INTERESTING... Article on... Note that:- ...Especially Minang and Javanese do not identify themselves as Malay. ============================= Malay race The concept of a Malay race was originally proposed by the German scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840), and classified as the brown race.[1] Since Blumenbach, many anthropologists have rejected his theory of five races, citing the enormous complexity of classifying races. The concept of a Malay race differs with that of the ethnic Malays centered around Malaysian Malay Peninsula and parts of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The term Malay race was commonly used in the late 19th century and early 20th century to describe the Austronesian peoples. The earliest records of the word Melayu or Malayu came from a Chinese record that reported a kingdom named Malayu had sent the envoy to the Chinese court for the first time in 645 CE... It was suggested that the term Melayu originated from the Tamil word Malaya or Malaiur which means hill or high ground.... The people inhabiting the Eastern coast of Sumatra and parts of the Malay peninsula identified themselves as Malay with a common language called the Malay language. After the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century, the Europeans identified the native people living on both coasts of the Malacca strait as Malay people. This term extended to neighboring peoples with similar traits. MALAYSIAN CONTEXT In Malaysia, the early colonial censuses listed separate ethnic groups, such as Malays, Boyanese, Achinese, Javanese, Bugis, Manilamen (Filipino) and Siamese. The 1891 census merged these ethnic groups into the three racial categories used in modern Malaysia—Chinese, ‘Tamils and other natives of India’, and ‘Malays and other Natives of the Archipelago’. This was based upon the European view at the time that race was a biologically based scientific category. For the 1901 census, the government advised the word race should replace nationality wherever it occurs. After a period of generations of being classified in these groups, individual identities formed around the concept of bangsa Melayu (Malay race). For younger generations of people, they saw it as providing unity and solidarity against colonial powers, and non-Malay immigrants. The Malaysian nation was later formed with the bangsa Melayu having the central and defining position within the country. INDONESIAN CONTEXT In Indonesia, the term Malay (Indonesian: Melayu) is more associated with ethnic Malay than Malay race. It is mostly because Indonesia has other native Indonesian ethnicities that already consolidated and established their culture and identity who believed they had traditions and languages that very different from coastal Malay people. Especially Minang and Javanese do not identify themselves as Malay. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malay_race
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 16:18:41 +0000
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