Dutch Sources Research Articles

Outdoor air pollution as a risk factor for testing positive for SARS-CoV-2: A nationwide test-negative case-control study in the Netherlands

Air pollution is a known risk factor for several diseases, but the extent to which it influences COVID-19 compared to other respiratory diseases remains unclear. We performed a test-negative case-control study among people with COVID-19-compatible symptoms who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection, to assess whether their long- and short-term exposure to ambient air pollution (AAP) was associated with testing positive (vs. negative) for SARS-CoV-2. We used individual-level data for all adult residents in the Netherlands who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 between June and November 2020, when only symptomatic people were tested, and modeled ambient concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, NO2 and O3 at geocoded residential addresses. In long-term exposure analysis, we selected individuals who did not change residential address in 2017–2019 (1.7 million tests) and considered the average concentrations of PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 in that period, and different sources of PM (industry, livestock, other agricultural activities, road traffic, other Dutch sources, foreign sources). In short-term exposure analysis, individuals not changing residential address in the two weeks before testing day (2.7 million tests) were included in the analyses, thus considering 1- and 2-week average concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, NO2 and O3 before testing day as exposure. Mixed-effects logistic regression analysis with adjustment for several confounders, including municipality and testing week to account for spatiotemporal variation in viral circulation, was used. Overall, there was no statistically significant effect of long-term exposure to the studied pollutants on the odds of testing positive vs. negative for SARS-CoV-2. However, significant positive associations of long-term exposure to PM10 and PM2.5 from specifically foreign and livestock sources, and to PM10 from other agricultural sources, were observed. Short-term exposure to PM10 (adjusting for NO2) and PM2.5 were also positively associated with increased odds of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. While these exposures seemed to increase COVID-19 risk relative to other respiratory diseases, the underlying biological mechanisms remain unclear. This study reinforces the need to continue to strive for better air quality to support public health.

Effects of long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution on COVID-19 incidence: A population-based cohort study accounting for SARS-CoV-2 exposure levels in the Netherlands

Several studies have linked air pollution to COVID-19 morbidity and severity. However, these studies do not account for exposure levels to SARS-CoV-2, nor for different sources of air pollution. We analyzed individual-level data for 8.3 million adults in the Netherlands to assess associations between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and SARS-CoV-2 infection (i.e., positive test) and COVID-19 hospitalisation risks, accounting for spatiotemporal variation in SARS-CoV-2 exposure levels during the first two major epidemic waves (February 2020–February 2021). We estimated average annual concentrations of PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 at residential addresses, overall and by PM source (road traffic, industry, livestock, other agricultural sources, foreign sources, other Dutch sources), at 1 × 1 km resolution, and weekly SARS-CoV-2 exposure at municipal level. Using generalized additive models, we performed interval-censored survival analyses to assess associations between individuals’ average exposure to PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 in the three years before the pandemic (2017–2019) and COVID-19-outcomes, adjusting for SARS-CoV-2 exposure, individual and area-specific confounders. In single-pollutant models, per interquartile (IQR) increase in exposure, PM10 was associated with 7% increased infection risk and 16% increased hospitalisation risk, PM2.5 with 8% increased infection risk and 18% increased hospitalisation risk, and NO2 with 3% increased infection risk and 11% increased hospitalisation risk. Bi-pollutant models suggested that effects were mainly driven by PM. Associations for PM were confirmed when stratifying by urbanization degree, epidemic wave and testing policy. All emission sources of PM, except industry, showed adverse effects on both outcomes. Livestock showed the most detrimental effects per unit exposure, whereas road traffic affected severity (hospitalisation) more than infection risk. This study shows that long-term exposure to air pollution increases both SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 hospitalisation risks, even after controlling for SARS-CoV-2 exposure levels, and that PM may have differential effects on these COVID-19 outcomes depending on the emission source.

