GIFTS AND GIFT-GIVING IN PORTUGUESE-INDONESIAN DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS葡萄牙與印度尼西亞外交關係中的贈禮
The article analyzes the role of gifts and ceremonial offering practices in diplomatic relations between Portugal and the political powers of the Indonesian archipelago before effective colonization, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It argues that, although Portuguese contacts in the wate...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
October 2007
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40024/3679 |
| Summary: | The article analyzes the role of gifts and ceremonial offering practices in diplomatic relations between Portugal and the political powers of the Indonesian archipelago before effective colonization, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It argues that, although Portuguese contacts in the waters of the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia were frequently marked by coercion and military violence, the sustainability of diplomatic missions depended on adaptation to local protocol and the capacity to translate symbolic meanings into material objects recognizable by local rulers. Methodologically, the text combines a heuristic approach—characterizing the frequency, purpose, outcomes, and typologies of gifts—with a more conceptual reading of the practical and cosmological dimensions of these exchanges. The author draws on the analysis of Portuguese and Indian archival sources, published documentation, contemporary accounts, and secondary bibliography, seeking to balance the Portuguese and Indonesian perspectives. The article is organized into four parts: it contextualizes Portuguese learning of Asian diplomatic practices; identifies relevant missions to the archipelago; proposes a typology of gifts and discusses their significance; and concludes by assessing the legacy of these practices. It concludes that gifts functioned simultaneously as political instruments, technologies of cultural mediation, and vehicles of legitimation, structuring diplomatic outcomes that cannot be reduced to a purely commercial or military logic. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |