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ID: 155460

Flights of fancy: the bird of paradise and its cultural impact / Andaya, Leonard Y

Andaya, Leonard Y	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

The aim of this essay is to show through just one greatly valued trade item — in this case, the bird of paradise — how even the most distant and apparently isolated areas of the world could be linked to the major metropoles through trade. Yet this trade was anything but a simple bilateral exchange. It involved a complex series of networks that extended from the collectors to various levels of intermediaries and secondary ports, and then to foreign shippers bringing the desired product to its ultimate destination in various world markets. There is, however, another aspect of this essay which focuses not on the economic but the cultural value of trade. Most studies of the bird of paradise have commented on the cultural impact of its feathers on Western fashion, yet few have examined other cultural interpretations of the feathers that are closely associated with authority, fertility, and even invulnerability. These attitudes found in eastern Indonesia and New Guinea continue a tradition that has its roots in Southeast Asia in the early centuries of the Common Era.

Key Words

Cultural Impact ; Eastern Indonesia ; New Guinea

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ID: 099065

Informal Portuguese empire’ and the topasses in the solor archipelago and Timor in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries / Andaya, Leonard Y

Andaya, Leonard Y	Journal Article
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Publication

2010.

Summary/Abstract

This study of Timor and the surrounding islands between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries provides evidence that, after the demise of the Portuguese Estado da India, an 'informal' or 'shadow' empire persisted but in uniquely localised ways. It describes the emergence of the 'black Portuguese' community known in Timor and the Solor archipelago as the Topasses. Their singular identity was based on the melding of indigenous and Portuguese blood and cultural forms. Their ability to access the sources of spiritual authority in both the Catholic and the Timorese domains assured their survival and that of the Portuguese in Timor until well into the twentieth century.

Key Words

India ; Timor ; Portuguese Empire ; Solor Archipelago

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