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The June Forum on Travel and Travelers' Accounts in World
History is a continuation of the February Forum, with the addition of five new
articles spanning the tenth to the nineteenth centuries. Readers may want
to refer to February's Introduction to the Forum, where I offer a brief summary
on the nature and history of travel writing. What is new to this forum's
selection is its inclusion of women travelers in both Marina Tolmecheva's
article on medieval Muslim women as well as examples in Dane Morrison's piece
on "Glocal" history.
Sungshin
Kim leads off the Forum with an "alternative example" of Early Modern travel
writing from the Far East. Like their western counterparts, the travels
of three eighteenth century literati and emissaries from Chosŏn Korea to
Qing China, Hong Taeyong, Pak Chiwŏn and Pak Chega, compel the authors to
critique their own societies in light of the so-called "barbarian" Manchus. Kim
explains that the travelers "made this voyage within the framework of the
Sinocentric tributary system—one of the most traditional subjects in East
Asian historiography." Moreover, she offers an excellent primary source
example of Korean satire in which the travellers devise new philosophical views
of "civilized" and "barbarian," as well as the current state of affairs in Chosŏn
Korea as a reflection of their detailed observations of Chinese society.
Authors Gabrielle Porter and Tom
Taylor focus on the "emerging field of professional adventurer" and
journalism as they recount the 13,000 mile global odyssey of Thomas Stevens—on
a bicycle. A British citizen living in the United States, Stevens
published his adventures from San Francisco, across Europe, Central Asia and
China to an eager audience back home who devoured his exploits with "the
natives" in the Orient. The bicycle, according to Porter and Taylor,
uniquely shaped Steven's encounters everywhere he traveled; most Asians were
familiar with westerners—even if they had never actually seen one, but none
had seen a bicycle. And for Stevens, the fact that he "could
ride around the world on his own power was for him a testament of western
ingenuity and superiority" according to the authors. Culled from
newspaper articles and Stevens' own account, Porter and Taylor skillfully
recount the cyclist's exploits squarely within in the context of nineteenth
century geopolitics.
As in many other early societies, medieval
Muslim women did not leave behind travel accounts, and only a few exist in the
early modern era. As a result, world history can become his-story if professional scholars never stray from their archives in a particular time
and place and fail to piece together seemingly unrelated fragments into a
coherent whole. Yet Marina Tolmacheva refuses, thankfully, to leave these
women's stories untold in her article on Muslim women's travel experiences and where,
why, and how they traveled. Based on numerous accounts by male travelers
who reported on their female traveling companions, Tolmacheva weaves together a
portrait of Muslim women traveling, usually in caravans, throughout the
dar-al-Islam before 1500. Most reports focus on the hajj, since "the
requirement of pilgrimage to Mecca is equally incumbent on Muslim women and
men, although women may be excused from the obligation for lack of the
appropriate male escort" notes Tolmacheva. Nonetheless, many women
did more than simply accompany their husbands; often elite women took advantage
of their "freedom" and served as diplomats, organized charitable
activities, or pursued an Islamic education while in the holy cities.
Dane Morrison offers every world
history survey instructor a means to make world history relevant to the
students who wonder: what does all this have to do with me and my future
career? Morrison exquisitely details how the "glocal" approach,
connections between the local and the wider world, offers students a way to
identify directly with the surplus of material contained in the typical survey
course. From their classroom in Salem, Massachusetts, students read
ship's logs and local traveler accounts of Salem's men and women who brought
the East to the wharves of Salem through the Old China Trade (1784–1844) that
opened up commerce between the United States and the Qing Empire. Salem students
can also directly encounter East Asian "exotics" such as porcelain
and silks which fill the local Peabody Museum. Although the author
himself is particularly well-positioned to teach the glocal from his classroom
in Salem, he nonetheless offers prescriptions to his colleagues elsewhere.
Students can, for example, mine local archives or conduct oral interviews with
local businesses to make the global connections in their own communities.
Even more provocative, students might seek out the glocal in travel accounts
from blogs of local soldiers and/or missionaries stationed world-wide. Whatever
the means, making world history "glocal" is an invitation to make
world history relevant to our student's present day concerns.
In my article on Ludovico de
Varthema, the well-known early sixteenth century adventurer who left behind an
account on his travels through the Arabian peninsula, Persia, India and
Southeast Asia, I offer an opportunity for both scholars and students to
evaluate—or re-evaluate—how a particular travel account might be understood
and analyzed over time by historians as well as scholars in other
disciplines. Varthema's Itinerario has been touted by literary
scholars as a new secular genre of literature that breaks from its medieval
predecessors. I argue, however, that Varthema's account remains deeply
rooted in medieval crusade ideology and its wide popularity in the early modern
era served to justify Europe's colonial aspirations in South and Southeast
Asia.
Mary Jane Maxwell is Assistant Professor of History and Religious Studies at Green Mountain College and specializes in pre-modern cross-cultural encounters, travel history and world religions. She published the travel account of a Russian merchant, "Afanasii Nikitin: A Russian Orthodox's Spiritual Voyage into the Dar al-Islam" in the Journal of World History in 2006. Her forthcoming monograph with M.E. Sharpe is titled Women and Mysticism in World History, 800–1200: An Era of Divine Love and is due for release in early 2014. She can be contacted at maxwellmj@greenmtn.edu. |
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