Centre of Non-Western Studies becomes Research School
RESEARCH SCHOOL CNWS: SCHOOL OF ASIAN, AFRICAN, AND AMERINDIAN STUDIES

The Research School CNWS: School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies
of Leiden University was officially inaugurated on September 27, 1993. The
new Research School has been formed by the amalgamation of three
institutes, namely the Centre of Non-Western Studies, the Research
Institute for Descriptive and Comparative Linguistics, and the Centre for
the History of European Expansion. The Research School is supported by
three faculties at Leiden University: namely the Faculties of the
Humanities, Law, and the Social Sciences, as well as the Faculties of the
Humanities of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and of the Catholic
University of Nijmegen.
The aim of the new School is to encourage non-Western studies in the
Humanities, Law, and the Social Sciences; to strengthen co-operation
between the disciplines involved; to intensify the collaboration with the
national research institutes and museums in Leiden; and to stimulate
internationalization of research and teaching in the various relevant areas
and disciplines. Attention is focused on the main areas studied by the
constituent departments: Africa; the Middle East; South Asia; Southeast
Asia and Oceania; the Far East; Latin America; the Caribbean islands; and
Indian North America. Each of these areas is studied from various
disciplinary angles, notably archaeology, art history, history, law,
linguistics, literature, and the social sciences. Equal attention is paid
to contemporary developments and to earlier phases in the development of
the various regions and cultures. Theoretical as well as applied research
is stimulated.

By Willem Vogelsang

The main event of the last few months has been the official recognition, a
letter dated June 21, 1994, of the CNWS as a Research School by a special
committee installed by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
This means that the CNWS is now one of the official research centres in the
Netherlands, and as such may profit from extra funds to be allocated by the
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
During the last few months, four PhD students attached to the CNWS
presented their dissertation. They are: F. Colombijn, `Patches of Padang:
the history of an Indonesian town in the twentieth century and the use of
urban space'; M. Hockx, `A Snowy Morning: eight Chinese poets on the road
to modernity'; M. G. Kossmann, `Grammatical Description of the Figuig
Dialect of Berber'; H. Neudecker, `The Turkish Bible Translation by Yahya
B. Ishƒk, also called Haki (1659)'.

This summer the CNWS has appointed nine new PhD students for a period of
four years. Their names and research projects are listed below:

J. EYFERTH
`Rural Industrialization and Social Change in Southwest China, 1911-1993'.
Since the beginning of the economic reform period, rural industries have
become one of the fastest growing sectors in the booming Chinese economy.
They experienced a more than five-fold increase in output during the 1980s,
eclipsing growth rates in agriculture and urban industries. In 1991, the
total output value of rural industries surpassed that of agriculture
(Zhongguo tongji nianjian 1992). The growth of rural industries has been
widely perceived as a new phenomenon, the fruit of the economic reforms
implemented since 1978. However, present-day rural industries have
inherited many features from the collective enterprises of the Maoist years
and from the household industries of the Republican period (1911-1949),
features which continue to shape them and are in part responsible for their
success.
The aim of this research project is to examine how rural industries have
changed during the last ninety years, and how these changes have affected
the rural population. It is set up as a longitudinal study of one village
enterprise and its historical predecessors in the Southwest Chinese
province of Sichuan. Depending on local circumstances, the industry to be
studied will be either paper production or wood processing, both industries
of long standing in Sichuan. The fieldwork period of one year will include
work in archives and direct observation (interviews, data collection) in
the village.
The research is supervised by Prof. A. Saich and Dr. F. Pieke. 

P. FOLMER 
`Ideas and Values in the Marriage Ritual of the Manding in East Senegal'.
Marriage among the Manding is a complex ceremony which is preceded by a
long period of negotiations between the two families concerned. During the
ceremony and the preceding negotiations there are certain values which are
presented either verbally or non-verbally. The present study concentrates
on the following questions: a) which ideas and values are expressed in the
marriage ritual of the Manding according to existing ethnographies; b)
which ideas and values are brought forward by the participants in a
particular village in East Senegal during interviews with the researcher;
c) which ideas and values are expressed in the marriage ceremony itself and
how are these referred to the participants when watching a video of it; d)
if there are differences in the ideas and values indicated in a, b, and c,
how can they be explained, and how can these clarify the ideas and values
brought forward by the rituals themselves?
The research is supervised by Prof. A. J. J. Mekking.

