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.65. Meditation on Yellow: Trade and Indigeneity in the Caribbean 7When he wrote those words Columbus had only spent a few hours in the Caribbean,but already a complex web of action, reaction and assumption is embedded in hislanguage.Columbus s first announced action is to give red caps and glass beads.Theintroductory, but subsidiary, clause explains that this was in order that they would befriendly to us.What is at issue, however, is not merely the friendliness appropriateto meetings on liminal spaces between residents and visitors from across the sea.Implicit within Columbus s reported action (in words not accessible to the islandrecipients, but spelled out in his journal entry for the eyes of his king and queen)is the ulterior motive of conversion to our Holy Faith , better achieved, in this case,by love than by force.The key word in this sentence turns out to be recognized ,because this prior recognition has governed the choice of love over force andthereby has set the agenda for the subsequent actions of Columbus and his party.7The native behavior that has brought about that recognition can only beinferred.The island had been first sighted at two o clock in the morning.At firstlight they had seen naked people on the shore.The Admiral had landed in thearmed launch and had called on his companions to witness that, in the presence ofall, he would take, as in fact he did take, possession of the said island for the kingand for the queen his lords & Soon many people of the island gathered there.8So the people were not hostile.The Spaniards launch was armed, the initial encounterpresumably wary, but the tone quickly established as friendly.In some sense, ofcourse, a friendly encounter is the precondition for trading, and when visitors arrivefrom overseas, one would expect them to trade: they would be likely to need freshwater and food, and would be likely to have brought trade goods with them forthat purpose.Trading would no doubt be preceded by some ritual giving of gifts,to demonstrate friendliness, to fulfill the rules of hospitality, and to provide a tasteof what could later be traded.It scarcely needs to be pointed out that one does notusually begin trading by taking possession of the territory where one has just arrived.Indeed, informing one s hosts that they were now the subjects of a monarch fromacross the seas would undoubtedly do little for the prevailing atmosphere, which isprobably why Columbus refrained from mentioning his taking of possession to thenatives whose land he had just claimed in the name of his king and queen.Absence of hostility governs the distribution of caps and beads and many otherthings of small value , as a result of which the islanders become so much our friendsthat it was a marvel.There is an element of calculation in even this very first sentenceof American ethnography.The degree of friendliness that results from the gifts is a marvel ; and that so much in so much our friends is related to the small in of small value.In other words, it comes as a pleasant surprise to Columbus thatthe warmth of the welcome is in excess of the value of the items distributed.Theelement of calculation suggested by Columbus s words hints at a cultural economics.7 For a fuller account of this moment, see Peter Hulme, Tales of Distinction: EuropeanEthnography and the Caribbean , in Implicit Understandings: Observing, Reporting, andReflecting on the Encounters between Europeans and Other Peoples in the Early Modern Era,ed.Stuart Schwartz, Studies in Comparative Early Modern History (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1994), pp.157 97.8 Columbus, p.65. 8 Economies of Representation, 1790 2000Implicit if tightly embedded in that couplet (so much / small) is the language ofinvestment and accounting with which Columbus was familiar through his early yearsworking in Genoese trade, and through his continuing connection with his Genoesefinancial backers.Accountancy is lodged at the very beginning of the Europeancolonial venture; intimately entwined with that accountancy is the question of power.The friendliness with which Columbus begins his statement augurs well for businessas well as for peaceful conversion, but the unexpected success of the caps and beadsis ultimately to be gauged by the sort of relationship established. Friendship is arelationship of mutuality, in which trade and other forms of exchange can develop: itis entered into by equals [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.65. Meditation on Yellow: Trade and Indigeneity in the Caribbean 7When he wrote those words Columbus had only spent a few hours in the Caribbean,but already a complex web of action, reaction and assumption is embedded in hislanguage.Columbus s first announced action is to give red caps and glass beads.Theintroductory, but subsidiary, clause explains that this was in order that they would befriendly to us.What is at issue, however, is not merely the friendliness appropriateto meetings on liminal spaces between residents and visitors from across the sea.Implicit within Columbus s reported action (in words not accessible to the islandrecipients, but spelled out in his journal entry for the eyes of his king and queen)is the ulterior motive of conversion to our Holy Faith , better achieved, in this case,by love than by force.The key word in this sentence turns out to be recognized ,because this prior recognition has governed the choice of love over force andthereby has set the agenda for the subsequent actions of Columbus and his party.7The native behavior that has brought about that recognition can only beinferred.The island had been first sighted at two o clock in the morning.At firstlight they had seen naked people on the shore.The Admiral had landed in thearmed launch and had called on his companions to witness that, in the presence ofall, he would take, as in fact he did take, possession of the said island for the kingand for the queen his lords & Soon many people of the island gathered there.8So the people were not hostile.The Spaniards launch was armed, the initial encounterpresumably wary, but the tone quickly established as friendly.In some sense, ofcourse, a friendly encounter is the precondition for trading, and when visitors arrivefrom overseas, one would expect them to trade: they would be likely to need freshwater and food, and would be likely to have brought trade goods with them forthat purpose.Trading would no doubt be preceded by some ritual giving of gifts,to demonstrate friendliness, to fulfill the rules of hospitality, and to provide a tasteof what could later be traded.It scarcely needs to be pointed out that one does notusually begin trading by taking possession of the territory where one has just arrived.Indeed, informing one s hosts that they were now the subjects of a monarch fromacross the seas would undoubtedly do little for the prevailing atmosphere, which isprobably why Columbus refrained from mentioning his taking of possession to thenatives whose land he had just claimed in the name of his king and queen.Absence of hostility governs the distribution of caps and beads and many otherthings of small value , as a result of which the islanders become so much our friendsthat it was a marvel.There is an element of calculation in even this very first sentenceof American ethnography.The degree of friendliness that results from the gifts is a marvel ; and that so much in so much our friends is related to the small in of small value.In other words, it comes as a pleasant surprise to Columbus thatthe warmth of the welcome is in excess of the value of the items distributed.Theelement of calculation suggested by Columbus s words hints at a cultural economics.7 For a fuller account of this moment, see Peter Hulme, Tales of Distinction: EuropeanEthnography and the Caribbean , in Implicit Understandings: Observing, Reporting, andReflecting on the Encounters between Europeans and Other Peoples in the Early Modern Era,ed.Stuart Schwartz, Studies in Comparative Early Modern History (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1994), pp.157 97.8 Columbus, p.65. 8 Economies of Representation, 1790 2000Implicit if tightly embedded in that couplet (so much / small) is the language ofinvestment and accounting with which Columbus was familiar through his early yearsworking in Genoese trade, and through his continuing connection with his Genoesefinancial backers.Accountancy is lodged at the very beginning of the Europeancolonial venture; intimately entwined with that accountancy is the question of power.The friendliness with which Columbus begins his statement augurs well for businessas well as for peaceful conversion, but the unexpected success of the caps and beadsis ultimately to be gauged by the sort of relationship established. Friendship is arelationship of mutuality, in which trade and other forms of exchange can develop: itis entered into by equals [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]