## A PERFORMANCE FOR DINNER

Dining Culture and Colonial Identity in the Dutch East Indies, 1880-1910.

By: Emilie Bolding Ørum History

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ABSTRACT: When photography arrived in the Dutch East Indies in the middle of the 19th century, European  colonists  embraced  the  medium  to  immortalise  impressions  of  colonial  life.  By  studying photographs  produced  by  European  colonists  in  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  this  article  examines  dining culture as an arena of colonist regulation, construction and maintenance of colonist identity through visual and material performances and practices from approximately 1880 to 1920.

The article argues that colonists upheld clear cultural and social separation from the colonised through dining practices which highlighted the European material culture around the dining table and gentile sensibilities modeled after the ideals of Victorian gentility in the colonial metropole. The complete social segregation and rejection of cultural assimilation that is evident in the examined photographs, served to maintain colonists' European identity and exclusive positions of power in colonial society.

The  medium  of  photography  enabled  colonists  to  perpetuate,  reinforce,  and  preserve  the  captured messages of colonist idealized life and superiority, as the photographs were continually shared in both private and public European spheres.

Keywords: Dutch East Indies, the Netherlands, photography, dining culture, colonial identity

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## Introduction

After  the  initial  spread  of  photography  as  a  medium  in  1839,  colonial  authorities  brought  the technology from the Western world to European colonies such as the Dutch East Indies in the early 1840s. Soon, photography became accessible to the colonial elites who quickly took to the medium as a way to immortalise everything from large events to their daily lives, industrial production and architecture to landscapes and nature photography, as well as family gatherings, social practices, and material  culture.  As  European  colonists  snapped  away,  they  produced  formidable  collections  of photographs, many of which were circulated among family and friends, between the colony and metropole,  and  kept  safe  in  family  albums.  Today,  a  considerable  number  of  them  have  been published for all to see, although others are likely still held in private collections.

A number of researchers have recently engaged with expressions of colonist identity, colonial visual culture, and colonial life as represented through the medium of photography. Notably, there has been studies into photography produced in colonial Southeast Asia covering a variety of fields such as  architecture  (Achmadi  2014),  nature  and  outdoor  spaces  (Protschky  2008),  archaeology  (Bijl 2009),  plantation  life  (Minansny  2023),  domestic  life  (Protschky  2012),  soldier's  amateur photographs  (Protschky  2020),  and  Aboriginal  imprisonment  (Lydon,  2010).  The  role  which photography plays in these studies is both that of a source as to what is depicted, but also as a tool which use and effect on both the colonised and the coloniser, then and today, should be examined.

This article will examine the colonial table as an arena of colonist regulation, of what it meant to be Dutch  European,  and  how  Dutch  colonist  identities  were  constructed  and  maintained  through visual and material performances and practices thought of as essentially 'European' in a timeframe focused on approximately 1880 to 1920. By examining photographic depictions of Dutch colonist life in the Dutch East Indies, the article argues that colonists constructed their identity by upholding clear  cultural  and  social  separation  from  the  colonized.  The  colonial  dining  table  was  one  arena

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where  colonist identity was clearly expressed and  regulated through  demonstrations  of a performative dining culture highlighting European material culture and gentile sensibilities modeled after the ideals of Victorian gentility in the colonial metropol.

## European Colonists in the Dutch East Indies

In the beginning of the 16th century, the first Europeans arrived an area in Southeast Asia located within the borders of what is today the Republic of Indonesia. The first Portuguese traders were searching for spice growers, and the English and Dutch were not far behind. In the year 1602, the Dutch East India Company was established, which quickly cemented the Dutch as the dominant European power for the following 200 years. When the company went bankrupt and was dissolved in 1799, the government of the Netherlands took control and established the Dutch East Indies as a nationalised colony. The colony was extraordinarily valuable to the Dutch government particularly due to the generation of large profits from trade. Through exploitative labour, the colony produced spices and cash crops and later coal and oil, which enriched the Dutch colonial elite.

