Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Java Colonial Encounters

食物是一种生物必需品，但它也承担着重要的动态社会功能和文化象征价值。为了了解早期文化之间相互作用的本质，对考古发现的食物残骸的分析可以揭示对社会关系、权力谈判和文化适应的重要见解，补充--有时甚至纠正--经常存在偏见和不完整的历史记录。在考察殖民环境中的文化互动时，在权力谈判和边界划定中使用食物尤其具有启发性，因为在殖民环境中，一系列复杂的政治、经济和社会差异必须被理清。在这个项目中，波士顿大学的上田Kaoru女士将在Robert Murowchick博士的指导下，对历史上最重要的殖民遭遇之一--17世纪和18世纪荷兰东印度公司(VOC)在东南亚的一次殖民遭遇--的食物和与食物有关的遗骸进行考古挖掘和分析。作为一个强大的经济引擎，VOC极大地影响了欧洲的国际关系和全球帝国建设努力。重要的是，它还留下了殖民和后殖民政治的遗产，至今仍在亚洲最具文化多样性和经济重要性的地区之一产生共鸣。该项目将重点关注位于印度尼西亚爪哇万腾的强大的伊斯兰苏丹国，以及在那里建立的关键荷兰堡垒和贸易中心，这些堡垒和贸易中心是为了建立和维护VOC对这一利润丰厚的香料贸易的控制。由于现有历史记录的主观性，这些地方精英与万腾荷兰人之间的跨文化互动的性质一直鲜为人知。对万腾遗址的考古研究将提供一个客观和揭示的工具，用来评估印尼和欧洲在全球贸易早期阶段的文化互动。万腾是一个重要而独特的殖民案例，与美洲不同，因为欧洲人在这个著名的国际大都市刚开始遭遇时，只是许多外国商人群体中的一个。这些新的数据将促进我们对世界各地早期殖民主义的理解。拟议的研究将产生超出其特定研究主题的广泛影响。该项目将促进印度尼西亚、新加坡和美国考古学家以及世界上考古研究最少的地区之一的学生之间的合作研究和培训。它将通过向年轻的当地考古学家介绍新的分析技术来改进印度尼西亚的历史考古实践，例如研究考古土壤样本中的植物二氧化硅遗骸，以更好地了解过去的饮食(这种方法在热带地区特别有用，因为那里的古代有机遗迹很少幸存下来)。这些新材料将改善波士顿大学环境考古实验室的收藏，并为波士顿大学的本科生和研究生提供分析培训。该项目侧重于穆斯林和欧洲社会在早期现代世界中不断演变的关系，这一关系在今天显然具有重要意义。在世界上人口最多的穆斯林占多数的国家，万腾是印尼最受尊敬的伊斯兰遗址之一。万腾的田野调查结果将通过发表在被引用的期刊上、在美国和海外的学术会议上发表演讲以及万腾当地博物馆的双语展览向公众公布。这项研究的结果已经通过提交会议论文促进了美国、印度尼西亚、新加坡、台湾和日本的国际学术交流，并通过每年10月的马萨诸塞州考古月活动提高了这个香料贸易中心对早期殖民历史的公众意识。

Food is a biological necessity, but it also assumes important dynamic social functions and cultural symbolic values. To understand the nature of interaction among early cultures, the analysis of archaeologically recovered food remains can reveal important insights into social relationships, power negotiations, and cultural adaptation that complement - and sometimes correct - the often biased and incomplete historical records. The use of food in power negotiations and boundary making can be especially enlightening when examining cultural interaction in colonial settings, where a complex array of political, economic, and social differences must be untangled. In this project, Ms. Kaoru Ueda of Boston University (BU), under the guidance of Dr. Robert Murowchick, will conduct archaeological excavations and analysis of food and food-related remains from one of history's most important colonial encounters, that of the Dutch East India Company (or VOC) in Southeast Asia during the 17th and 18th centuries. As a powerful economic engine, the VOC greatly impacted European international relationships and global empire-building efforts. Importantly, it also left a legacy of colonial and post-colonial politics that still resonates today in one of the most culturally diverse and economically important regions of Asia. This project will focus on the powerful Islamic sultanate located at Banten, Java, Indonesia, and the key Dutch forts and trading centers that were built there to establish and maintain VOC control over this highly lucrative spice trade. Because of the subjectivity of existing historical records, the nature of the cross-cultural interaction between these local elites and the Dutch at Banten has been poorly understood. The archaeological research of sites at Banten will provide an objective and revealing tool with which to evaluate Indonesian-European cultural interactions in this early phase of global trade. Banten is an important and unique colonial case study, different from the Americas, because Europeans were only one of many foreign merchant groups in this prominent cosmopolitan city at the beginning of their encounter. This new data will advance our understanding of early colonialism around the world.The proposed research will have a broad impact beyond its specific research topics. The project will foster collaborative research and training among Indonesian, Singaporean, and American archaeologists and students in one of the most archaeologically under-studied regions of the world. It will improve the practice of historical archaeology in Indonesia by introducing young local archaeologists to new analytical techniques, such as the study of plant silica remains from archaeological soil samples to better understand past diets (a method particularly useful in the tropics, where ancient organic remains rarely survive). These new materials will improve the collections of BU's Environmental Archaeology Laboratory and provide analytical training to BU's undergraduate and graduate students.The project focuses on the evolving relationship between Muslim and European societies in the early modern world, a relationship of obvious importance today. The results of fieldwork at Banten, one of Indonesia's most revered Islamic sites in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, will be made available to the public through publication in refereed journals, presentations at academic conferences in the US and abroad, and in bilingual exhibitions in Banten's local on-site museum. The results of this research are already fostering international scholarly exchanges in the U.S., Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan through presentation of conference papers, as well as increasing public awareness of early colonial history in this spice trading center through Massachusetts Archaeology Month events each October.