This article explores the ways in which Europeans encountered indigenous knowledge in Asia and the Americas during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and reconstructs the social factors that enabled productive cross-cultural knowledge encounters within a particular temporal and cultural context. By focusing on the tacit nature of medical knowledge and on the structure of the networks that enabled cross-cultural brokerage I develop a framework that explains why knowledge exchange occurred in some situations and not in others. In particular, I argue that a unique marriage institution that emerged in the Dutch-controlled regions of the Indonesian archipelago during the second half of the seventeenth-century fostered European access to indigenous botanical knowledge by reshaping the patterns of relationships that linked European, mestiza, and indigenous cultures. Women in Southeast Asia were the important medical practitioners within their local communities. By fostering and formalizing relationships with Asian and mestiza women this marriage institution both created direct ties with local experts while also integrating European men in to a community who relied primarily on local botanical cures for their medical care and who could broker relationships with local practitioners.

中文翻译：

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近代东南亚早期婚姻制度与跨文化知识网络的形成

本文探讨了欧洲人在 16 和 17 世纪遇到亚洲和美洲本土知识的方式，并重构了在特定时间和文化背景下实现生产性跨文化知识相遇的社会因素。通过关注医学知识的隐性本质和实现跨文化经纪的网络结构，我开发了一个框架，解释了为什么在某些情况下会发生知识交换而不是在其他情况下发生。特别是，我认为，十七世纪下半叶在印度尼西亚群岛荷兰控制的地区出现的一种独特的婚姻制度，通过重塑将欧洲人、混血儿、和土著文化。东南亚的妇女是当地社区的重要医生。通过培养和正式与亚洲和混血女性的关系，这家婚姻机构既与当地专家建立了直接联系，同时也将欧洲男性融入了一个主要依靠当地植物疗法进行医疗保健并可以与当地从业者建立关系的社区。