Dutch control of the colony was regularly challenged throughout the colonial period. Throughout the  years,  the  Dutch  colonial  forces,  the  Royal  Netherlands  East  Indies  Army  was  continuously deployed in colonial wars to supress various rebellions around the colony. Only in the beginning of the 20th century were the Dutch able to expand the area of the colony to cover the territory of Indonesia  as  it  is  today.  Dutch  control  of  the  colony  ended  when  the  Japanese  invasion  and occupation  during  World  War  II  resulted  in  the  Proclamation  of  Indonesian  Independence  in August of 1945. The Dutch government contested independence leading to the Indonesian National Revolution which finally ended, as the Dutch succumbed to international pressured and recognised Indonesian independence in December 1949.

The  colonial  governing  elite  was  usually  comprised  not  only  of  nationals  from  the  particular European colonial power which claimed sovereignty over the territory, but also a variation of other European nationals. This was the case in colonies across the globe as well as in the Dutch  East Indies. Colonist identity was therefore not so much divided into different nationalities. Instead, all Europeans  subscribed  to  the  same  identity  as  European  colonists  first,  with  nationality  coming

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second. Thus, in regard to colonists' identities, the European identity is in the majority of greater importance or synonymous with the colonists' national identity.

The  identity  produced  through  colonial  photographs  was  based  on  the  projection  of  perceived cultural and racial essences (Maxwell 2000: 9). To be considered as 'European' was not merely a question of identifying with a certain race or culture. A true European were delineated by their adherence to certain principles. According to Ann Stoler, racial membership was constructed and maintained  through adherence to 'middle-class morality, nationalist sentiments, bourgeois sensibilities,  normalised sexuality,  and  a  carefully  circumscribed  'milieu'…'  (Stoler  1995:  105). Deviating could therefore result in demonization by the metropole, as was seen of impoverished and mixed-race colonials. This also allowed for the acceptance of sexual double standards in the colonies, as  European  identity  itself  was  gender  coded  (Maxwell  2000:  7).  To  stray  from  these  principles would therefore not only be considered an abandonment of polite social customs, but also mean the loss of one's European identity, social standing, and material privilegies. Maintaining their European identity with all that included, was thus essential to European colonists in the Dutch East Indies.

## Photography in a Colonial Setting

When Photography initially spread as a medium, it was practically exclusively accessible to an elite community of white, upper middle class men in the Western world. Europeans employed by colonial authorities immediately brought the technology to European colonies such as the Dutch East Indies in  the  early  1840s.  Photography  was  a  craft  demanding  technical  skills,  chemical  knowledge, understanding of mechanical apparatuses, and special staging techniques. Thus, entry into the field was  barred  by  the  required  specialist  training  and  financial  investment,  meaning  that  access  to photography was a privilege for those who could afford to pay the associated fees. In the Dutch East Indies,  those  with  the  means  to  pay  were  generally  European  planters  and  officials,  Javanese aristocrats, and Chinese entrepreneurs (Protschky 2015: 12-13). By the end of the 19th century, however,  photography  had  undergone  a  stage  of  democratisation  whereby  it  had  become  more accessible among new social groups such as women, members of the working classes as well as some colonial  elites  and  ethnic  minorities  (Maxwell  2000:  9).  These  engaged  with  the  creation  of

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photographs  at  both  ends  of  the  camera  lens.  Consequently,  photography  had  become  a differentiated and widely distributed medium found in both high and popular cultures (Protschky 2015: 13).

Colonial  photography  worked  to  maintain  and  reproduce  the  racial  stereotypes  that  assisted European colonialism. Colonial exhibitions were popular sites of cultural production and knowledge dissemination  in  the  metropole.  Through  visual  representation,  they  catered  to  both  European adventure-seekers and tourists eager to gain insight into the colonial experience (Maxwell 2000: 9). Photography  was  regarded  as  accurate  evidence  of  actions  and  events  occurring  at  the  imperial outskirts. Thus, the photographic representations of people and objects in the colonies served as one of the main sources to colonial life (Maxwell 2000: 7).

The photographs, which could be seen at exhibitions, tended to fall within propagandistic ideals to a greater degree than the general photographic production. Images brought back from the colonies depicting more personal scenes leaned more towards accurate reality (Dujardin 2007: 13). These could often be found in private collections. Both types of photographs spanned a wide variety of genres, from anthropological displays of colonised peoples to exhibitions of colonial architecture, images of impressive natural landscapes, and domestic colonist life.