L'Indien and the Gilded Plaice: Building American Frigates in Amsterdam, 1777–1782

In 1777, the American commissioners in Paris, Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, contracted with French naval captain Jacques Boux to design two frigates for the Revolutionary cause. The design was the first of a new concept of very large frigates, able to outgun anything they could not outrun. The ships were to be built at a private yard in Amsterdam. One of these vessels, laid down as L’Indien, would ultimately serve the American cause in the South Carolina State Navy under the name South Carolina. This article examines the Dutch period of the two ships built at the yard of Arie Staats in Amsterdam in 1777–1781. Despite the attention given to South Carolina in the historiography, the Dutch sources have not yet been studied. The case of L’Indien and Tijger, her sister ship, illustrates the continuing importance of private contractors to navies in the late eighteenth century.

Maritime India in Dutch sources: The Dutch East India Company port records of Cochin and Bimilipatnam

Dutch port records are a valuable source to study the development of shipping in the Indian Ocean in the eighteenth century, especially the important but elusive local short-sea trades. This article presents data from the Dutch port records of Cochin (Kochi) and Bimilipatnam (Bheemunipatnam).

Silence and Small Gestures: Jews and non-Jews in the Netherlands (1940–1945)

Through a systematic analysis of 500 Jewish testimonies, this article seeks to expand the social and cultural history of the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Shifting the focus away from heated debates about ‘knowledge’ of the Holocaust towards wartime social interactions, it argues that prevailing notions of ‘resistance/collaboration’ and ‘rescue/betrayal’ do not fully account for the civilian obstruction of Nazi policies and many small gestures of support towards Jews. Ultimately, as a crucial addition to German and non-Jewish Dutch sources, Jewish accounts invite further perspectives on the broader landscape of Jews’ perceptions and memories of non-Jews, acts of disobedience and the effects of polarisation across Nazi-occupied Western Europe.

E. Seventeenth Century Dutch Sources (1632) (translated by Daniel Perret)

E. Seventeenth Century Dutch Sources (1632) (translated by Daniel Perret)

The Dutch East India Company in Early Modern Japan: Gift Giving and Diplomacy by Michael Laver

Reviewed by: The Dutch East India Company in Early Modern Japan: Gift Giving and Diplomacy by Michael Laver Reinier Hesselink (bio) The Dutch East India Company in Early Modern Japan: Gift Giving and Diplomacy. By Michael Laver. Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. xii, 171 pages. $115.00, cloth; $39.95, paper; $103.50, E-book. Having made the case, implicitly as well as explicitly, for the importance of the Nationaal Archief (National Archives of the Netherlands) for the study of early modern Japan,1 I am always happy to see a new book on the Dutch in Japan, especially one that draws upon this archive and the research it has generated over the last century and a half. The Dutch, of course, were not the only Europeans to have left records that help us reconstruct certain aspects of Japanese history. The Jesuit and mendicant orders also produced an impressive number of letters in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Latin between the 1550s and 1630s. The letters and diaries of the members of the English factory in Hirado between 1613 and 1622 contain much valuable material on daily life in Japan as well. The importance of both these types of sources, however, pales in comparison to the volume and duration (spanning three centuries) of the letters, diaries, account books, statistics, order lists, trade analyses, etc. produced by the Dutch. What is more, these Dutch sources cover all of Asia, in the Roman sense of the word, that is, everything east of what is now Turkey. Thus, these sources allow for broad contextualization, and they often offer unexpected glimpses behind the scenes that various native record keepers would have been eager to leave unknown. Michael Laver's topic is gift giving and how it relates to the diplomacy of the Dutch in Japan. Gifts were employed on all levels of the interaction between the Dutch and their Japanese minders. In fact, Laver writes that "the entire VOC presence in Japan was an elaborate pageant meant to demonstrate Dutch submission to the authorities in Edo, and, by extension, shogunal authority in Nagasaki" (p. 35). Gifts, in other words, were the physical evidence that was continuously needed to cement the submission and continue the Dutch trade. In this account of Dutch gift giving, however, we never learn what happened to these gifts once they had been received, as the book pays no attention to how gifts appear in Japanese sources.2 Regrettably, we also do [End Page 183] not learn the details of who received what and how much. Because all gifts presented in Edo and Nagasaki were carefully calibrated as to their quantity and quality by the Japanese interpreters (people much maligned by the Dutch merchants themselves), a study concentrating on these gifts should be able to teach us much about the details of the Tokugawa hierarchy. This is not a study, however, that gives a clear analysis of the minutiae of Dutch gift giving in Japan. We are left with the author's eclectic and sometimes humorous selections of Dutch gifts divided into categories of exotic animals, works of art and craftsmanship, scientific paraphernalia, and food and drink, which correspond to his chapters 2 through 5 and in which examples from some 250 years of gift giving are knitted together. Naturally, the book's contribution to the history of the Dutch in Japan between (roughly) 1600 and 1850 will have to be judged against its use of the primary sources available in the Nationaal Archief. It is here, however, that this reviewer has found himself disappointed. The author states that this archive has been "the major archival source" for his book, but he ends the same paragraph by noting that "most of the sources for this book come from the edited versions of these archives" (p. 153), referring to excerpts made for the volumes of The Deshima Daghregisters, published in Leiden by the Institute for the History of European Expansion. Using these translations (made by people exclusively trained in Dutch paleography), however, is a recipe for disaster for those who want to use them to write Japanese history. A few instances will illustrate the problematic use of primary sources in Laver's book. Throughout the...

