What the white man ought to know : Renderings of the local past in Dutch colonial memorandums from Timor

• The construction of the Dutch colonial state in the East Indies entailed a comprehensive surveying of adat (body of local/regional customs) and local power structures. Much data can be found in the Memories van Overgave (memorandums of succession) that colonial Residents and Controleurs were asked to write when handing over their position to their successors. While these data served the needs of the colonial state in controlling local affairs, the accounts of the past are also interesting as representing voices and claims by local aristocracies. West Timor was “pacified” in about 1905-10, but the colonial conquest partly left the old princedoms (vorstendommen, landschappen) in place, often with several competing ruling branches or factions. In the Timorese society where written texts were uncommon, it was essential for a faction to gain credence by presenting the “right” version to the colonial superiors. This paper looks at cases drawn from a number of memorandums written in 1909-1947, showing how stories of the origins and ruling structures of regional princedoms in Dutch West Timor are represented differently from text to text, and how indigenous competition in status thus interacted with Dutch efforts to survey and control their recent acquisition.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Historia (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- History (hsv//eng)

Keyword

colonial administration

memorandum

Indonesia

Timor

the Netherlands

Historia

History

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)