Photography became an important tool in the new science of the day, the 'scientific' study of the human races. A quantity of photographs including anatomical measurements were used to record the physical characteristics and anatomies of colonised peoples so that they could be studied and categorised by European scientists. Furthermore, European anthropologists showed great interest in studying and preserving cultural artefacts and social practices, which also included photography. These  studies  classified  indigenous  populations  in  areas  colonised  by  Europeans  as  so-called primitive doomed races. They were systematically depicted and interpreted according to reductive generalised tropes, as unable to progress, and in essence untouched by the modern colonial process despite the efforts of white colonists (Maxwell 2000: 10). In the end, the classification and study of human races granted legitimacy to further colonial expansion and contributed to the perception of the  colonised  as  inferior  and  stagnant,  doomed  to  be  left  behind  at  an  earlier  stage  of  human evolution by the civilised Europe (Dujardin 2007: 9-11). However, photography in colonial settings

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were not only concerned with documenting indigenous peoples, but also the colonists themselves. It  was  also  essential  to  record  the  daily  lives  of  the  colonists,  the  colonial  forces,  and  colonists' interactions with local indigenous populations (Dujardin 2007: 9).

It is important to recognise that not all photographs represented and reproduced the same colonial theories, stereotypes, and ideologies. Indeed, a small minority of photographers produced images focused on the colonised and empowerment of indigenous peoples (Maxwell 2000: 9). Even so, most photographs produced in a colonial setting empowered Europeans by upholding the binary opposition of European civility and indigenous savagery. Thus, photography also influenced the development and maintenance of European identity in a colonial context. Through the medium of photography, the image of the faraway 'Other' could be captured, frozen, and disseminated. In this way, photography contributed to the generalised perception in Europe of non-European lands as fundamentally 'other'. This relationship with the colonised and subjugated, and thereby inherently inferior, 'other' played a part in European perception and self-regard (Dujardin 2007: 9).

## Using Photography as Source

In  order  to  understand  and  interpret  colonial  photography,  it  is  essential  to  grasp  that  a  large quantity  of  photographs  were  produced  not  just  according  to  the  photographer's  vision  but additionally to the demands of the colonial cause of expansion, economic gain, and perceived racial and cultural supremacy (Dujardin 2007: 62).

Two important aspects must be considered with regards to the context in which colonial images were produced in order to better understand and interpret them. First, all photographs have been produced by a photographer with a vision, which heavily influenced the production of the image. The photographer, or the client who commissioned the photograph, had the intention to create a certain impression in the minds of the audience, whether these were visitors experiencing a colonial exhibition, family members viewing a private album, or government agencies. It is evident that at any  given  time,  photographic  portrayals  were  subordinate  to  the  needs  of  on  one  hand  the commissioner  and  on  the  other  hand  the  nation's  colonial  propaganda  with  regards  to  the  way people and events were portrayed and therefore interpreted (Dujardin 2007: 59). As with modern

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marketing,  colonial  photographs  were  carefully  staged  and  selected  to  highlight  some  aspects  of colonial life while downplaying or hiding others. Where many photographs produced in the colonial setting  highlight  beauty,  development,  and  progress,  one  must  not  forget  the  exploitation  and oppression  hidden  behind  the  romanticised  and  idealised  depictions  of  colonial  life  (Minansny 2023).

Secondly, photographs capture and freeze a single moment forever in time, which conditions the viewer's  perception  of  that  moment.  In  a  way,  the  photograph  becomes  a  placeholder  for  the memory of the moment to the owner. One could argue that colonial photography preserved some part of a state's colonial ideal and contributed by itself to the creation of certain perceptions of the 'Other' held by Europeans. Thus, photographs themselves can be seen as containing fragments of a country's colonial history and its colonial situation at a specific moment (Dujardin 2007: 14).

A great number of photographs have been produced in the setting of colonial Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, since the middle of the 19th century. Some can be found in the collection 'The Dutch East Indies in photographs, 1860-1940', which belongings to the The Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies under the National Library of the Netherlands. The collection  consists  of  more  than  3000  photographs  from  the  period,  depicting  sceneries  of nature and street life, architecture, and domestic scenes as well as portraits and group photos from the period mostly produced by professional photographers. Additionally, several images from the collection  of  Leiden  University  'Pioneer  photography  from  the  Dutch  Indies'  is  used.  This collection contains over 4500 photographs pertaining to the former Dutch Indies in the 19th and early 20th century, most of them taken by professional photographers commissioned by the Dutch government and various historical societies. It should be noted that all photographs used have been loosely dated by the archives as having been produced in the periods of either 1890-1930 or 18601940. This is unfortunately common in photographs from these collections, where information on both photographer and exact date have often been lost.

