Jan Compagnie in the Straits of Malacca, 1641–1795
By Dianne Lewis
In 1500 Malay Malacca was the queen city of the Malay Archipelago, one of the great trade centers of the world. Its rulers, said to be descendents of the ancient line of Srivijaya, dominated the lands east and west of the straits. The Portuguese, unable to compete in the marketplace, captured the town.
18th century · 17th century · European History · Asian History · World and Comparative History · History · Business and Economics · Southeastern Asia · Malaysia · Asia · Asian Studies · Southeast Asian Studies
Military Ascendancy and Political Culture
A Study of Indonesia’s Golkar
By Leo Suryadinata
Most of the earlier studies on the Indonesian political party, Golkar, tend to view the organization solely as an electoral machine used by the military to legitimize its power. However, this study is different in that it considers Golkar less an electoral machine and more as a political organization which inherited the political traditions of the nominal Muslim parties and the Javanese governing elite pre-1965, before the inauguration of Indonesia’s New Order.
Asian History · Political Science · History · Military History · Indonesia · Southeastern Asia · Asia · Asian Studies · Southeast Asian Studies
Running Amok
An Historical Inquiry
By John C. Spores
Amok, one of the few Malay words commonly appearing in English, names a syndrome of unpredictable and indiscriminate homicidal behavior with suicidal intent. In tracing the development of this behavioral pattern, Spores examines historical data, including frequently colorful colonialist accounts of such episodes, from British Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies during the period 1800–1925.Spores
History · Southeast Asian Studies · Asian Studies · Malaysia · Southeastern Asia · Asia · 19th century · History | Modern | 20th Century · Violence in Society
From Kampung to City
A Social History of Kucing Malaysia, 1820-1970
By Craig Lockard
One of the major processes in modern Southeast Asian history has been the development of ethnically heterogeneous towns and cities. Kucing, an intermediate-sized urban center in Sarawak, Malaysia, is today an institutionally complex, predominantly Chinese city of 100,000 led by modern political leaders. Lockard’s account of the development and growth of Kucing over 150 years devotes particular attention to the remarkable absence of ethnic conflict in the mixed society of Kucing.
Asian Studies · 19th century · Asia · Southeastern Asia · Malaysia · Sociology · Asian History · World and Comparative History · History · Southeast Asian Studies · History | Modern | 20th Century
Report on Brunei in 1904
By M. S. H. McArthur
In 1904 the British Protectorate of Brunei had reached the nadir of its fortunes. Reduced to two small strips of territory, bankrupt, and threatened with takeover by the Rajah of Sarawak (Sir Charles Brooke), Brunei received M. S. H. McArthur who was dispatched to make recommendations for Brunei’s future administration.
History · World and Comparative History · Asian History · History | Modern | 20th Century · Brunei · Southeastern Asia · Asia · Asian Studies · Southeast Asian Studies
Change and Continuity in Minangkabau
Local, Regional, and Historical Perspectives on West Sumatra
By Lynn L. Thomas and Franz Von Benda-Beckmann
Social scientists have long recognized many apparent contradictions in the Minangkabau. The world’s largest matrilineal people, they are also strongly Islamic and, as a society, remarkably modern and outward looking.
Social Science | Anthropology | Cultural & Social · Indonesia · Southeastern Asia · Asia · Southeast Asian Studies
Javanese
A Cultural Approach
By Ward Keeler
Foreign language lessons often provide translations into a foreign language of phrases students would normally use in their native language and cultural setting. Particularly when studying a non-Western language, such direct translation is very misleading. Students must instead learn the conventions that guide human interactions, so they know both what to say and how to say it.In this text, therefore, the sociological context of Javanese is explained as thoroughly as Javanese grammar.
Asian Studies · Southeast Asian Studies · Literature · Asian Literature · Java · Indonesia · Southeastern Asia · Asia
