerican cosmos was heavily influenced by the Dantean worldview of Franciscan and Dominican friars in the sixteenth century. Sergio Botta's contribution transports readers to Italy by exploring the beguiling character who incorporated the Codex Vaticanus A's religious iconography into existing Renaissance works, in an effort to craft a global religious history. Ana Díaz's essay highlights the incongruities of cosmological descriptions in Nahua manuscripts. Díaz's most compelling point is her characterization of the Nahua cosmos as a living, dynamic entity with corporeal qualities.The inextricable connections between calendar systems and cosmological spaces are next discussed, with a strong emphasis on ritual structure. Gabrielle Vail's contribution disentangles the confluence of cosmological terminology and the shifting classification of deities in Postclassic Maya codices and colonial Yucatec sources. David Tavárez, addressing the extant corpus of Northern Zapotec material, identifies a direct correlation between the 260-day calendar and the three-tiered cosmographical structure. In direct opposition to previous essays, Tavárez argues that the celestial realm and underworld have nine fixed layers, which further underscores the variance of cosmology in Mesoamerica. (It is worth nothing that many studies on Mesoamerican conceptions of time are dominated by discussions of Aztec and Maya calendar systems; this makes Tavárez's work a necessary and welcome inclusion in the volume.) Kerry Hull's essay employs a linguistic and ethnographic methodology to produce an emic understanding of contemporary Ch'orti’ Maya cosmovision. Hull highlights how the Ch'orti’ Maya's ritual and daily activity is influenced by their cosmological structure.The final section features three distinct case studies. Pivoting from the time frames of the preceding chapters, Alexandre Tokovinine's contribution is the only one firmly rooted in ancient Mesoamerica. Through analyses of Classic Maya hieroglyphic texts, Tokovinine charts narratives of travel to mythic (“deep-time”) and historic locales in order to demonstrate how pilgrimage to these locations was often intertwined. Katarzyna Mikulska's essay, which zeroes in on Nahua worldviews of the Late Postclassic and early colonial era, argues that Nahua cosmological imagery only differentiates between primordial space and a human world, which is in diametric opposition to medieval cosmological schema. The volume concludes with a timely essay by Johannes Neurath. In urging readers to critically approach the relationship between cultural continuity and acts of resistance, Neurath suggests that the Wixaritari's cosmological structures are concurrently forming and formed by sacred acts.Like all well-coordinated edited volumes, these essays resonate with one another, especially in their attention to language and ritual performance. With its rich body of evidence and sharp analyses, this work breaks down the rigid boundaries between cosmologies, chronology, and cultures in Mesoamerica. We may never fully comprehend the totality of Mesoamerican cosmologies and worldviews; such reconstructions require material that has yet to be unearthed or has since been destroyed. The authors of this volume, however, considerably advance our current understanding.

Language classification, language contact and Andean prehistory: The North

AbstractThe northern half of the Andes—from Venezuela to Northern Peru—has seen dramatic losses of language diversity since the 16th century. Even so, the region's linguistic fabric is complex and multifaceted, and the impression of relatively low levels of diversity vis‐à‐vis Amazonia is to a perhaps considerable extent the result of different post‐conquest trajectories rather than a reflection of pre‐existing differences. As in Amazonia, branches of widespread families—Chibchan, Quechuan, but also far western outliers of Cariban—coexist with more local language families—principally Barbacoan and Chocoan—as well as a multitude of isolates, in particular on the eastern lowland‐facing slopes of the Andes. Recent and ongoing projects of language documentation and description, as well as reconstitution of colonial sources, are contributing to profiling the linguistic diversity more sharply and more securely. Even at the present state of research, it is patent that the patchwork of languages of the Northern Andes, where evidence is available, evinces strong hallmarks of micro‐ and meso‐level language contact, leading to the emergence of distinctive profiles on regional levels that call into question the idea of a reified ‘Andean’ language type. Furthermore, there is a striking signal of spatially structured typological variation throughout the Andes that is in need of explanation and interdisciplinary contextualization. This article surveys the state of the art on language classification and language contact studies for the Northern Andes, and also discusses how they may inform an interdisciplinary prehistory.