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## Setting the Table: European Dining Culture

By the 19th century, any act occurring around the dinner table in a European upper middleclass household, was not only about sustenance, but just as much a carefully crafted social display. The dining culture of the period often called 'Victorian', was an aspect of a lifestyle, or habitus that can be termed 'gentility', which implied respectability, refinement, good taste, and good family through their  choices related to aspects such as etiquette, manners, food choices and dress. By the act of dining the household would show the achievement of private refinement and public politesse or be judged for the lack thereof. In a way, dining was the ultimate test, which would ruthlessly expose any unsuitable performance (Young 2010: 133).

The  Victorian  dining  culture  with  roots  in  the  genteel  habitus,  was  mainly  expressed  through etiquette and consumption. These two aspects shaped the rituals of polite dining and worked as systems of differentiation and identification of practitioners in relation to each other. By inclusion and exclusion, the practitioner's mastery of social capital became visible to all other initiates of the system (Young 2010: 137). Correct dining and table manners was an eternal battle to establish one's position, protect it from criticism, and perhaps even advance it and move up the social ladder. In this struggle, a correct dining performance was interpreted by observers as clear evidence of gentility, or a person's character and worth. The outcome, however, was heavily dependent on the opinions of those one sought to be affiliated with (Young 2010: 136).

Polite  dining  was  not  limited  to  table  manners.  The  correct  consumption  of  goods  was  just  as essential. The wide variety of goods available to the European middle class household in the 19th century, could prove to be just as challenging to navigate for the Victorian household. Knowledge was necessary to acquire perfectly suitable goods, in the right combination and correct order, for just the right purpose (Young 2010: 139). The display of luxury and high culture goods could be the deciding factor when it came to the family's social standing. Such goods as tableware of ceramic, porcelain, glass, or precious metals, metal cutlery, and beautifully printed textiles for tablecloths were  preferred  and  generally  belonged  to  every  cultured  European's  dining  table,  where  they presented  the  genteel  practices  as  a  social  statement  about  the  values  of  their  owners.  A  genteel

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family had to demonstrate genteel standards through their consumption of goods (Young 2010: 139).

The  exemplary  case  to  represent  polite  dining  was  the  formal  dinner  party  hosted  by  genteel Victorian Europeans. A dinner party as an occasion called for highly controlled performances from guests, hosts, and servants alike. Generally, invited guests would all come from similar backgrounds, be of similar social status, and thus share similar values and behaviours. In this way, no one would have  to  endure  any  discomfort  from  interacting  with  or  being  connected  to  any  unsuitable acquaintances (Young 2010: 139).

A dining room was necessary to host a dining party. Thus, the existence of the dining room itself signalled  the  hosts'  gentility  to  all.  The  designated  dining  space  was  refined  in  its  complete separation from the kitchen, which was a place of hectic work of production and preparation of food, and appropriate only for servants and the poor. Furthermore, the designated dining room required specialised furniture to create the correct genteel dining environment. It was recommended to  be  furnished  with  pieces  of  display  furniture  such  as  mahogany  sideboards  with  lamps  which would contain and display tableware,  side  tables,  a  beautiful  dining  table  with  matching  chairs, cabinets for wine storage, a large mirror, and elaborately framed pictures for decorating the walls (Young 2010: 141). The table setting was full of opportunities for the display of both wealth and the subtle range of practices that characterised genteel identity.

The  use  of  cutlery  was  among  the  earliest  expressions  of  self-controlled  genteel  eating.  Thus, matching sets of elaborate cutlery belonged to every plate. Particularly the silver fork carried great significance  as  the  tool  of  rich,  refined  dining.  Their  presence  signalled  the  high  standards  and effortless ability to partake in refined dining shared by all guests (Young 2010: 141). The tableware was extensive, typically counting more than 60 pieces. It was largely made up of sets of matching plates, a number of serving dishes, bowls, and sauceboats of white ceramics, painted by hand or printed  with  decorations.  Glassware  was  equally  varied  and  plentiful.  With  dishes  and  cups  for different foods and beverages, a large dining party would need considerable amounts of tableware (Young 2010: 142).

