TheMalay Archipelago is thearchipelago betweenMainland Southeast Asia andAustralia, and is also calledInsulindia or theIndo-Australian Archipelago. The name was taken from the 19th-century European concept of aMalay race, later based on the distribution ofAustronesian languages. It has also been called the "Malay world", "Nusantara", and the "East Indies" over time. The name is controversial inIndonesia due to its ethnic connotations and colonial undertones, which can overshadow the country's diverse cultures.
The term "Malay Archipelago" was derived from the European concept of a "Malay race" (a culturally-similar non-Oceanian subset of theAustronesian peoples),[7][dubious –discuss] an outdated racial concept proposed byEuropean explorers.[8]
The 19th-century naturalistAlfred Wallace used the term "Malay Archipelago" as the title ofhis influential book documenting his studies in the region. Wallace also referred to the area as the "Indian Archipelago" and the "Indo-Australian Archipelago".[9][10] He included theSolomon Islands andMalay Peninsula in the region due to physiographic similarities.[7] As Wallace noted,[11] there are arguments for excludingPapua 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 ofAsia, as the islands of theSunda Shelf are (seeAustralia).
Insulindia is used as ageopolitical term in academic discussions of the former European colonial possessions within Maritime Southeast Asia, especiallyDutch East Indies andPortuguese East Indies ("Portuguese Insulindia")[20] much as former French colonial possessions in Southeast Asia are still termedFrench Indochina.[21] It is also used to describe and locate the Chinese cultural diaspora (the "insulindian Chinese")[22] across the islands of Southeast Asia.[23]
The archipelago was called the "East Indies"[24] from the late 16th century and throughout the European colonial era. It is still sometimes referred to as such,[3] but broader usages of the "East Indies" term had includedIndochina and theIndian subcontinent.
Maritime Southeast Asia, Island Southeast Asia, and Insular Southeast Asia
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 theMalay Peninsula.[25]
One of the majority of uninhabited islands of thePhilippines.
The land and sea area of the archipelago exceeds 2 million km2.[1] The more than 25,000 islands of the archipelago consist of many smaller archipelagoes.[26]
Wallace used the termMalay 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 betweenBorneo andSulawesi; and through theLombok Strait betweenBali andLombok. This is now considered the western border of theWallacea transition zone between thezoogeographical regions of Asia and Australia. The zone has a mixture of species of Asian and Australian origin, and its own endemic species.
^Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division (2006).World Population Prospects(PDF). 2006 revision. United Nations. pp. 37–42, Table A.2.
"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."
^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
^Review: The Tongking Delta and the Annamite House. Geographical Review, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Jul., 1937), pp. 519-520
^A. Aiyappan. Pottery Braziers of Mohenjo-Daro. Man, Vol. 39, (May, 1939), pp. 71-72
^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.ISBN978-0-226-46757-3 pp. 1301-1396
^Portugal. Embaixada (Indonesia). Sukarno and Portugal. Embaixada de Portugal em Jacarta, 2002 pp. 61-62
^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
^Jules Sion, Luis Villanueva López-Moreno (tr.). Asia monzónica: India, Indochina, Insulindia. Volume 13 of Geografía Universal. Montaner y Simón, 1948
^Insulindia Portuguea. Divisao de Publicacoes e Biblioteca Agencia Geral das Colonias. Clamagirand (-Renard), Brigitte. 1971
^Christian Pelras .[2] Indonesian Studies in France: Retrospect, Situation and Prospects. Archipel, 1978, Volume 16, Issue 16, pp. 7-20
^Leo Suryadinata. The Ethnic Chinese in the ASEAN states: bibliographical essays. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989,ISBN978-981-3035-11-9 p. 54
^Claudine Salmon. Cultural links between insulindian Chinese and Fujian as reflected in two late 17th-century epigraphs. Archipel, 2007, Issue 73, pp. 167-194
^OED first editionA geographical term, including Hindostan, Further India, and the islands beyond with first found usage 1598
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