Slaves and Slave Trade in the Timor Area

Between Indigenous Structures and External Impact

Bibliographic Data

ID9390786
AuthorsHans Hägerdal (0000-0002-4758-191X, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume54
Issue1
Pages15-33
Publication date2020-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Social History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4529 • E-ISSN: 1527-1897
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jsh/shaa005
OpenAlexW3083352979
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited14

This study rethinks the patterns of slave-holding and slave trade that can be discerned in small-scale societies in the Timor region of the Indonesian archipelago, especially Timor, the Solor and Alor Islands, Rote, and Savu. It studies how European powers—the Dutch and the Portuguese—influenced the trade in enslaved human beings and how this was balanced by slaving conducted by Asian forces. The study is based in large part on archival sources from the VOC period, together with published Portuguese sources. Data on these issues provides some basis for comparisons with other, better documented cases of slavery and slaving in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. This contributes to an understanding of how local systems of slavery interacted with the transregional systems represented by external groups

Archaeology · Archipelago · Development economics · Economics · Economy · Ethnology · Geography · Indigenous · Indonesian · Political science · Portuguese · Southeast asia · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Ecology · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Maritime Security and History