Thinking in Islands; the Portuguese Perception of the Indonesian Archipelago and Particularly of Sunda in Early Texts and Charts

This article discusses various early sources on the Indonesian archipelago. It starts with the status of knowledge before the first voyage of the Portuguese to the Moluccas from accounts of travellers to insular Southeast Asia in the Middle Ages and the picture on world maps European cartographers produced. Comparing that view with text sources and the resulting geographic material of the first expeditions by the Portuguese provides an insight into contemporary mechanisms of knowledge transfer. Certain effects can be traced and are repeated on different levels of access to the original facts mainly because most maps were drawn up in Europe but based on the geographic description provided by text accounts. An abundance and multiplication of failures and mistakes is evident and is partly related to the scarcity of sources and due to reproduction techniques

Thinking in Islands; The Portuguese perception of the Indonesian archipelago and particularly of Sunda in early texts and charts

This article discusses various early sources on the Indonesian archipelago. It starts with the status of knowledge before the first voyage of the Portuguese to the Moluccas from accounts of travellers to insular Southeast Asia in the Middle Ages and the picture on world maps European cartographers produced. Comparing that view with text sources and the resulting geographic material of the first expeditions by the Portuguese provides an insight into contemporary mechanisms of knowledge transfer. Certain effects can be traced and are repeated on different levels of access to the original facts mainly because most maps were drawn up in Europe but based on the geographic description provided by text accounts. An abundance and multiplication of failures and mistakes is evident and is partly related to the scarcity of sources and due to reproduction techniques.KeywordsPortuguese perception, Indonesian archipelago, Sunda, world maps, cartography, toponym

Kein Wort von Bedeutungslosigkeit. Sunda als Name und Begriff in drei Herrschaftsdiskursen

Ueber den Zeitraum von 500 Jahren wird in dieser Arbeit die Entwicklung der Fremdwahrnehmung von Sundanesen und ihres Landes Sunda in West-Java, Indonesien, nachgezeichnet. Einst hoch gepriesen von der Handelsnation Portugal, unter dem Kolonialismus der Niederlaender als Terminus gemieden und schließlich in den Vielvoelkerstaat Indonesien eingepasst, zeigen sich am Beispiel Sunda die vielfaeltigen Auswirkungen der politisch-oekonomischen Diskurse. Es wird ein Bogen geschlagen, von den ersten europaeischen Nennungen in portugiesischen See-Karten und Reiseberichten, ueber die fruehen Zeugnisse der Entstehung Niederlaendisch-Ostindiens und die koloniale Selbstdarstellung auf den Weltausstellungen hin zu den Mechanismen der Bildung einer Nation Indonesien. Das wechselhafte Bild von Sunda wird durch Tagebuchauszuege und literarische Beschreibungen der deutschen Exotik sowie eine Analyse frueher Standardwerke der Voelkerkunde abgerundet und zeigt so die sich verschiebenden Dimensionen und Querverbindungen des Diskurses auf

Public Art Journal

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