“A Strange, Contagious Fear”: Scarlet Letters and Shame in the Time of Coronavirus

AbstractPublic shaming has a long history in the United States, and the image of the “scarlet letter” is an integral part of that history. This essay examines how American media accounts in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic invoked the image of the scarlet letter to describe the shame of infection at an individual, institutional, and national level. The first section discusses the colonial sources that Hawthorne used in creating the image as well as the ways in which his romance associates it with social shame and stigma. The second section focuses on media accounts that equate wearing a mask, or declining to wear a mask, with wearing a scarlet letter like Hester Prynne. The final section considers how the scarlet letter has been used in accounts of communal infection rates and forced closures. In their invocations of the scarlet letter, reporters, essayists, and bloggers have repeated the central conflicts between individual freedom and social responsibility, moral good and legal constraint, mobility and isolation, and selfishness and empathy that have long dominated scholarly interpretations of The Scarlet Letter. In doing so, they demonstrate the continuing potency of the cultural work of Hawthorne's classic novel.

Organic zinc supplementation modifies the metalloproteome of royal jelly produced by Apis mellifera

In this study, we analyzed Apis mellifera royal jelly proteome alterations induced by supplementation with different concentrations of dietary organic zinc (0, 25, 50, and 75 ppm). Proteins extracted from royal jelly were separated by electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing, and zinc-containing protein spots were identified by tandem mass spectrometry. Organic zinc-containing diets modified total royal jelly protein content and altered the expression of five major royal jelly proteins (MRJP1, MRJP2, MRJP3, MRJP5, and MRJP8). While the diet with the lowest tested zinc content (Zn25) increased total royal jelly protein content and expression of MRJP1, diets with higher zinc contents (Zn50 and Zn75) decreased MRJP expression. Our results demonstrate that important proteins and metabolic processes are modified in royal jelly produced by honey bees supplemented with different concentrations of organic zinc source, affecting nutrition and maintenance of colonies.

La gran recompensa en el otro mundo: esclavitud y manumisión en Tetuán (1800-1956)

Este estudio analiza la práctica de la manumisión de esclavos y esclavas entre los notables de Tetuán entre 1800 y 1956, a partir de fuentes notariales inéditas combinadas con fuentes orales y coloniales. Esta documentación nos permite concluir que la manumisión formaba parte de un mecanismo moral según el cual los propietarios esperaban adquirir un mérito religioso antes de morir para asegurarse una recompensa y un lugar en el paraíso. La liberación contenía también una dimensión pública y ritual. En sus testamentos, los notables, tanto hombres como mujeres, expresaban su generosidad redistribuyendo su riqueza entre los pobres y otorgando dinero en metálico o el usufructo de sus residencias a sus libertos. Este material notarial permite analizar las desigualdades en la estructura social marroquí desde el punto de vista de los propietarios, pero también ofrece valiosas informaciones sobre las características físicas, nombres y estatus de sus esclavos y esclavas, así como de sus trayectorias una vez liberados.

Where Caciques and Mapmakers Met: Border Making in Eighteenth-Century South America by Jeffrey A. Erbig Jr.

