The Private Lives of Mariners’ East Asian Objects
This article examines the domestic lives of East Asian objects brought by seafarers from Slovenian lands in the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, mostly men serving in the Austro-Hungarian War Navy. Drawing on a variety of material, documentary and oral sources it f...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Ljubljana Press (Založba Univerze v Ljubljani)
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Asian Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/18448 |
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| author | Bogdana Marinac Maja Veselič |
| author_facet | Bogdana Marinac Maja Veselič |
| author_sort | Bogdana Marinac |
| collection | DOAJ |
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This article examines the domestic lives of East Asian objects brought by seafarers from Slovenian lands in the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, mostly men serving in the Austro-Hungarian War Navy. Drawing on a variety of material, documentary and oral sources it first explores how the sailors’ social and educational backgrounds, their positions on their vessels as well as other circumstances of their voyages impacted their access to such objects. In accordance with the fashions of the time, decorative and souvenir items dominate in their legacies.
The main part of the analysis focuses on how objects’ meanings and uses changed once they were brought to the new socio-cultural milieu and displayed in the homes of the seafarers and later their heirs. For the seafarers they presented an embodied memory and testimony of their voyages and experiences in what at the time were distant and exotic lands. Through their very presence as well as the storytelling they prompted these objects to some extent also shaped the imaginaries of East Asia. In the transmission of objects through lines of inheritance, however, most of the information about their provenance was quickly lost, and the significance of the objects became anchored in the relationship with the seafaring relative. While those heirs who are direct descendants of the seafarers tend to perceive objects as material witnesses of their families’ histories, more distant relatives stress the objects’ decorative and aesthetic qualities.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-94b3164038304521918e4254865764d2 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2232-5131 2350-4226 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | University of Ljubljana Press (Založba Univerze v Ljubljani) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Asian Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-94b3164038304521918e4254865764d22025-01-16T08:19:38ZengUniversity of Ljubljana Press (Založba Univerze v Ljubljani)Asian Studies2232-51312350-42262025-01-0113110.4312/as.2025.13.1.105-156The Private Lives of Mariners’ East Asian ObjectsBogdana Marinac0Maja Veselič1Maritime Museum “Sergej Mašera” Piran, SloveniaUniversity of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Slovenia This article examines the domestic lives of East Asian objects brought by seafarers from Slovenian lands in the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, mostly men serving in the Austro-Hungarian War Navy. Drawing on a variety of material, documentary and oral sources it first explores how the sailors’ social and educational backgrounds, their positions on their vessels as well as other circumstances of their voyages impacted their access to such objects. In accordance with the fashions of the time, decorative and souvenir items dominate in their legacies. The main part of the analysis focuses on how objects’ meanings and uses changed once they were brought to the new socio-cultural milieu and displayed in the homes of the seafarers and later their heirs. For the seafarers they presented an embodied memory and testimony of their voyages and experiences in what at the time were distant and exotic lands. Through their very presence as well as the storytelling they prompted these objects to some extent also shaped the imaginaries of East Asia. In the transmission of objects through lines of inheritance, however, most of the information about their provenance was quickly lost, and the significance of the objects became anchored in the relationship with the seafaring relative. While those heirs who are direct descendants of the seafarers tend to perceive objects as material witnesses of their families’ histories, more distant relatives stress the objects’ decorative and aesthetic qualities. https://journals.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/18448East Asian objects in Sloveniaseafarersobjects of memoryAustro-Hungarian Navyinherited objects |
| spellingShingle | Bogdana Marinac Maja Veselič The Private Lives of Mariners’ East Asian Objects Asian Studies East Asian objects in Slovenia seafarers objects of memory Austro-Hungarian Navy inherited objects |
| title | The Private Lives of Mariners’ East Asian Objects |
| title_full | The Private Lives of Mariners’ East Asian Objects |
| title_fullStr | The Private Lives of Mariners’ East Asian Objects |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Private Lives of Mariners’ East Asian Objects |
| title_short | The Private Lives of Mariners’ East Asian Objects |
| title_sort | private lives of mariners east asian objects |
| topic | East Asian objects in Slovenia seafarers objects of memory Austro-Hungarian Navy inherited objects |
| url | https://journals.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/18448 |
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