P. J. HAVIK 
`Partners, Brokers and Entrepreneurs: changes in gender relations and the
dynamics of women traders in the Guinea Bissau region since the 19th
century'. Due to the momentous changes in Guinea society brought about by
the introduction of economic liberalization policies in the context of the
Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), the scope for commercial activities
in Guinea Bissau has expanded greatly. Trade has become the principal
activity for many women, who have become pivots of exchange circuits
without having access to credit or benefitting from other support
facilities by seizing opportunities for revenue generation. These circuits
extend throughout the region and encompass ethnic, age, mutual-aid, and
neighbouring groups. The gender specific impact of such policies has been
the legalization and reinforcement of women's `informal' networks, hitherto
suppressed by successive colonial and post-Independence regimes, and their
integration into existing West African networks. Applying concepts from
social theory (Bourdieu, Giddens) and gender theory (Wolffensperger,
Risseeuw) parallels are drawn between previous periods of transition (from
the 19th century onwards) and present-day Guinea Bissau in order to
identify the modes of operation of women's entrepreneurship in the region. 
The research is supervised by Prof. C. Risseeuw.

A. M. J. M. VAN LENT 
`Coptic Apocalypses from the Early Arabic Period: reconstruction of a
literary tradition on the basis of cultural-historical research (motifs,
sources, etc.)'. The present study starts with a survey of Coptic
apocalypses from the Early Arabic Period. The researcher concentrates in
particular on the main themes and literary motifs in these texts. The
central problem relates to the contribution of Coptic traditions to the
origin of the texts.
The study is supervised by Prof. J. F. Borghouts and Dr. J. den Heijer.  

R. DE MAAIJER 
`The Economic and Political Role of the Monarchy during the Third Dynasty
of Ur (Mesopotamia, 2112-2004 B.C.)'. The extant literary sources from the
Ur III Period (royal inscriptions, hymns, and so forth.) give the
impression of a strongly centralized monarchy, but is this impression
supported by the administrative texts from the provinces? This question is
particularly relevant since the royal correspondence from the same period
reveals the ineffectual functioning of the state. The main problem
therefore is: where was the real centre of power, and who benefitted from
the system?
The study is supervised by Prof. K. R. Veenhof, Prof. H. Waetzoldt
(Heidelberg), Dr G. van Driel, and Th. J. H. Krispijn.

H. PLAISIER 
`Lepcha Grammar'. The Lepchas are the aboriginal inhabitants of the kingdom
of Sikkim, which was annexed by India in 1975. As Sikkim is now part of
India, wedged between the kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, the Lepchas have
become a minority in their own tribal homelands. These people were
described in the older British sources as forest-dwelling "fairy
worshippers". Their idiosyncratic shamanist religion and lifestyle has been
a never failing source of fascination to anthropologists. Their puzzling
language is unmistakably a member of the Tibeto-Burman language family, but
its exact position within the family has always presented a dilemma to
comparative linguists. Unlike other tribal languages of the Himalayas, the
Lepcha have their own indigenous "R¢ng" or Lepcha script. By historical
coincidence, the world's largest collection of old Lepcha manuscripts,
containing over 180 Lepcha books, is housed in Leiden. Leiden graduate
Heleen Plaisier is currently completing an exhaustive descriptive catalogue
of this manuscript collection, and this autumn she will embark on a journey
to the jungles of Kalimpong to conduct fieldwork among the Lepchas. It is
her objective to write the first comprehensive modern grammar of the Lepcha
language.

H. ROSKAMP 
`Cacicazgos and Ethnic Groups in Michoac n: the indigenous pictographic
historiography'. Before the Spanish conquest, the Mexican district of
Michoac n was divided into various cacicazgos (principalities). The
dominant group was the Purh‚pecha, who had settled in the region in the
12th century and had managed to retain their independence from the Aztecs,
according to native sources. One of the most interesting sources for the
study of this part of Mexico in the days before and just after the Spanish
conquest are the pictographical documents drawn up in the indigenous
tradition of the so-called codices or lienzos. The iconographical
conventions of this Old Mexican script are well known, but a separate study
of the variant used in Michoac n has still to be made. The present research
will study these sources in order to gain a better insight into the
ethno-history and social structure of the people inhabiting this part of
Mexico before and after the advent of the Spanish.
The study is supervised by Prof. H. A. A. P. Geertman and Dr. M. E. R. G.
N. Jansen.  