D. Seventeenth Century Dutch Sources (1601-1626)(compiled & translated by Daniel Perret with the collaboration of Jean-Claude Lejosne)

D. Seventeenth Century Dutch Sources (1601-1626)(compiled & translated by Daniel Perret with the collaboration of Jean-Claude Lejosne)

O niebezpiecznych związkach sztuki i polityki na przykładzie „żywotów równoległych” Michaela Willmanna i Philipa Bentuma

O niebezpiecznych związkach sztuki i polityki na przykładzie „żywotów równoległych” Michaela Willmanna i Philipa Bentuma

The Study of European Migration in Asia-Pacific During the Early Modern Period: San Salvador de Isla Hermosa (Keelung, Taiwan)

The paper is an introduction to the study of European migration into Asia-Pacific through the case study of northern Taiwan. Here, several Spanish and Dutch colonial outposts were founded during the first part of the seventeenth century. Since 2011 and up to 2016 we have uncovered six burials of the cemetery of the Spanish colony of San Salvador de Kelang (Heping Dao, Keelung) (1626–42). The cemetery was associated with the Convento de Todos los Santos, Convent of All Saints, also discovered anew during our excavations. DNA analysis shows that at least one of the individuals was of European descent. This finding is unprecedented in Asia-Pacific within this early chronological framework. The archaeological evidence stands in contrast to the scarcity of contemporary written information relating to death and burials, both in Spanish and Dutch sources. We use the written sources to contextualize the archaeological data, inquiring about the life trajectories of the European colonists in Taiwan, people who truly lived in a global world. We aim to synthesize these data to create a documentary background for future research towards a better understanding of the European migration patterns into Asia-Pacific within cultural, biological, and demographic dimensions. This study offers a valuable contrast with research on the same topic elsewhere in the world.

Evaluation of trace elements MPC in agricultural soil using organic matter and clay content

The aim of this paper is to investigate the contribution of the influence of organic matter and clay content on the value of maximum permissible concentrations (MPC) of trace elements Pb, Ni, Cr, and Cd. The investigation was conducted on agricul?tural soil in the territory of Veliko Gradiste Municipality. There were analyzed 82 samples of eutric cambisol type soil, 17 samples of chernozem soil, and 32 samples of sandy soil. In the composite soil samples, taken from a depth of 0-30 cm, main parameters of soil fertility (pH, P2O5, K2O, CaCO3, soil organic matter - SOM), the content of the clay frac?tion, and total forms of Pb, Ni, Cr, and Cd were determined. Interpretation of the obtained results was carried out in relation to the MPC of trace elements defined in the Regulations (Official Gazette, 88/2018). Based on the ratio of the defined MPC and corrected values whose calculation includes the values of the organic matter and clay content, there was determined the correlation concerning the content of organic matter and the content of clay fractions, respectively, in the tested samples. In addition, the content of Cr and Pb in tested types of soil still did not exceed the adjusted MPC value. As for Cd and Ni, there was no deviation from the established and modified values of MPC. Concludingly, the research should be continued and supplemented by data for other types of soils, which would represent a base for a further assessment of the applicability of the existing regulations taken from Dutch sources and incorporated into Serbian Regulations (Official Gazette, 88/2018).

EXISTENCE OF MELAKA MALAY (FORT) CITY BASED ON A’FAMOSA

Research Highlights
 Despite of many historical records from Portuguese about the physical of Melaka Malay City, its existence is still doubtful since there is no clear physical evidence that can be used as basis support to its existence. However, to prove that the city was existed, various physical and scientific evidence are required to prove its existence. Thus, this study aims to identify historical evidence that mentioned its existence which based on the first painting of A’Famosa (Malacca Fort City during Portuguese era). The study proposed three hypothesis and results indicated there is a postivie outcome to prove that the Melaka Malay City existed on and around Bukit Melaka (or St Paul Hill now) based on historical records and sketches found.
 
 Research Objectives
 This paper attempts to uncover and reveal the historical evidence of Melaka Malay (Fort) City before the city was destroyed and rebuilt according to Portuguese terms. This paper was created to identify the differences between designs and layout plans between the Malacca Malay (Fort) City and the world-renowned Fort A’Famosa, thus comparing the hypothesis arguments about the existence of Melaka City. Indeed, there is a clear distinction between the design, layout, character and philosophy of the Malay and Portuguese cities. The scope focuses only on the site of the physical building (which is believed to be historical evidence) of the city at the Melaka River’s estuary where important and significant buildings during Melaka Malay empire was constructed – the palace, mosque, administration buildings, harbors, and different kind of settlements. There is a great probability of continuing this study into the use of satellite technology in determining and identifying the Melaka Malay City with more precise and accurate details. The implication of this study can be a catalyst for continuous and deeper research on the original site of the Melaka Malay City as to prove the validity of its existences.
 
 Methodology
 In an effort to discuss the existence of this Melaka Malay City, various aspects and methods were conducted to find the most suitable matches and comparisons that almost accurately describe their design then prove its existence. The remains and plans of Melaka City today since the British era will be the basis of its existence. Hence, the study of historical records and sketches of the Melaka City from the Dutch government and subsequently the Portuguese will be made to seek physical evidence of the earliest design of Melaka City. Later, the historical records of the city from Malay Archipelago, Chinese, Portuguese and Dutch sources will be depicted in city design. As a reinforcement, the philosophy of urban design in the Malay World is highlighted as well as presenting the comparison between the other Malay Kingdoms and the Melaka Malay City.
 
 Results
 The foundations of the Malay cities basically were designed in square or rectangular shape, no matter how far the city was set up (Abdul Halim Nasir, 1990). This is in line with the philosophy in the Malay world that associated with a simple yet sufficient form of compassion that covers the various aspects of the Malay community's facilities and their living that are synonymous with modular systems (Yusoff Hashim, 2010). The first Fort A'Famosa built by the Portuguese was rectangular (G.W.Irwin, 2006). Its position was below the foot of Bukit Melaka and along the estuary of the Melaka River which is also near the bridge stretching the mouth of the Melaka River (Portuguese Documents of Malacca, 11: 6 de Goes, para 11). The city of A'Famosa in the painting has a relatively six-tower on the corner of the city near the bridge. Whereas city fort or bastion on three other city corners are two-storey building. A’Famosa was built on the site of the Great Mosque of Melaka (Portuguese Documents of Malacca, 11: 6 de Goes, the 25th) which features a rectangular shape as the custom of mosques designs in the Malay Archipelago realm at that time, then the A'Famosa was originally built in rectangular over the ruins (or damage) of the Great Mosque Malacca after the success of Portuguese colonization.
 
 Findings
 The research showed that the design of Melaka City or A'Famosa City was in square or rectangular shape as it was built on the ruins of the Great Mosque of Melaka. The rectangular fort design was synonym with the design of other Malay forts or cities as it was a fundamental design tradition in the Malay world from fourth century until the later centuries after the collapse of Melaka empire either in Malay clusters. This coincides with the urban philosophy and design of the Malay and Islamic city that breed in the Malay Archipelago region at that time.

