Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia
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The Malayic-speaking Orang Laut; Dialects and directions for research
Full text linkSoutheast Asia is home to many distinct groups of sea nomads, some of which are known collectively as Orang (Suku) Laut. Those located between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula are all Malayic-speaking. Information about their speech is paltry and scattered; while starting points are provided in publications such as Skeat and Blagden (1906), Kähler (1946a, b, 1960), Sopher (1977: 178–180), Kadir et al. (1986), Stokhof (1987), and Collins (1988, 1995), a comprehensive account and description of Malayic Sea Tribe lects has not been provided to date. This study brings together disparate sources, including a bit of original research, to sketch a unified linguistic picture and point the way for further investigation. While much is still unknown, this paper demonstrates relationships within and between individual Sea Tribe varieties and neighbouring canonical Malay lects. It is proposed that Sea Tribe lects can be assigned to four groupings: Kedah, Riau Islands, Duano, and Sekak.KeywordsMalay, Malayic, Orang Laut, Suku Laut, Sea Tribes, sea nomads, dialectology, historical linguistics, language vitality, endangerment, Skeat and Blagden, Holle
Menuju sejarah Sumatra; Antara Indonesia dan dunia
Full text linkResensi buku karya Anthony Reid, Menuju sejarah Sumatra; Antara Indonesia dan dunia. Jakarta: KITLV-Jakarta, Yayasan Pustaka Obor Indonesia, 2010, 434 pp. ISBN 9789794617755. 
Inscriptions of Sumatra; II. Short epigraphs in Old Javanese
Full text linkThis article documents the existence of inscriptions using Old Javanese language on the island of Sumatra, by editing three short epigraphs, the first of which has previously been published but never satisfactorily interpreted, while the remaining two have not yet been published at all. However short these texts are in themselves, they raise interesting questions about the cultural, commercial, political, and linguistic connections between Java and Sumatra in ancient times.KeywordsOld Javanese, Old Malay, Java, Sumatra, inscription, funerary monument, makara, saragi
The colonial official as ethnographer; VOC documents as resources for social history in eastern Indonesia
Full text linkThe present article departs from the inherent problems of grasping the voice of the subaltern other in a colonial context. While postcolonial theoreticians have occasionally spoken pessimistically about the possibilities of reconstructing the agency of dominated categories of non-Westerners, recent research on early Southeast Asia has on the contrary envisaged new lines of inquiry through an ingenious use of the extant sources, preferably through interdisciplinary communication. But can we use the colonial archive in order to highlight social history in non-literate societies such as those of eastern Indonesia where the colonial texts do not resonate with the indigenous ones? This article scrutinizes materials from the VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) post in Kupang (1653-1800) in order to find data usable for such a history. It is argued that letters, reports, legal minutes, diaries, etcetera. have a good potential due to the regularity and minute detail of the record.Keywordscolonial archive, ethnography, VOC documents, social history, eastern Indonesia
Thinking in Islands; The Portuguese perception of the Indonesian archipelago and particularly of Sunda in early texts and charts
Full text linkThis article discusses various early sources on the Indonesian archipelago. It starts with the status of knowledge before the first voyage of the Portuguese to the Moluccas from accounts of travellers to insular Southeast Asia in the Middle Ages and the picture on world maps European cartographers produced. Comparing that view with text sources and the resulting geographic material of the first expeditions by the Portuguese provides an insight into contemporary mechanisms of knowledge transfer. Certain effects can be traced and are repeated on different levels of access to the original facts mainly because most maps were drawn up in Europe but based on the geographic description provided by text accounts. An abundance and multiplication of failures and mistakes is evident and is partly related to the scarcity of sources and due to reproduction techniques.KeywordsPortuguese perception, Indonesian archipelago, Sunda, world maps, cartography, toponym
