|
The Malay Archipelago (マレー語:Kepulauan Melayu or Nusantara), (インドネシア語:Kepulauan Melayu), ) is the archipelago between mainland Southeast Asia and Australia. It has also been called the Malay World, Indo-Australian Archipelago, East Indies, and other names over time. The name was taken from the 19th-century European concept of a Malay race. Situated between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the group of over 25,000 islands is the largest archipelago by area, and fourth by number of islands in the world. It includes Brunei, East Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines.〔''Encyclopædia Britannica''. 2006. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.〕 The island of New Guinea is usually excluded from definitions of the Malay Archipelago, although the Indonesian western portion of the island may be included.〔 The term is largely synonymous with maritime Southeast Asia.〔"(Maritime Southeast Asia )." ''Worldworx Travel''. Accessed 26 May 2009.〕 == Etymology and terminology == The term was derived from the European concept of a Malay race,〔 which referred to the people who inhabited what is now Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia (excluding Western New Guinea), Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. The racial concept was proposed by European explorers based on their observations of the influence of the ethnic Malay empire, Srivijaya, which was based on the island of Sumatra.〔Reid, Anthony. (''Understanding Melayu (Malay) as a Source of Diverse Modern Identities. Origins of Malayness'' ), Cambridge University Press, 2001. Retrieved on March 2, 2009.〕 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.〔; 〕 He included within the region the Solomon Islands and the Malay Peninsula due to physiographic similarities.〔 As Wallace noted,〔http://www.papuaweb.org/dlib/bk/wallace/race.html "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."〕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 the island of New Guinea is geologically not part of the continent of Asia, as the islands of the Sunda Shelf are (see Australia). The archipelago was called the "East Indies"〔OED first edition ''A geographical term, including Hindostan, Further India, and the islands beyond'' with first found usage 1598〕 from the late 16th century and throughout the European colonial era. It is still sometimes referred to as such,〔 but broader usages of the "East Indies" term had included Indochina and the Indian subcontinent. The area is called "Nusantara" in the Indonesian language.〔; 〕 The area is also referred to as the "Indonesian archipelago".〔Friedhelm Göltenboth (2006) ''Ecology of insular Southeast Asia: the Indonesian Archipelago'' Elsevier, ISBN 0-444-52739-7, ISBN 978-0-444-52739-4〕〔(''Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia,'' Volume 1 )〕 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Malay Archipelago」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|