Encountering the exotic: the collecting, trade and exchange of exotic goods between Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, from the 16th century to 21st century XVIth World Economic History Congress, 9th-13th July 2012, University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa

Location: South Africa
The encounter between travellers, merchants and explorers and the exchange of the exotic acted as a diverse catalyst for cultural practices, innovation, technological change and economic generation. This session will explore the circulation, assimilation and appropriation of exotic and foreign goods as they are transported, translated, collected and exchanged between diverse cultures from the 16th century to the present day.

Thinking about exotic goods invites us to pay attention to the role and function of the exotic in different scales  across national boundaries, countries and cities; and in different spaces  in the public and the private domain  as well as the relationships between the places of consumption and the places of origin. This session aims to explore the influence of the encounter with all kinds of exotic goods, from ritual objects, to artworks, from objects for the domestic interior, to technological, scientific and military objects; both newly made objects as well the old and the rare. By taking a broad time frame we hope to better understand the mutations of the exchange, collection, trade, display and production and consumption of exotic goods and how these encounters influenced broader transnational and transcultural economic change.

The session aims to explore these exchanges both in terms of the perspective of the Western encounter with the Other (the West’s appropriation, adaption and translation of the exotic), and from the perspective of the Others encounter with the West (how the encounter impacted upon and stimulated economic activities in Asia, Africa and the Americas). The nature and status of exotic goods are multiple and complex, as is the nature and status of the exotic as it changed through time and space. In our increasingly complex world of exchange, tourism, and migration, the encounter with exotic goods may be decreasing, but as a catalyst for the imagination the exotic still has a profound impact upon economic activity and practices.

We invite papers to explore these themes and relationships from a wide range of perspectives:

-On the marketplace actors  the travellers, explorers, merchants, scientists, artists, curiosity dealers, collectors, soldiers.
-On the biographies of the  exotic objects themselves  ritual objects, domestic and luxury goods such as porcelain and lacquer, new technologies such as clocks and maps.
-On the spaces of exchange  market-places, auctions, shops.
-On the spaces of exhibition and display institutions such as museums, public exhibitions and galleries, to the display in the domestic interior.

Please send abstracts of no more than 400 words abstracts to the session organisers:

Dr Manuel Charpy (CNRS France/University of Lille IRHIS) manuel.charpy@wanadoo.fr
and
Dr Mark Westgarth (School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds)m.w.westgarth@leeds.ac.uk

Closing Date for Abstracts: 15th February 2012

-Dr Manuel Charpy
IRHIS / CNRS
Universit de Lille 3
BP 60 149 – Rue du Barreau
59653 Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex

-Dr Mark Westgarth
Lecturer Museum Studies
Programme Director BA Art History with Museum Studies
School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
Email: manuel.charpy@wanadoo.fr