Two Marathi Letters from the Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia: A Snapshot of Dutch-Maratha Relations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Coromandel

AbstractThe third volume of Dutch Sources on South Asia mentions that there are some late-eighteenth-century Marathi letters, written in the Modi script, preserved in the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia.1 Scanned copies of the same were obtained by Lennart Bes (Leiden University) with the kind permission of the Indonesia Archives. Using these scanned copies, this paper gives the complete Roman transliteration of the two letters as well as their translation, and contextualizes the letters within Maratha documentary practices as well as within the contemporary political scene of the late-eighteenth-century Coromandel Coast. In addition, this article provides a commentary on the Maratha perception of Europeans in general and of the Dutch in particular, arguing that the Marathas had an unusually positive opinion about the trade-oriented Dutch, especially when contrasted with the territorially ambitious English and the Portuguese.

Hausner, Gábor Zrínyi-album (review)

SEER, 96, 4, OCTOBER 2018 782 Hausner, Gábor (ed.). Zrínyi-album. Zrínyi Kiadó – Hadtörténeti Intézet és Múzeum, Budapest, 2016. 381 pp. Appendices. Index. Ft7500. In 2014 to mark the 350th anniversary of Count Miklós (Nicholas) Zrínyi’s death Zrínyi publishers of Budapest commissioned this bilingual, copiously illustrated album. It is an impressive and weighty tome in which the Hungarian text runs parallel with the English translation (by Bernadette Szabadkai) and is the result of cooperation between several Hungarian historians and literary historians each contributing individual chapters. The life and work of Count Miklós Zrínyi (1620–64) is inseparable from his great-grandfather of the same name, Miklós Zrínyi of Sziget (1509–66) who made his name in the Turkish Wars with the protracted defence of the Southern Hungarian fortress of Szigetvár (in its Anglicized form ‘Sigeth’) where, just days before the surrender of the fortress Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent also died. This commander’s seventeenth-century descendant was likewise a warrior but also a poet and the author of essays on warfare and military organization. The present collection covers all Count Miklós Zrínyi’s activities thanks to the leading experts on the life and afterlife of this notable poet-commander. Both Miklós Zrínyi and his brother Péter were already acknowledged as talented military commanders in their lifetime. For various reasons the former became a much-admired hero of Protestant Europe and France, hailed by over twenty English publications in the years 1663–65, all devoted to the Turkish Wars, at the same time highlighting Miklós Zrínyi’s role in the events. There was even a whole book on this Hungarian/Croat military commander in English entitled The Conduct and Character of Count Nicholas Serini, Protestant Generalissimo of the Auxiliaries of Hungary (Samuel Speed, London, 1664), a biographical compilation from German and Dutch sources. As for its reports of battles and campaigns this book is on the whole reliable, though it does contain (the deliberate or occasional) error. Zrínyi was a Roman Catholic, though a very tolerant one, believing that in a battle with the Turk the religious allegiance of Christian soldiers should not be questioned. The Zrínyi-album reproduces the title-page of The Conduct and Character on page 60, but the author of this chapter, the late Ágnes R. Várkonyi, still asks ‘who is the mysterious [figure] behind the monogram O.C.?’ This O.C. is the author of the book’s foreword, most likely its editor. The present reviewer actually offered a solution in his essay (in Hungarian) on English sources of the Turkish Wars (Korunk, 2015/6) claiming that ‘O.C.’ is in fact a monogram of ‘Ortelius Continuatus’ (Continuation of Ortelius), ‘Ortelius’ being an earlier popular chronicle of Europe’s struggle against the Ottoman Empire. As for Miklós Zrínyi’s great epic poem, Szigeti veszedelem, written between 1645 and 1648, Sándor Bene offers interesting information on the title: it could REVIEWS 783 be literally rendered as ‘peril’ of the castle of Sziget rather than the history of its siege, but the contents of the poem justify its translation as ‘siege’. This is indeed the title of the epic’s first English translation by László Kőrössy published by the Catholic University of America Press in 2011. As for the sources of this impressive epic poem, we learn from Zrínyi-album that although in his own foreword the author speaks of his adherence to Homer and Virgil, his principal modelwasOvid‘whosenamedoesnotevengetmentioned’(p.217). Zrínyimust have also found Marino closer to his taste than Tasso, though this ‘marinism’ informs more the Hungarian poet’s lyrical poems, quoted and rather clumsily translated by the translator of the rest of the album (pp. 233–39). Finally, the chapter on ‘Fame and Memory’ (pp. 282–379) could have been shorter. While some parts of it are helpful in the interpretation of Miklós Zrínyi’s survival in national and international memory, the last twenty pages could have been cut — for example, what the Habsburg Archduke Joseph thought about...

