Shipped but Not Sold: Material Culture and the Social Protocols of Trade during Yemen’s Age of Coffee

225 Pages·2017·13.54 MB·English

by  Nancy Um

S N S
HIPPED BUT OT OLD
Perspectives on the Global Past
Anand A. Yang and Kieko Matteson
SERIES EDITORS
Shipped but Not Sold
Material Culture and the
Social Protocols of Trade during
Yemen’s Age of Coffee
Nancy Um
University of Hawai‘i Press
Honolulu
Color images were made possible by a generous contribution from the Harpur College of
Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office at Binghamton University.
© 2017 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 1 8 17 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Um, Nancy, author.
Title: Shipped but not sold : material culture and the social protocols of trade during
Yemen’s age of coffee / Nancy Um.
Other titles: Perspectives on the global past.
Description: Honolulu : University of Hawai‘i Press, [2017] | Series: Perspectives on the
global past | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016044210 | ISBN 9780824866402 (cloth ; alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Ceremonial exchange—Yemen (Republic)—History—18th century. |
Merchants—Yemen (Republic)—History—18th century. | Yemen (Republic)—Com-
merce—History—18th century.
Classification: LCC GN449.8 .U4 2017 | DDC 394/.4—dc23
LC record available at ß∑
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free
paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Council on Library Resources.
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Spelling, Conventions, and Dates xiii
Introduction 1
1 Rites of Entry at the Maritime Threshold 25
2 European Merchant Tribute in Yemen 59
3 Merchants from India and Their Gift Practices in Yemen 85
4 Everyday Objects and Tools of the Trade 107
Conclusion 141
Notes 149
Bibliography 179
Index 191

List of Illustrations
FIGURES
0.1. Map of Yemen. 4
1.1. View of Mocha from the harbor. 34
1.2. The dress of Arab notables in Yemen. 38
1.3. Courji, a Baniyan chief of the French agents at Mocha. 40
1.4. The clothing of Baniyans in Mocha. 41
1.5. Military exercises of the Arabs in Yemen. 43
1.6. Map of Mocha. 46
1.7. Vessels used to serve and drink coffee, to sprinkle rosewater,
and to burn incense. 49
1.8. House in Mocha, Yemen. 55
4.1. Water vessel, made in al-Mimdara, southern Yemen,
twentieth century. 115
4.2. Diagram of the packing of wine bottles based on finds from
the Amsterdam shipwreck. 118
4.3. Surgical instruments. 123
4.4. Boxed set of gold weights and scale, Dutch Republic/Northern
Rhineland, 1696. 126
4.5. Armchair, probably Coromandel Coast, India, 1680–1720. 135
vii
PLATES
Following page 82.
1. View of Mocha from the jetty.
2. Coffee cups, al-Hudayda, Yemen, 1960s.
3. Rosewater sprinkler, made originally in China, with mounts
added later, possibly in Malaysia or Iran, 1730–1750.
4. A pair of incense burners, Yemen, ca. 1763.
5. List of cloth requested for Mocha with colored swatches.
6. Right side of an illuminated finispiece with inscribed prayer,
Qur’an, Safavid, Iran, seventeenth century.
7. Jeweled dagger and sheath, Safavid, Iran, seventeenth century.
8. Cellaret, Batavia (Jakarta, Indonesia), with flasks from Arita,
Japan, 1680–1700.
9. Bottle, Japan, 1670–1700.
10. Doctor’s cabin on the Stavenisse.
11. Interior of a house in Jidda.
viii
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
While I was conducting archival research for my PhD dissertation almost
twenty years ago, I noticed that the Dutch and English East India Com-
pany records from Yemen reflected a consistent preoccupation with cere-
monial activities staged for merchants and gift exchange. Because I was
primarily interested in architecture and urban form at that time, these refer-
ences were unwelcome distractions to the goal of my study, so I paid little
attention to them. Moreover, these cyclical receptions and gift encounters
were sometimes described in the context of long, repetitive, and tedious
disputes that, quite frankly, seemed petty and overdrawn. Many years later,
when I returned to the Dutch archives, I came to understand that these
disputes were primarily oriented around material goods and that they were
extremely relevant rather than peripheral to the study of long-distance trade
in Yemen. Many in-depth conversations with colleagues from different
fields who are committed to various theoretical orientations helped me to
engage in new ways of reading and thinking about sources, some of which I
had been working with for many years. The paragraphs below constitute an
effort to acknowledge the generous and lively but also challenging voices
that are present, in some way or another, in the pages that follow.
I am fortunate to have landed in the vibrant Art History Department
at Binghamton University, which has been, in every way, a perfect intellec-
tual home for me. My colleagues at Binghamton have heard parts of this
project in various forms and have commented generously and intelligently on
them. Thanks are due to all of them for offering support throughout this
process and providing specific suggestions for reading, but also for their in-
spiring collective vision of an expanded field of art history. Andrew Walkling
went even further in offering help with early modern English orthography
and conventions, while cheerfully fielding questions about seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century Britain. Years ago Pam Smart lent me a stack of books,
many of which appear in my bibliography, particularly those on exchange
theory and notions of value. She deserves special mention for entertaining
the tentative anthropological inclinations of an art historian with exceptional
kindness and enduring support. Other colleagues on campus, such as Mary
ix