M. H. T. SUTEDJA-LIEM 
`The Dominant Position of the Indonesian Language in the Modern Balinese
Literary Tradition'. The genre of the modern novel made its appearance in
the Indonesian island of Bali in the early 1930s with books written in
Balinese. However, soon afterwards Bahasa Indonesia, the national language
of the country, replaced Balinese as the most important vehicle for
expressing of `modernity'; and the use of Balinese for the writing of
novels declined. This development, namely the replacement of the vernacular
by Bahasa Indonesia for the writing of novels, can be found all over
Indonesia. Ms. Sutedja-Liem is studing the Balinese situation concentrating
on the question of why modern novelists in Bali prefer to write in
Indonesian. In her work she will pay particular attention to four modern
writers, namely: Wayan Bhadra, Anak Agung Panji Tisna, Putu Wijaya, and
Jelantik Santha.
The research is supervised by Prof. H. M. J. Maier.
    

M. WINKEL 
`In Search of Culture and History: Japanese ethnographical studies around
1800'. This study is concerned with a corpus of historico-ethnographical
studies published around 1800 by a group of Japanese intellectuals. Their
work will be analysed within the context of the Chinese kaozhenqxue and the
Japanese kokugaku movements. Particular attention will be paid to the
following Japanese scholars: Ota Nanpo (1749-1823); Sant“ Ky“den
(1761-1816); Takizawa Bakin (1767-1848); Morishima Ch–ry“ (1754-1808); and
Oyamada Tomokiyo (1783-1845). The work of these intellectuals is
characterized by their insistence on the collection of facts and their
attempts to remain objective. Besides Japanese sources, they also made use
of Chinese and Dutch scientific publications.
The research is supervised by Prof. W. J. Boot.

Three other candidates have been awarded a one-year appointment in order to
complete their theses. These are: Mr. Cheng Shaogang, `The Chinese
Historiography of Formosa in the Dutch Period, 1624-1662'; Mr. Mikihiro
Moriyama, `The Invention of Sundanese Writing: the formation of print
literacy in nineteenth century West Java', and Mr. G. Negash, `Oral and
Written Literatures in Tigrinya: a history'.


RECENT CNWS PUBLICATIONS
18. Hockx, Michel, A Snowy Morning. Eight Chinese Poets on the Road to
Modernity. 282 pp, plus bibl. and index. Leiden 1994. ISBN 90-73782-21-X.
Price: DFl. 35.
19. Colombijn, Freek, Patches of Padang. The history of an Indonesian town
in the twentieth century and the use of urban space. 428 pp, index, bibl.
Leiden 1994. ISBN 90-73782-23-6. Price: DFl. 45.
20. Idema, W.L., Begeerde Draken: De In Alle Toonaarden van Liu Zhiyuan.
Ingeleid, vertaald en van aantekeningen voorzien door W. L. Idema. ca. 160
pp. Leiden 1994. ISBN 90-73782-26-0. Price: DFl. 35.
21. Jongeling, K., North-African Names from Latin Sources. ca. 220 pp.
Leiden 1994. ISBN 90-73782-25-2. Price: DFl. 40.
22. Oosten, Jarich (ed.), Texts and Tales. Studies in Oral Tradition. ca.
200 pp. Leiden 1994. ISBN 90-73782-27-9. Price: DFl. 35.
23. Bremen, Jan van, Vesna Godina and Jos Platenkamp (eds.), Horizons of
Understanding. An Anthology of Theoretical Anthropology in Europe. ca. 350
pp. Leiden 1994. ISBN 90-73782-28-7. Price: Fl. 45.
24. Hintzen, Geor, Protest Your Loyalty. An Analysis of the Rights of
Assembly, Procession, and Demonstration in the People's Republic of China.
ca. 250 pp. Leiden 1994. Price: DFl. 35.
25. Boot, W.J. (ed.), Literatuur en Tweetaligheid. ca. 220 pp. Leiden 1994.
ISBN 90-73782-29-5. Price: DFl. 35.
26. Driem, Sjors Lodewijk van, Een eerste grammaticale verkenning van het
Bumthang, een taal van Midden-Bhutan, met een overzicht van de talen en
volkeren van Bhutan. Leiden 1994. ISBN 90-73782-30-9. Price: DFl. 35.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Research School CNWS
Nonnensteeg 1-3, gebouw 1103
P.O. Box 9515
2300 RA Leiden
the Netherlands
Tel: +31-71-272171
Fax: +31-71-272939