The mutual perception of Europe and insular Southeast Asia in travellers' accounts: the role of religions

The long distance between Europe and Southeast Asia notwithstanding, it is evident that the relationships established between these regions long ago have resulted in an steadily increasing mutual understanding of their cultures. In conveying ideas about distant countries travel accounts play a particular role. Therefore, they are a suitable starting point for examining how travellers from Europe and Southeast Asia perceived the respective foreign cultures and religions. The key question of this workshop at the faculty of cultural studies at the Universitas Gajah Mada in Yogyakarta is how the role of the respective religions has shaped the perception of the respective other cultural sphere. To what extent do the perceptions of the Catholic or Protestant travels differ and where can we see similarities? How did Hinduism and Islam shape the perspective of travelers within insular Southeast Asia?

The following topics will be treated:

Premodern travellers and religion

Within this topic we especially invite articles on the following themes:
- The maritime linkage to Southeast Asia in the premodern era
- Representations of local culture and religion
- The perception of the caste system

Reports to be analyzed, for instance, are those written by
- Ludovico de Varthema
- Duarte Barbosa

Catholic travellers from Europe in Southeast Asia until the beginning of the 17th century

Within this topic we are particularly interested in the perspective of the Catholic religion as presented in reports of the following travellers:

- Tome Pires
- Antonio Pigafetta
- Jean Parmentier
- Fernao Mendes Pinto
- Francisco de Xavier

Protestant travellers from Europe in Southeast Asia from 16th to 18th century

Within this topic we intend to focus attention in the perspective of the Protestant religion as presented in reports of the following travellers:

- Jan Huygen von Linschoten
- Joris van Spilbergen
- Rijkloff van Goens
- William Dampier
- Joseph Stockdale

Travellers of the 19th century and Southeast Asian travellers in the West

Within this topic we especially invite articles on the following travellers and authors:

- Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn
- Eduard Selberg
- Raden Saleh
- Augusta de Wit
- Ida Pfeiffer

Here we also call attention to the question of how female European travellers negotiated religious practices in insular Southeast Asia.

We are also open to alternative topics and/or travellers related to the overall topic.

Pending budgetary approval limited funds are available to support attendance at the 2013 conference in Yogyakarta.

Please send a title and abstract until 10 October 2012 to the organizers:

Prof. Jürgen Sarnowsky (juergen.sarnowsky@uni-hamburg.de) and Prof. Monika Arnez (monika.arnez@uni-hamburg.de)