Reviewed by: Where Caciques and Mapmakers Met: Border Making in Eighteenth-Century South America by Jeffrey A. Erbig Jr. Timothy B. Norris Where Caciques and Mapmakers Met: Border Making in Eighteenth-Century South America. Jeffrey A. Erbig Jr. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020. Pp. xx+280, figures, maps, tables, notes, bibliography, index. $99.00, hardcover, ISBN 978-1-4696-5503-1. $34.95, paperback, ISBN 978-1-4696-5504-8. $19.99, eBook, ISBN 978-1-4696-5505-5. In Where Caciques and Mapmakers Met Jeffrey Erbig gives an account of the mid-eighteenth-century cartographic encounter between native peoples (under the ethnonyms Charrúas, Bohanes, Yaros, Guenoas, and Minuanes) of the Río de la Plata borderlands (now Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina) and the Spanish and Portuguese empires. At first glance his work appears to align with prior studies on the history of cartography and the mapping of indigenous peoples. He reiterates the importance of indigenous collaborators and informants in the mapmaking process and how maps wield power not just as representations but also as actors in the transformation of geographical imaginaries of empire into physical features of the landscape. Indeed, at points the woven narrative reads like yet another tale of dispossession and genocide wrought by colonialism and empire building. But in his analysis of "the dynamic production of space and the interplay between territorial imaginings and spatial practices" (7) he makes apparent the underlying goal to reformulate "the historical memory—professional, political, and popular—of the boundary commissions in the Río de la Plata connecting the entrenched narratives of Native disappearance to colonial geographic imaginings that emerged in the eighteenth century" (11). It is this underlying goal and his success in showing not only indigenous agency in the historical account but also the contemporary persistence of indigenous presence that makes the monograph worth the read; in the end it is a story of resilience and victory. The story centers on two border-making efforts, the Treaty of Madrid (1750) and the Treaty of San Idelfonso (1777), through which Portugal and Spain sent joint cartographic expeditions to rectify conflict that emerged from the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) and subsequent imperial expansion in the New World. Erbig uses an array of primary sources to meticulously recount events leading up to, including, and after the boundary-making expeditions. While he acknowledges the lack of indigenous voice and the bias in the colonial sources he uses, [End Page 91] the vignettes he creates attempt to (mostly successfully) highlight how "Native peoples did not simply foil or adapt to Iberian efforts; they altered the very structure of imperial governance, making borders necessary and transforming the meaning and form of mapped lines" (7). His historiographic approach is meticulous, full of rich detail (almost biblical at points), and is a pleasure to read. But what makes this work stand out is the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and a digital humanities approach to geographically and temporally locate all mentions of indigenous individuals, encampments (referred to as tolderias), and movements from the seven-hundred-plus primary sources that span 1680 to 1834. Arguably the design of the resulting maps could be improved (the addition of scale bars, for example), but the content along with the historical narrative is remarkable and presents a unique approach to and perspective on this moment in history. The book is organized into five chapters. The first two explore the period from 1680 up until the first cartographic expedition in 1752. The discussion of movement and location of indigenous groups and the colonial settlements centers on how access to natural resources, wild cattle for the most part, and European ideas of natural law came together as a form of ad hoc governance in which indigenous people retained control of the hinterlands of the colonial settlements. Chapter 3 outlines the joint Portuguese/Spanish border-mapping expeditions. Erbig highlights the fact that the conflict between empires was set aside in a moment when European powers were fully aware that "maps were not simply representations of territorial possession but rather the preeminent determinants of it" (67). The expeditions were specifically designed to weaken indigenous groups' hold in the region...

Improvement of Mouse Parthenogenetic Blastocyst as Primary Colony Source of Parthenogenetic Embryonic Stem Cell (pESC) using CHIR99021

Improvement of Mouse Parthenogenetic Blastocyst as Primary Colony Source of Parthenogenetic Embryonic Stem Cell (pESC) using CHIR99021

Native Aquatic Plant Establishment Efforts in a High-Herbivore, Central Texas Reservoir

Maintaining beneficial, native plant structure and diversity while reducing invasive, nuisance species dominance is an important management domain for natural resource managers. One such vegetation component in North American lakes and reservoirs is submerged aquatic vegetation—a valuable aquatic resource which serves as productive habitat for fish, aquatic macroinvertebrates, and other wildlife. Reservoirs in the southern parts of the United States have experienced varying aquatic plant dominance dynamics due to historical water resource management actions, including drawdowns and introduction of herbivorous fish for the purpose of controlling invasive aquatic vegetation. Some of these management options have also been detrimental to native submerged aquatic vegetation. This paper explores an adaptive management research effort by installing herbivore-protected, fenced-pen submerged aquatic vegetation sites in a high-herbivore reservoir to determine effectiveness of protecting habitat and serving as founder colony sources for propagule spread. Four experimental sites with three management treatments each were planted with American eelgrass. Each site utilized one un-fenced treatment and two treatments with varying mesh sizes for protective fencing-pens. Site integrity, species survival and spread, and grazing were documented. One additional site was installed and planted with other native submerged aquatic vegetation species for nominal species performance descriptions. No plants survived unprotected in the high-herbivore system and plants, in general, performed consistently better within the smaller mesh size. These test planting results were ultimately used to inform adaptive management decision making for plant installation and expansion designs for managing reservoirs invested with Hydrilla, considered one of the most serious invasive aquatic plants in the United States.

