Quoting native speech in Malay served both European parties’ divergent self-justifications.

Evidence

Why does Luhmann report Djamal’s words in Malay and why does Valck chose to repeat them? Perhaps both gestures supported their respective claims. Djamal’s voice authenticates two principles of plantation protocol: (l) for Luhmann, that the beating of coolies was acceptable and carried out by Asian overseers, thereby justifying his own nonexceptional behavior; and (2) for Valck, that Luhmann transgressed a basic prescription for labor control, one codified in handbooks for new estate supervisors decades later: that estate managers should neither reprimand nor directly give orders to native workers, for, if they did so, they would surely pay. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1157

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explicitly unpacks the two competing plantation-protocol principles the Malay quote authenticates.