Jan van Doesborch: The Antwerp Connection

This article reflects upon the role the Antwerp printer/publisher Jan van Doesborch played in the transmission of texts from Germany to England in the first part of the sixteenth century. Based on the way texts like Friar Rush and Virgilius. Of his lyfe and death changed compared to their German and Dutch sources, evidence is provided for the supposition that Van Doesborch, influenced by the German Eulenspiegel, restyled these texts into jest books. As a result of this activity Van Doesborch must be considered as the most probable candidate for having published a Dutch / English double edition of Ulenspiegel / Howleglas. In the Appendix is provided an up to date list of editions published by Van Doesborch.

The History of "Tuan Seberang" (Tun Seri Lanang) Based on Aceh and Dutch Sources

This study discusses the position of Tuan Seberang, a prominent figure of the Malay Peninsula, who was immensely influential in shaping the kingdom of Aceh Darussalam in the 17th century. His prominence was evident when the book of Aceh’s historiography, Ma Bain-as-Salatin , clearly showed the position of and role played by Tuan Seberang in the administration of this kingdom. However, to date, there are rarely historians who have actually examines the position and prominence of Tuan Seberang, either when he was in Aceh or in the Peninsula. To be sure, Tuan Seberang was a prominent figure who was highly respected by the Portuguese and Dutch because of his huge contribution to the administration of this kingdom during the reign of Sultan Iskandar Muda (1607-1636), Sultan Iskandar Thani (1636-1641) and Sultan Safiatuddin Syah (1641-1675). In this study, the author examines the issue of who Tuan Seberang really was, the role he played, his contribution and his relationship with the rulers and Aceh’s political figures. Keywords: Tuan Seberang, Tun Seri Lanang, Sulalat-us-Salatin , Ma Bain- as-Salatin , The Kingdom of Aceh Darussalam Abstrak Kajian ini membincangkan kedudukan Tuan Seberang, tokoh Melayu Semenanjung, yang sangat berpengaruh dalam perkembangan Kerajaan Aceh Darussalam pada kurun ke-17. Ketokohannya terbukti apabila karya historiografi Aceh, Ma Bain-as-Salatin dengan jelas memerihalkan kedudukan dan peranan yang dimainkan oleh Tuan Seberang dalam pentadbiran kerajaan itu. Namun sehingga kini, jarang terdapat ahli sejarah yang benar-benar meneliti kedudukan dan peranan Tuan Seberang secara khusus, sama ada semasa beliau berada di Aceh atau di Semenanjung. Padahal Tuan Seberang merupakan seorang tokoh terkemuka yang sangat dihormati oleh Portugis dan Belanda kerana sumbangan besarnya kepada pentadbiran kerajaan tersebut semasa pemerintahan Sultan Iskandar Muda (1607-1636), Sultan Iskandar Thani (1636-1641 ) dan Sultan Safiatuddin Syah (1641-1675). Dalam kajian ini, penulis meneliti tentang persoalan siapa sebenarnya Tuan Seberang dalam sejarah Aceh, peranan dan sumbangannya serta hubungannya dengan para pemerintah dan tokoh politik Aceh. Kata kunci: Tuan Seberang, Tun Seri Lanang, Sulalat-us-Salatin, Ma Bain- as-Salatin, Kerajaan Aceh Darussalam