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## Dinner Parties in the Dutch East Indies

Photographic collections from the Dutch East Indies are a treasure trove when it comes to depictions of dinner parties and lavishly decorated tables laden with tableware. Several photographs taken at large dinner parties before the dinner guests arrived at the tables, allow us to experience the sight which would greet guests at such parties.

Photograph  1  depicts  an  unknown  dining  room  in  Jakarta.  The  photographed  wooden  tables surrounded by matching carved wooden chairs can be seen covered by white tablecloths, multiple China plates and metal cutlery for different courses, drinking glasses, wine glasses, glass decanters, and  wine  bottles.  Artfully  folded  cloth  napkins  and  elaborately  arranged  floral  centrepieces decorated the tables. Along the walls could further decorations be found such as paintings, floral arrangements, and gilded mirrors. Above it all, lit chandeliers hung from decorated ceilings where they lit up the room and showed off the splendour to all.

Photograph 1 seemingly depicts a dinner party related to a Christmas celebration, as the room was decorated with something akin to fir garlands and a makeshift Christmas tree hanging from the ceiling with paper bells and lights attached over a dance floor. The party depicted in photograph 1 was clearly to be a large celebration with many guests attending and dining together in a colonial version of a European celebration of Christmas.

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Photograph 1: 'Versierde eetzaal met dansvloer' (Eng: 'Decorated dining room with dance floor'), Dutch East Indies. Exact date unknown, 1860-1940. Source: MM.537/199 (Photo in album), Pioniersfotografie uit Nederlands-Indië, Prenten-kabinet Leiden. Permalink: https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=urn:gvn:PKL01:MM-537-199

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Another dining party is depicted in photograph 2 which show a group of men standing around a festively  set  table  in  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  under  what  appears  to  be  a  painting  of  the  Dutch monarch Wilhelmina and the flag of the Netherlands, demonstrating their intact close connection to  the  Dutch  fatherland.  Compared  to  photograph  1,  the  decorations  in  this  room  were  more subdued for a smaller party. However, the festively dressed European men stood around a long table fully  set  with  white  tablecloth,  tableware  of  China  and  glass,  and  what  appears  to  be  a  floral centrepiece, just as in the first photograph.

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Photograph 2: 'Mannen bij feestelijk gedekte tafel' (Eng: 'Men at festively set table'), Dutch East Indies. Exact date unknown, 1860-1940. Source: MM.537/127 (Photo in album), Pioniersfotografie uit Nederlands-Indië, Prenten-kabinet Leiden. Permalink: https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=urn:gvn:PKL01:MM-537-127

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On a daily basis, few possessed the means or desire to host elaborate dinner parties. Instead, dinner could be taken less formally by individual families in reduced form. This would also be the case in households with limited financial resources, that might not have the room to spare to a dedicated dining room. In those cases, a dining table setup in the parlour became a common compromise, though it was then impossible to host formal dinner parties (Young 2010, 141).

The Dutch archives include many examples of these smaller dining rooms used for more intimate and less formal dining parties. However, as photograph 3 shows, the same standards with regards to table settings, dinner wares, and decorations, were still upheld albeit on a smaller scale. The private dining  rooms  seen  in  photograph  3  could  also  boast  to  induce  the  appropriate  genteel  dining environment,  as  they  were  furnished  with  the  important  pieces  of  specialised  furniture  such  as

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cabinets and sideboards of precious woods, dining tables with matching chairs for the guests, and elaborate light fixtures accompanied by framed pictures and a woven tapestry decorating the walls and  ceiling.  The  examined  dining  rooms  and  dinner  parties  were  clearly  all  rooted  in  the  same European gentile culture and habitus, which was expressed by the colonists adhering to it through the displayed decorations and table settings.

Photograph 3: 'Mensen heffen het glas aan gedekte tafel' (Eng: 'People raise glasses at set table'), Dutch East Indies. Exact date unknown,  1860-1940.  Source:  F.65/058  (Photo  in  album),  Pioniersfotografie  uit  Nederlands-Indië,  Prentenkabinet  Leiden. Permalink: https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=urn:gvn:PKL01:F-65-058

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Thus, a middleclass person should always be able to play their part in the ritualised refined dining performance, whenever attending such an event, as the dining ritual was continually practiced on a variety of scale (Young 2010: 143).

