Dutch Culture Overseas: Colonial Practice in the Netherlands Indies 1900-1942

Equinox Classic Indonesia

by Frances Gouda

European colonial expansion led to Dutch notions of civilised society, or the Dutch's community's flexible and relatively charitable attitudes toward 'others', being scattered (as in the Greek word 'diaspeirein') to the four corners of the earth. In some cases, the exportation of Dutch cultural values to places overseas, like North America, endowed 'Dutchness' with subtle new meanings. But in colonial Indonesia, Dutch political customs and traditions were transformed in the process of migrating to exotic locales. In this book, Frances Gouda examines the ways in which the Netherlands portrayed its unique colonial style to the outside world. Why were citizens of a small and politically insignificant European nation able to represent as natural and normal their dominance over ancient civilizations on islands such as Java and Bali? How did Dutch colonial residents explain the cultural differences between themselves and the supposedly 'primitive' peoples of the Indonesian archipelago? In trying to understand the 'gendering' practices of colonial governance in the Netherlands East Indies, Gouda also explores the interactions of Dutch and Indonesian women with European men. FRANCES GOUDA earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1980. She is currently professor of history and gender studies in the Political Science Department of the University of Amsterdam.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Indonesian Literature

316 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Dr. Frances Gouda was an affiliated professor at the Department for Political Studies at the University of Amsterdam. From 2014 to 2016 she served as director of the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Between 1999 and 2003, she was the director for the Belle van Zuylen Institute for Comparative Gender and Multicultural Studies. Apart from many articles, her work consists of Dutch Culture Overseas (1995) and Domesticating the Empire (1998).

Reviews

[Helman Taofani]

Substansi yang termaktub di halaman belakang cukup memberi imaji yang menantang: mengapa kultur Belanda yang dikenal pluralis dan ultra-toleran justru menghasilkan negara-negara bekas jajahan yang ultra-fanatis dan sektarian (Indonesia, Suriname dan Afsel di antaranya).

Buku ini memberi penjelasan tentang ketercerabutan ras yang mengakibatkan kehilangan konteks untuk menerapkan nilai dan budaya yang membentuk mereka di tanah aslinya. Memberi penilaian tentang "kesalahan" penjajah Belanda dalam menyikapi tanah jajahannya, serta implikasi-implikasi praktis yang kemudian muncul.

Gouda memberikan penalaran secara historis dan kultural untuk menjawab pertanyaan mengapa.

[mahatmanto]

buku penting ini sudah tersedia dalam terjemahannya [agak nggak lancar saya membacanya:]. diterbitkan oleh serambi.
---
hari ini saya mengurangi bintang karena saya lihat buku ini ada masalah dengan end notesnya.
pada bab 1, misalnya, ada kekacauan endnotes ini. di bagian depan sih oke, tapi pada endnotes 21 maka penjelasan yang cocok untuk nomor ini ada di endnotes nomor 28. demikianlah ada selisih 7 nomor di endnotes berikutnya.
tapi, saya juga tidak terlalu yakin apakah selisih 7 itu konsisten, sehingga agak cemas juga membaca buku terjemahan ini.
jangan-jangan salah membuat rujukan.

[Benemint]

I liked her way of discussing imperial memory.
She deals with familiar themes like women, sexuality, unruly child discourse, objectification of primitive tribes from the colonizer's point of view, which became quite "standard" as themes of colonial studies today but she was probably one of the pioneers. Nice prose, and good details. It was dangerously too interesting as a reading for my oral exam.

[Bunga Mawar]

Wah, buku ini belum dibuat curhatnya, ya?:)

Oke, singkat saja, buku ini saya kasih bintang dua hanya karena saya capek membacanya (alias ga selesai).

Mungkin kalau2... kalau2 yah, seandainya dibaca ulang, bisa nambah bintangnya, karena saya sebenarnya suka bagian Gouda mendeskripsikan keluarganya yang punya pandangan romantis berbeda tentang Indonesia...

[Ruby]

While Frances Gouda presents a wealth of information in this book, I found her way of structuring this particular information to be very unhelpful. Also not a very good introductory text (not that it claims to be anything like that, but it was more or less used that way in my course).

[Anggun P]

Ternyata..Belanda mengalami krisis kepercayaan diri..hehe. Ternyata (mungkin) penjajahan itu adalah kompensasi dari rendahnya self-esteem mereka..Hmm...I see..

[Nanto]

Beli dengan harga 20 ribu saja di pameran buku tahun ini.

[Benedictte Wikandari]

die you! i have read this one!