Abstract
During their occupation of Sri Lanka (1640–1796) and following Sinhalese
and Portuguese practices, the Dutch created an elaborate
registration of people, estates, and labour services. The administrative
records known as the thombos are incomparable in their level
of detail, yet they have hardly been used for the purposes of demographic
or economic history. This article describes the challenges
involved in ‘decoding’ the thombos, that is, reconstructing the
meaning of particular variables in the light of the prevailing legal
pluralism in which Sinhalese common law and Roman-Dutch law
co-existed uncomfortably. It also summarises research findings
from a pilot study involving about two hundred small villages in
Colombo province. Finally, it sketches research horizons, as the
thombo ‘treasure’ holds great prospects for (comparative) studies
into family systems and the impact of colonial rule on fertility and
mortality.
