Malay Archipelago
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The Malay Archipelago is the archipelago between Mainland Southeast Asia and Australia, and is also called Insulindia or the Indo-Australian Archipelago. The name was taken from the 19th-century European concept of a Malay race, later based on the distribution of Austronesian languages. It has also been called the "Malay world," "Nusantara", "East Indies" over time. The name is controversial in Indonesia due to its ethnic connotations and colonial undertones, which can overshadow the country's diverse cultures.
Situated between the Indian and Pacific oceans, the archipelago of over 25,000 islands and islets is the largest archipelago by area and fifth by number of islands in the world. It includes Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia (specifically East Malaysia), Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines.<ref name= Britannica>Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.</ref><ref>Encyclopaedia Britannica – Malay Archipelago</ref> The term is largely synonymous with Maritime Southeast Asia.<ref name=Worldworx>"Maritime Southeast Asia Template:Webarchive." Worldworx Travel. Accessed 26 May 2009.</ref>
Etymology and terminologyEdit
Malay archipelagoEdit
The term "Malay Archipelago" was derived from the European concept of a "Malay race" (a culturally-similar non-Oceanian subset of the Austronesian peoples),<ref name=Wallace>Template:Cite book</ref>{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B= Template:Fix }} an outdated racial concept proposed by European explorers.<ref>Reid, Anthony. Understanding Melayu (Malay) as a Source of Diverse Modern Identities. Origins of Malayness, Cambridge University Press, 2001. Retrieved on March 2, 2009.</ref>
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The 19th-century naturalist Alfred Wallace used the term "Malay Archipelago" as the title of his influential book documenting his studies in the region. Wallace also referred to the area as the "Indian Archipelago" and the "Indo-Australian Archipelago".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He included the Solomon Islands and Malay Peninsula in the region due to physiographic similarities.<ref name=Wallace /> As Wallace noted,<ref>Template:Cite book
"If we draw a line ... commencing along the western coast of Gilolo, through the island of Bouru, and curving round the west end of Mores, then bending back by Sandalwood Island to take in Rotti, we shall divide the Archipelago into two portions, the races of which have strongly marked distinctive peculiarities. This line will separate the Malayan and all the Asiatic races, from the Papuans and all that inhabit the Pacific; and though along the line of junction intermigration and commixture have taken place, yet the division is on the whole almost as well defined and strongly contrasted, as is the corresponding zoological division of the Archipelago, into an Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan region."
</ref> there are arguments for excluding Papua New Guinea for cultural and geographical reasons: Papua New Guinea is culturally quite different from the other countries in the region, and it is geologically not part of the continent of Asia, as the islands of the Sunda Shelf are (see Australia).
Insulindia and East IndiesEdit
Insulindia is a somewhat archaic geographical term<ref>T. Barbour. Reptiles in the East and West Indies- and Some Digression. The American Naturalist, Vol. 57, No. 649 (Mar. - Apr., 1923), pp. 125-128</ref><ref>Review: The Tongking Delta and the Annamite House. Geographical Review, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Jul., 1937), pp. 519-520</ref><ref>A. Aiyappan. Pottery Braziers of Mohenjo-Daro. Man, Vol. 39, (May, 1939), pp. 71-72</ref> for Maritime Southeast Asia, sometimes extending as far as Australasia.<ref>Donald F. Lach, Edwin J. Van Kley (eds.) Asia in the making of Europe: Volume III, A century of advance. University of Chicago Press, 1993. Template:ISBN pp. 1301-1396</ref> More common in Portuguese and Spanish,<ref>Portugal. Embaixada (Indonesia). Sukarno and Portugal. Embaixada de Portugal em Jacarta, 2002 pp. 61-62</ref><ref>António Augusto Mendes Correa. Timor português: contribuïções para o seu estudo antropológico. Volume 1 of Memórias : Série antropológica e etnológica, Portugal Junta de Investigações do Ultramar. Imprensa Nacional de Lisboa, 1944</ref><ref>Jules Sion, Luis Villanueva López-Moreno (tr.). Asia monzónica: India, Indochina, Insulindia. Volume 13 of Geografía Universal. Montaner y Simón, 1948</ref> it is also sometimes used in art history or anthropology to describe the interface zone between the cultures of Oceania and Southeast Asia.<ref>[1] Template:Webarchive Insulindia: musée du quai Branly, France</ref>
