To Live As Brothers: Southeast Sumatra in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Andaya (Asian studies, U. of Hawaii) examines how the arrival of the Dutch and English impacted the relationship between two kingdoms in Sumatra, the Jambi and the Palembang, who had a long history of cyclical hostility and reconciliation. She focuses on three themes culled from legends and folklore: the relationship between the ruler and the subject, the importance of kinship in all human dealings, and the ambivalent association between upstream and downstream. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.