Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing, 1245-151

by Kim M. Phillips

A distinct European perspective on Asia emerged in the late Middle Ages. Early reports of a homogeneous "India" of marvels and monsters gave way to accounts written by medieval travelers that indulged readers' curiosity about far-flung landscapes and cultures without exhibiting the attitudes evident in the later writings of aspiring imperialists. Mining the accounts of more than twenty Europeans who made—or claimed to have made—journeys to Mongolia, China, India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia between the mid-thirteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Kim Phillips reconstructs a medieval European vision of Asia that was by turns critical, neutral, and admiring.

In offering a cultural history of the encounter between medieval Latin Christians and the distant East, Before Orientalism reveals how Europeans' prevailing preoccupations with food and eating habits, gender roles, sexualities, civility, and the foreign body helped shape their perceptions of Asian peoples and societies. Phillips gives particular attention to the texts' known or likely audiences, the cultural settings within which they found a foothold, and the broader impact of their descriptions, while also considering the motivations of their writers. She reveals in rich detail responses from European travelers that ranged from pragmatism to wonder. Fear of military might, admiration for high standards of civic life and court culture, and even delight in foreign magnificence rarely assumed the kind of secular Eurocentric superiority that would later characterize Orientalism. Placing medieval writing on the East in the context of an emergent "Europe" whose explorers sought to learn more than to rule, Before Orientalism complicates our understanding of medieval attitudes toward the foreign.

Genres: History, Medieval, Travel, Nonfiction, Asia

328 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 2013

About the author

Kim Phillips is Associate Professor in History at the University of Auckland, where she previously held the positions of Lecturer (1997-2001) and Senior Lecturer (2001-2013). Kim is originally from Melbourne, Australia, where she completed her BA and BA (Hons) at the University of Melbourne (1991) before receiving a Commonwealth Scholarship to study at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, UK, where she completed her DPhil (1998).

Kim maintains two main areas of research interest, which she explores both separately and in conjunction with one another. The first is the history of medieval women, gender and sexuality in European societies c. 1100 c. 1550. Histories of life cycle and the body form part of this research strand. The second is representations of foreign lands and peoples in medieval travel and ethnographic writing. Her recent publications include Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing, 1245-1510 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), A Cultural History of Women in the Middle Ages (as editor) (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), and articles on travel writing in medieval Britain and Europe, and gender and sexuality in the medieval Christian tradition. She is working on articles and chapters on European representations of Chinese cities, foreigners' portrayal of medieval Irish women, the cultural history of hair, and women's bodies in vernacular medical texts.

Reviews

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 3 out of 5]

So interesting, but a bit detached from history. Its stated aim is to study European culture not Asian history; however, that became a frustration, when the travelers' observations and mentalities weren't judged against (more of an attempt to determine) what they saw. I began to feel this when she addresses European portrayals of Mongol women: she claims no expertise in whether their constructions were accurate (for what it's worth, I think, more accurate than she allows).

Uses a wide range of sources.

Seems to have come out simultaneously and from the same press with In Light of Another's Word: European Ethnography in the Middle Ages. Both find a medieval view of Asia that can be labeled precolonial or before Orientalism (or between, since the Greeks invented that). Go medievals. Fascinated by the topic. May there be more books. These two coincide in a lot, but strike out on different paths -- the individual travelers can be interpreted at odds and the styles are most dissimilar, so, your library needs both. Mine does.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slight if interesting book, in it Phillips talks about travel writing before colonialism and therefore, as she sees it, before "orientalism." The vision of Asia and her peoples were scattered and by no means all negative. Indeed she points to narratives that showed awe at achievements that dwarfed those of Europe. She believes it was colonialism that brought on the negative and derogatory views associated with Orientialism

[Kahlila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is rich in details about how Medieval European view Asian peoples and cultures, based on travel writings from the 15th-17th century. Although this book's aim is not to contribute to Asian history, reading this became an interesting experience since you'll, eventually, learn Asian history through the Medieval European travellers' eyes. But in order to do so, I think reading more references regarding Asian history is required.