Professorial opinions and Scottish-Dutch legal relations at the turn of the eighteenth century

This article considers two Scottish cases, in 1693 and 1711, in which legal opinions were obtained from professors in law faculties in the Netherlands. These are the only known examples of this phenomenon. As well as considering the contemporary citation of Dutch sources in Scottish pleadings, and the relevance of legal education particularly in Utrecht, the article considers why, in the context of the cases concerned, such appeals might have been made to the Dutch universities. These Dutch opinions are contrasted with the later tendency of Scottish lawyers to obtain opinions from English counsel in certain circumstances. The article ends with the text and translation of the 1711 opinion from Utrecht.

Manifestations of the Flying Dutchman: On Materializing Ghosts and (Not) Remembering the Colonial Past

This article investigates remediations of the Flying Dutchman legend – the story about a ghost ship doomed to sail the oceans forever – in English and Dutch sources from the nineteenth and twentieth century. It explains the popularity and wide dissemination of the Flying Dutchman by interpreting the story, firstly, within the context of Anglo-Dutch colonial competition and, secondly, within the context of new technological developments, paying particular attention to the moments when the Flying Dutchman seems to lose its spectral character and becomes a real object or person. Of the two interpretations of the spectre put forward here – staging colonial history versus staging technological advancement –, the second seems to be the more dominant throughout the history of continuous remediation and adaptation of the Flying Dutchman. When the ghost materializes, temporality is reversed: the focus shifts from the present's fraught relation to the past to the present's imagination of the future. In the dissemination of the figure itself however the colonial dimension is often still present.

The Importance of Dutch and German 19th-Century Sources

The Importance of Dutch and German 19th-Century Sources

The Coming of Brahmin Migrants: The Śudra Fate of an Indian Elite in Sri Lanka

One must be very humane to say, ‘I don't know that,’ to afford ignorance.- Friedrich Nietzsche, aphorism 229 in The Will to Power. Most Sri Lankans assume that due to the contemporary absence of a Brahmin presence there have been no Brahmins in Sri Lanka at all, particularly among the Sinhalas, except in Jaffna and other Hindu areas where a small number of Brahmin and non-Brahmin kurukkals officiate in major temples. For Sinhala Buddhist areas, there is no record of Brahmins from the nineteenth century onwards although it is evident from historical evidence that Brahmin purhitas were present in most, if not all the kingdoms of Sri Lanka. It is often assumed that Brahmins were not part of the general population, in spite of the fact that there were constant South Indian migrations throughout history. However, palm leaf manuscripts collected over the last 10 years and written from the sixteenth century onwards by village intellectuals not only refer to the mass immigration of South Indian people but also deal with Brahmin movements into Sri Lanka, and list some of the villages they were settled in. Several contain the term Brahmin or bamunu and hence village names such as Bamunugama and Kiribamuna. Texts from an important shrine for god Skanda in the Uva district mention its founding by two Brahmin brothers and their descendants who have non-Brahmin names. Dutch sources mention the existence of Brahmins in the city of Kandy during the reign of King Vimaladharmasuriya (1591–1604). The question then is: where have all the Brahmins gone? A clue is found in two palm leaf manuscripts from the mid-seventeenth and mid-eighteenth centuries that list the names of important families in the Matale district, north of Kandy. They mention several prominent goyigama/vellala (farmer caste) families with the name ‘Brahmana’ attached to it. The article suggests that given the numerical and political importance of the goyigama caste, various migrant groups, be they merchants or Brahmins, were assimilated into that caste with the more prominent Brahmins often placed in its aristocratic segment ( radala). Recent research indicates the constant movement of Brahmins from the north to the very south of India from ancient times, and it is improbable that they did not extend their journeys into Sri Lanka. The article demonstrates their movements into Sri Lanka where they were in a sense ‘demoted’ in terms of the classical varna scheme but ‘promoted’ in terms of Sri Lankan values. The speaker will also briefly discuss the local variations of the varna scheme in relation to Brahmin migratory movements.