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JAVA .) Inhabitants.-The majority of the native inhabitants of theSee also: Malay See also: Archipelago belong to two races, the See also: Malays and the Melanesians (Papuans)
.
As regards the See also: present racial distribution, the view accepted by many anthropologists, following A
.
H
.
See also: Keane, is that the Negritos, still found in the Philippines, are the true See also: aborigines of Indo-See also: China and western Malaysia, while the Melanesians, probably their kinsmen, were the earliest occupants of eastern Malaysia and western Polynesia
.
At some date long anterior to See also: history it is supposed that Indo-China was occupied first by a See also: fair Caucasian See also: people and later by a yellow Mongolian See also: race
.
From these two have come all the peoples-other than Negrito or Papuan-found to-See also: day from the Malay Peninsula to the farthest islands of Polynesia
.
The Malay Archipelago was thus first invaded by the Caucasians, who eventually passed eastward and are to-day represented in the Malay Archipelago only by the See also: Mentawi islanders
.
They were followed by an immigration of Mongol-Caucasic peoples with a preponderance of Caucasic See also: blood-the Indonesians of some, the pre-Malays of other writers-who are to-day represented in the archipelago by such peoples as the See also: Dyaks of See also: Borneo and the See also: Battas of See also: Sumatra
.
At a far later date, probably almost within historic times, the true Malay race, a combination of Mongol and Caucasic elements, came into existence and overran the archipelago, in See also: time becoming the dominant race
.
A See also: Hindu strain is evident in Java and others of the western islands; Moors and See also: Arabs (that is, as the names are used in the archipelago, Mahommedans from various countries between See also: Arabia and See also: India) are found more or less amalgamated with many of the Malay peoples; and the' See also: Chinese See also: form, from an economical point of view, one of the most important sections of the community in many of the more civilized districts
.
Chinese have been established in the archipelago from a very early date: the first Dutch invaders found them settled at Jacatra; and many of them, as, for instance, the colony of See also: Ternate, have taken so kindly to their new home that they have acquired Malay to the disuse of their native See also: tongue
.
Chinese tombs are among the See also: objects that strike the traveller's See also: attention at See also: Amboyna and other See also: ancient settlements
.
There is a vast See also: field for philological explorations in the archipelago
.
Of, the
See also: great number of distinct See also: languages known to exist, few have been studied scientifically
.
The most widely distributed is the Malay, which has not only been diffused by the Malays themselves throughout the See also: coast regions of the various islands, but, owing partly to the readiness with which it can be learned, has become the See also: common See also: medium between the Europeans and the natives
.
The most cultivated of the, native tongues is the Javanese, and it is spoken by a greater number of people than any of the others
.
To it Sundanese stands in the relation that Low See also: German holds to High German, and the Madurese in the relation of a strongly individualized dialect
.
Among the other languages which have been reduced to writing and grammatically analysed are the Balinese, closely connected with the Javanese, the See also: Batta (with its dialect the Toba), the Dyak and the Macassarese
.
Alfurese, a vague See also: term meaning in the mouths of the natives little else than non-See also: Mahommedan, has been more particularly applied by Dutch philologists to the native speech of certain tribes in See also: Celebes
.
The commercial activity of the Buginese causes their language to be fairly widely spoken-little, however, by Europeans
.
See also: Political Division.-Politically the whole of the archipelago, except See also: British See also: North Borneo, &c
.
(see BORNEO), See also: part of Timor (Portuguese), New See also: Guinea See also: east of the 141st meridian (British and German), and the Philippine Islands, belongs to the Nether-lands
.
The Philippine Islands which had been for several centuries a See also: Spanish possession, passed in 1898 by See also: conquest to the See also: United States of See also: America
.
For these several political See also: units see the See also: separate articles; a general view, however, is here given of the See also: government, economic conditions, &c., of the Dutch possessions, which the Dutch See also: call Nederlandsch-Indie
.
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