Insulindia is used as a geopolitical term in academic discussions of the former European colonial possessions within Maritime Southeast Asia, especially Dutch East Indies and Portuguese East Indies ("Portuguese Insulindia")<ref>Insulindia Portuguea. Divisao de Publicacoes e Biblioteca Agencia Geral das Colonias. Clamagirand (-Renard), Brigitte. 1971</ref> much as former French colonial possessions in Southeast Asia are still termed French Indochina.<ref>Christian Pelras . [2] Indonesian Studies in France: Retrospect, Situation and Prospects. Archipel, 1978, Volume 16, Issue 16, pp. 7-20</ref> It is also used to describe and locate the Chinese cultural diaspora (the "insulindian Chinese")<ref>Leo Suryadinata. The Ethnic Chinese in the ASEAN states: bibliographical essays. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, Template:ISBN p. 54</ref> across the islands of Southeast Asia.<ref>Claudine Salmon. Cultural links between insulindian Chinese and Fujian as reflected in two late 17th-century epigraphs. Archipel, 2007, Issue 73, pp. 167-194</ref>
The archipelago was called the "East Indies"<ref>OED first edition A geographical term, including Hindostan, Further India, and the islands beyond with first found usage 1598</ref> from the late 16th century and throughout the European colonial era. It is still sometimes referred to as such,<ref name="Britannica" /> but broader usages of the "East Indies" term had included Indochina and the Indian subcontinent.
Maritime Southeast Asia, Island Southeast Asia, and Insular Southeast AsiaEdit
The term "Maritime Southeast Asia" is largely synonymous, covering both the islands in Southeast Asia and nearby island-like communities, such as those found on the Malay Peninsula.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
GeographyEdit
The land and sea area of the archipelago exceeds 2 million km2.<ref name="area" /> The more than 25,000 islands of the archipelago consist of many smaller archipelagoes.<ref>Philippines : General Information. Government of the Philippines. Retrieved 2009-11-06; Template:Cite press release; {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The major island groupings in the Indonesian Archipelago include the Maluku Islands, New Guinea, and the Sunda Islands. The Sunda Islands comprise two island groups: the Greater Sunda Islands and the Lesser Sunda Islands.
The major island groupings in the Philippine Archipelago include Luzon, Mindanao, and the Visayan Islands.
The seven largest islands are New Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra, Sulawesi and Java in Indonesia; and Luzon and Mindanao in the Philippines.
Geologically, the archipelago is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world. Producing many volcanoes especially in Java, Sumatra and Lesser Sunda Islands region where most volcanoes over Template:Convert high are situated. Tectonic uplifts also produce large mountains, including the highest, Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia, with a height of Template:Convert and Puncak Jaya on Papua, Indonesia at Template:Convert. Other high mountains in the archipelago include Puncak Mandala, Indonesia at Template:Convert and Puncak Trikora, Indonesia, at Template:Convert.
The climate throughout the archipelago is tropical, owing to its position on the equator.
BiogeographyEdit
Wallace used the term Malay Archipelago as the title of his influential book documenting his studies in the region. He proposed what would come to be known as the "Wallace Line", a boundary that separated the flora and fauna of Asia and Australia. The ice age boundary was formed by the deep water straits between Borneo and Sulawesi; and through the Lombok Strait between Bali and Lombok. This is now considered the western border of the Wallacea transition zone between the zoogeographical regions of Asia and Australia. The zone has a mixture of species of Asian and Australian origin, and its own endemic species.
See alsoEdit
- Archipelago
- East Indies
- Ethnic groups in Southeast Asia
- Greater Indonesia
- Indonesian archipelago
- Malay Peninsula
- Malayness
- Maphilindo
- Maritime Southeast Asia
- Names of Indonesia
- Nusantara
NotesEdit
External linksEdit
- Template:Cite EB1911
- Wallace, Alfred Russel. The Malay Archipelago, Volume I, Volume II.
- Art of Island Southeast Asia, full-text of an exhibition catalog from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
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