In the foreground of Andries Beeckman's The Castle of Batavia (1661), a merchant in European attire strolls through a marketplace with his Eurasian wife on his arm, as a small servant struggles to hold a parasol above their heads. (plate 7) This parasol was meant on the one hand to protect them from the harsh tropical sunlight, and on the other to function as a status symbol, an aspect underscored by the presence of the servant. In 1647, such markers of status had been outlawed for all but the very highest-ranking Dutch East India Company (VOC) officers, namely the governor-general and his council—others could only use a parasol if holding it themselves. Dutch Batavians, however, much like the merchant in Beeckman's painting, continued to display their wealth and status through ostentatious dress and behavior, thus muddling the expression of proper social rank. High-ranking VOC officials and later observers considered this behavior very unDutch. Such displays violated social decorum and undermined the cohesion of what was already a worryingly small minority Dutch population among the city's diverse ethnicities. Observers then and now have suggested that obsession with rank was not a Dutch behavior, but rather a sign of the influence of local cultural practices, challenging the Dutchness of the colonizers. This eighteenth-century concern with what is and is not Dutch redefines Dutch culture as egalitarian, and implies that this trait is inherent and hearkens back to the so-called Dutch “Golden Age” of the previous century.