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The idea for the project presented in this volume began with an encounter and a discovery. When we – a medievalist and a sinologist – first met in autumn 2017, we realised that although we came from different disciplines and worked on different regions and time periods, we were struggling with the same problem: As historians working on slaving practices in the Venetian empire (14th–16th centuries) respectively servitude in late imperial China (15th–19th centuries), we were both spending much of our time explaining the contextual differences and similarities between the social configurations we were studying to the broader community of social, labour, and global historians. We both felt that our objects of study did not fit well within the much-debated subfield of “free and unfree labour”, and that the postcolonial critiques and the so-called global turn in history did not solve the conceptual problem we were facing. Integrating a medieval or Chinese case study into a conference panel or a special journal issue on household service or slavery helped to enlarge the horizon of the historiographical debates on the history of unfree labour relations, but the umbrella terms of these subfields of study and the limited conceptual references available did little to help us understand and properly convey the social taxonomies shaping the power relations we were studying.

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Ébranlée par des violences interconfessionnelles depuis 1996, l'Indonésie a été frappée par une série d'attaques terroristes, inaugurée par le spectaculaire attentat de Bali d'octobre 2002 (202 morts). Un premier programme de déradicalisation a été mis en place en 2004 par l'agence en charge de la lutte contre le terrorisme, le Densus 88.

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Premier pays du monde musulman en termes de population, l'Indonésie demeure assez largement absente des débats-y compris scientifiques-sur l'islam. Pourtant, en dehors de son poids démographique (250 millions de musulmans sur 280 millions d'habitants, soit presque autant que l'ensemble du monde arabe) 2 , l'immense archipel présente plusieurs intérêts au regard des questions d'autorité dans l'islam. Le premier est de nous permettre de nous décentrer du paradigme arabo-musulman largement dominant dans la littérature et contribuer ainsi à conférer à ces questionnements une dimension plus universelle. Le deuxième est la grande fluidité des débats qui a toujours caractérisé, au nom de la notion javanaise d'harmonie, les questions relatives à la religion dans ce pays : l'Indonésie est le seul état du monde musulman où les intellectuels les plus libéraux peuvent s'exprimer en toute liberté sans être contraints au silence ou à l'exil tout en cohabitant-et parfois même en débattant-avec les représentants des courants néo-salafistes les plus radicaux. Un troisième intérêt est celui de la diversité et de l'originalité des mobilisations conduites au nom de l'islam en à peine plus d'un siècle et, partant, des nouveaux modes et nouvelles figures d'autorité qu'elles ont fait émerger. Nourrie par un réformisme musulman solidement établi sous la colonisation, l'expérience remarquable d'une démocratie musulmane, au lendemain de l'indépendance, a ainsi constitué un tournant majeur dans l'histoire des processus de légitimation des dirigeants de la communauté musulmane. Son échec et la répression subie par les courants l'ayant portée entrainèrent un éparpillement des fonctions d'autorité qui témoigna de leur caractère contingent et fut propice à leur instrumentalisation au gré des intérêts défendus. Le cas indonésien témoigne donc de l'étonnante plasticité de cette notion d'autorité dans l'islam, reflet des différentes fonctions sociales et politique que la religion musulmane a pu exercer dans un pays où, malgré son poids démographique, elle n’a jamais bénéficié d’une exclusivité dans l’accès au sacré. Disputée au sein même d’une communauté musulmane divisée entre courants réformistes et traditionalistes, l’autorité exercée au nom de l’islam a pu, tout au long du vingtième siècle, procéder de sa proximité ou, au contraire de son opposition au pouvoir politique. Marquée, depuis le retour de la démocratie en 1998, par une multiplication des registres (moraux, économiques, politiques,…) susceptible de la fonder, elle est désormais caractérisée par son éclatement et, partant, par une certaine dissolution de son effectivité.

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Abstract Slavery is not a commonly discussed topic in late imperial Chinese history—indeed, as much as late imperial China is not an area usually discussed in world and global slavery studies. The ubiquity of the “feudal” analytical framework in Chinese historiography and the image of the archetypal “slave” have resulted in the widespread idea that there was no slavery in (early-) modern China (and Eastern Asia). This chapter reevaluates this widely accepted preconception by shedding light on the overlooked and unique succession of “slave revolts” that erupted in China’s economic centers between the 1630s and the 1660s. The focus on this particular moment in Chinese history and on the sources produced in its aftermath serves as an entry point to understanding the life experiences of Chinese nubi , a category of enslaved people that persisted until its formal abolition in the last years of the imperial regime.

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Abstract Since the 1990s, Indonesia has been confronted with the growing influence of a radical Islamist movement that challenges the state doctrine (Pancasila), which was adopted in 1945, and demands a greater place for Islam, which is the religion of nearly 90 per cent of the population. The hardline groups wish to call into question the Indonesian state’s pluralistic and inclusive religious identity, which they see as a conspiracy hatched by the Christian minority to deprive the Muslim majority of its ostensible rights. The Society of Jesus, which has been present in Java since the nineteenth century, is considered by Islamist critics as the main architect of this alleged plot. Furthermore, one of its members, Father Josephus Beek, is presented by Islamist radicals as one of the founders of the New Order (1966–1998), the regime led by General Suharto which was very hostile to political Islam in its early days. This article analyses how the Society of Jesus was able to integrate Catholicism into the Javanese spiritual landscape and explores the subsequent roles played by Jesuit leaders in the genesis and defence of Pancasila. It also sheds light on how Josephus Beek’s very real manoeuvres have provided fodder for militant Islamist circles seeking to delegitimate Indonesia’s secular status quo.

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In the past four decades or so, China scholars have shone a new light on the history of labour in late imperial China, particularly on the role of the household as a unit of production and on the contribution of women to commercial production and family income. Beyond members of the kin group itself, attention is seldom paid to the individuals brought into the Chinese households solely to provide additional manpower. To “break the carapace” of the late imperial Chinese household, this article focuses on the often-omitted “household workers”, that is, on its enslaved ( nubi ) and hired ( gugong ) constituents. It approaches the topic from the angle of the vulnerability of these non-kin “workers” to punishments and violence. To evaluate their vulnerability to punishment and gauge the disciplinary powers of the household heads, it examines the relationship between punishments and “household workers” in Ming law. It then explores lineage regulations, before moving closer to the ground by mobilizing a wider variety of day-to-day sources, such as contracts and narrative sources produced in the context of the late Ming and early Qing crisis.

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