The benefits of approaching cross-cultural encounters with equal attention to all parties involved is demonstrated with considerable success by Romain Bertrand in his recent History of Equal Parts – Accounts of an East-West Encounter (16th-17th Century) (‘L’Histoire à Parts Égales – Récits D’une Rencontre Orient-Occident (XVIe-XVIIe Siècle’). Bertrand’s ‘symmetrical’ history, focus​sing on the Dutch-Javanese encounter, forms a powerful response to Serge Gruzinski​‘s enormously influential […]