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## Domestic Servants in Frame

Apart from the colonists themselves, people belonging to another demographic are often present in photographs produced around the colonist dining table. In these photographs, domestic servants can be seen attending to the colonists dining at the table. Photograph 4  depicts a colonist dinner party held in Bogor near Jakarta with around 25 guests seated at chairs around the table. Behind them, almost as many Indonesian servants can be counted, standing straight as they posed for the photographer. The colonists were dressed in dark suits  and  what  seems  to  be  dresses  in  varying colours and patterns, standing out from each other and the white tablecloths in their formal dress.

Photograph 4: 'Feestelijk gedekte tafel met gasten; achter de stoelen Indonesische bedienden' (Eng: 'Festively set table with guests; behind the chairs Indonesian servants'), Dutch East Indies, Java, Bogor. Exact date unknown, 1860-1940. Source: MM.537/101 (Photo in album), Pioniersfotografie uit Nederlands-Indië, Prenten-kabinet Leiden. Permalink: https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=urn:gvn:PKL01:MM-537-101

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In  stark  contrast,  the  servants  were  all  dressed  in  identical  white  uniforms,  matching  the environment and décor of the dining room, as they almost blend into the background all as one, indistinguishable from each other.

The two groups, European colonists and Indonesian servants, were presented in photograph 4 as being  entirely  different,  performing  completely  separate  roles  at  the  dinner  table.  This  rigid dichotomy was emphasised not only through their position, but also through appearance and dress. While  the  photographs  show  the  colonists  seated  at  the  table,  ready  to  engage  in  the  dining experience, the colonised Indonesian servants are standing away from the table. All guests to the dining party are of European descent, whereas all servants are local Indonesian men. This segregation along racial lines was an important part of the colonist dining performance. By upholding this stark distinction  and  excluding  the  local  population  from  the  European  dining  practice,  colonists prevented racial  and  cultural  intermingling  in  this  important  arena.  Thus,  the  European  dining practice was reserved as an arena for colonists to maintain their status and identity among their colonist  peers,  while  being  attended  to  by  the  colonised  servants.  The  vastly  imbalanced  power relation depicted in theses photographs are quite clear.

A common way to depict domestic servants in colonist photography, showed the servant posed with different arrangements of table wares. Among these, tea sets were especially popular material goods which can be discerned in several photographs from Java. Photograph 5 shows a domestic servant clad in Indonesian clothing and bare-foot posed to the left of a set table with a piece of tableware in his hands, his eyes looking directly at the photographer. The table is covered with a white tablecloth topped by a tea set complete with teapot, teacup with saucer, pitchers, as well as various other vessels of ceramic and glass, a perfect example of the colonial tea set as it could be found across Europe and the colonies.

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Photograph 5: 'Huisbediende op Java' (Eng: 'Domestic servant in Java'), Dutch East Indies. Exact date unknown, 1860-1940. Source:  30784  (photo,  albuminedruk),  Nederlands-Indië  in  foto's,  1860-1940,  Koninklijk  Instituut  voor  taal-,  land-  en volkenkunde (KITLV). Permalink: https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=urn:gvn:KITLV01:30784

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This setup depicted the Indonesian domestic servant in his working environment with the tea set symbolising his relation to the European colonists for whom he worked. The photograph presents the man as an attendant and caretaker of the material wares related to the European table, while simultaneously underpinning an inherent opposition between the man and the objects. As he stands barefoot, interacting with the objects, the observer is acutely aware that this is a demonstration of his type of work. These objects were not his to own or enjoy, instead, they belonged to the colonists' material culture, and his role and use of them were limited to that of a servant's. The prepared tea is not for him to drink. This is highlighted by the lack of seating available at the table.

Whereas photograph 5 includes a chair, it was pushed behind and under the table, where it did not offer the man any clear place to sit down. In effect, this meant that the servants could not sit down

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at the table to partake in the tea. This can be interpreted as symbolical of the colonised servant's exclusion from the colonist's table.

This type of photograph can be compared to similar photographs of colonists posing with tea sets. Photograph 6 depicts a European colonist woman photographed in an almost identical pose. She stands to the left of a table, on which a tea set is arranged. Looking somewhat to the side of the photographer, she is dressed in a beautiful long light dress with her hair put up in an updo, and a small tea pot in her hands.

ret theeservice in fotostudio" (Eng: "Woman with tea service in photo studi

Photograph 6: 'Vrouw met theeservice in fotostudio' (Eng: 'Woman with tea service in photo studio'), Dutch East Indies, Java. Exact date unkown, 1890-1930. Source: 79.24/019 (kabinetfoto), Pioniersfotografie uit Nederlands-Indië, Prentenkabinet Leiden. Permalink: https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=urn:gvn:PKL01:79-24-019

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In contrast to photograph 5, she appears to be preparing tea for herself to partake. One significant difference between the photographs is the positioning of a chair next to the table. Whereas the chair was  either  unavailable  or  completely  absent  to  the  servants,  it  stands  open  and  inviting  to  the

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colonist woman, ready for her to sit down at the table to enjoy her tea. This slight variation in the positioning of the chair hints at the underlying power structures and struggles related to the policing of the colonial table.

## Colonial Dress

At  a  formal  dinner  party,  guests  would  attend  wearing  their  best  clothes,  which  also  played  an important role in the ritualised dining practice (Young 2010: 139). In  photographs 2, 3 and 4, colonist men were dressed similarly in either light or dark suits, depending on the dinner party, and dress shoes, while colonist women are seen in a variety of different colours, patterns, and cuts of dresses and hats. As a result of this, colonists were emphasised and individualised in the photographs as  their  appearances  stood  out  from  each  other,  while  they  were  simultaneously  identified  as  a collective following the same fashions and dress norms.

On  the  other  side,  the  Indonesian  servants  attending  to  dinner  parties  in  photograph  4  wore variations of the same uniform. All servants at a dinner party wore completely identical uniforms comprised  of  white  shirts  and  pants,  Indonesian  traditional  blangkon  headdress,  and  bare  feet. Because of this, the servants were mostly indistinguishable from each other, one identical collective, which almost became one with the background in the photographs. This effect only emphasised the difference in role and power for the European colonists and the Indonesian colonised at the dinner party as individualised master and unknown servant, as depicted in the photographs. Whereas dress and appearance at a dinner party was a chance for European colonists to dress up in formal clothing, show off to their peers, relax, and establish themselves as part of the European habitus, the dinner party was quite the opposite for the Indonesian participants. The effect of the servant uniform was that it stripped the servants of all individualism as they spent the party on their feet relegated to attend to the colonists.

The European colonists were, quite literally, the ones at the table, while the colonised Indonesian were pushed behind the chairs into the background, where they became an anonymous part of it.

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 02 December 2024

## Conclusion

By  performing  formal  dinner  parties  according  to  the  gentile  dinner  practice,  Dutch  colonists demonstrated their continuing belonging to the European metropole to both their colonist peers and the local colonised population. The photographic depictions of dinner parties, including the decorations, tableware, and guests, captured and perpetuated the performance of the gentile dinner practice.  They  highlighted  European  material  culture  and  gentile  sensibilities,  performed  by  the colonists just  as  well  as  any  refined  European  residing  in  the  metropole would. In this way, the photographs  acted  as  tangible  evidence  of  the  colonists'  common  gentile  habitus  and  European affiliation. In these photographs, you find no indications of cultural or social assimilation with the colonised local population, but instead complete cultural and social separation, as the European colonists appeared to perform social practices, as though they had never left Europe.

When local servants were included in colonist photographs, they were posed as anonymous servants in the background of dining parties, as a stark contrast to the colonists. While the individualised colonists  were  centred  and  sat  at  the  tables,  the  colonised  were  pushed  into  the  background, anonymised and invisible in their uniforms. This dichotomy was part of the colonist construction of their European identity, as it required complete social segregation for colonists to maintain their exclusive positions of power in colonial society.

The messages perpetuated in the discussed photographs could be shared and persistently reinforced as  they  were  shared  with  family,  friends,  and  the  wider  European  public,  showing  idealised highlights of colonist life. As the photographs captured these moments in time, they preserved the depictions and messages for long after the photographs were produced.

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 02 December 2024

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