Tipu Sultan's female entourage under East India Company rule

AbstractAfter the Fourth Mysore War, when the British were dismantling Tipu Sultan's establishment, the East India Company unexpectedly took charge of 601 women who resided permanently inside Srirangapatnam Palace. Along with Tipu's sons, they were moved 200 miles east, to Vellore Fort, in the Company-controlled territory of Madras Presidency. Documentation about these court women held in colonial archives describes moments when they behaved in unexpectedly difficult ways. Because historians have traditionally cast the women of Tipu Sultan's court as voiceless victims, their actions, as described in these colonial sources, have been overlooked. When examined, the descriptions show that they were using the domestic powers granted to them under Tipu Sultan's establishment to influence their treatment by the East India Company. By placing these accounts alongside the broader context of the Company's military history, it becomes apparent that the women of Tipu Sultan's female entourage fomented the events that led to the Vellore Mutiny of 1806.

First Draft Genome Assembly of the Malaysian Stingless Bee, Heterotrigona itama (Apidae, Meliponinae)

The Malaysian stingless bee industry is hugely dependent on wild colonies. Nevertheless, the availability of new queens to establish new colonies is insufficient to meet the growing demand for hives in the industry. Heterotrigona itama is primarily utilized for honey production in the region and the major source of stingless bee colonies comes from the wild. To propagate new colonies domestically, a fundamental understanding of the biology of queen development, especially from the genomics aspect, is necessary. The whole genome was sequenced using a paired-end 150 strategy on the Illumina HiSeq X platform. The shotgun sequencing generated approximately 89 million raw pair-end reads with a total output of 13.37 Gb and a GC content of 37.31%. The genome size of the species was estimated to be approximately 272 Mb. Phylogenetic analysis showed H. itama are much more closely related to the bumble bee (Bombus spp.) than they are to the modern honey bee (Apis spp.). The genome data provided here are expected to contribute to a better understanding of the genetic aspect of queen differentiation as well as of important molecular pathways which are crucial for stingless bee biology, management and conservation.

Hikayat Susunan Kuning dalam Negeri Gagelang: Sebuah Tinjauan Historiografi

This study aims to present a historiographic review of the text of the Yellow Tale in the State of Gagelang (hereinafter abbreviated as HSK). This research uses the historical method. The steps used in this study are (1) heuristics; (2) criticism; and (3) historiography. The results of research on this study are known that (1) In the text HSK tells about Sunan Kuning to his descendants and various conflicts in it; (2) The history of the tumult not only describes the conflict between Java and China, but also indicates the interference of the Dutch colonial involvement in it; (3) The relevance between the HSK text and the history of Pacer commotion. The relevance is illustrated by the existence of relevant and interrelated events between the HSK text and the history of Pacer commotion. During this time, the discourse that continues to be "echoed" by the colonial side is the commotion of Chinatown is a dark history for humanity in the archipelago. In fact, the discourse continues to be reproduced when various riots erupted in the country. The discourse that is raised is always based on ethnicity, religion, race, and intergroup. Thus, the presence of the HSK text is an important witness for the history of humanity on earth in the archipelago. In addition, HSK also uses the background of the banner story. It shows that history is not always written by "winners". Because the banner story is a folklore that is so closely related to the life of the Indonesian people. Therefore, a comprehensive and integral study of HSK and other historical texts is absolutely necessary to be carried out in order to reveal the true historical facts. So, Indonesian people can re-recognize the history of their ancestors, both through colonial sources and from the perspective of the nation's own historiography.

COMMERCE, MERCHANTS AND MARKETS IN THE BRAHMAPUTRA VALLEY c. 1800-1900

Trade and commerce in the Brahmaputra valley of colonial Assam is understudied. This paper attempts to study the trade and commercial activities in the valley while keeping in mind the transition from pre-colonial to colonial rule. The late Ahom sources do not speak purposefully about trading activities in the valley. Early colonial sources term the region as backward and averse to trade. The valley came under colonial rule in 1826 with the Treaty of Yandabo. Were the first few decades of the nineteenth century in the Brahmaputra valley backward in matters of commerce? How different was the latter half of the nineteenth century? Analysis of Ahom chronicles, archival sources, and personal papers available in the National Archives of India has helped in finding structural changes in trade and commercial activities in the valley in the century under study. These findings help in understanding the nature of colonial economic policy and present economic structure of the region better.