Description
Book SynopsisIntertidal History in Island Southeast Asia shows the vital part maritime Southeast Asians played in struggles against domination of the seventeenth-century spice trade by local and European rivals. Looking beyond the narrative of competing mercantile empires, it draws on European and Southeast Asian sources to illustrate Sama sea people''s alliances and intermarriage with the sultanate of Makassar and the Bugis realm of Boné. Contrasting with later portrayals of the Sama as stateless pirates and sea gypsies, this history of shifting political and interethnic ties among the people of Sulawesi's littorals and its land-based realms, along with their shared interests on distant coasts, exemplifies how regional maritime dynamics interacted with social and political worlds above the high-water mark.
Trade ReviewGaynor has provided an insightful consideration of the dynamics of power, trade, and social relations that points historians to new understandings of societies and ecosystems that usually fall beyond the shore of the academic gaze.... Gaynor weaves a complex depiction of histories and peoples that enlightens the reader not only on this complex ecological land- and seascape, but also on social dynamics that usually fall outside traditional categories of the state and economics in world history.... Intertidal History in Island Southeast Asia is an excellent book, as it is securely rooted, or in this case anchored, in the littoral.... The result is a work that provides a cogent example of the importance of considering the contributions of a wide range of peoples to the construction of the state, as well as of how this can be done by thoroughly scouring the archives for sources in a variety of languages, and by living among and appreciating those peoples' cultures in order to hear the echoes of their pasts that still resonate.
* The American Historical Review *
[Gaynor] provides a useful reminder that outsiders were not necessarily the leading figures in the maritime life of this region.... The product of extensive research and thought, this book is valuable for scholars of Southeast Asia and its rich maritime life. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, specialists.
* Choice *
This wonderful book adds to Gaynor's contribution to approaching encounters as alliances as well as confrontations, to highlight the historical coherence and continuity that encounters offer in addition to the fragmentation. Gaynor's intimate engagement with the cultures of the Sulawesi seas, and Tiworo in particular, offers a refreshing contrast to the common way of seeing Sama peoples.
* Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde *
