The Malays

by Anthony Milner

Overview

There is something mercurial about being labeled a 'Malay'. Connotations run the gamut – from Joseph Conrad's mysterious and dangerous pirates to the 'lazy natives' of colonial-era economies. Another early stereotype tagged them as the 'best-mannered' gentlemen of the East. More modern portraits point to the 'New Malays' as entrepreneurs of a modern, triumphant Malaysia, skillful region-builders of ASEAN, and a people divided over the proper role of Islam. Their geographical boundaries aren't much clearer. Often, the Malays are said to consist of groups clustered on the Malay Peninsula and along coasts and rivers of Sumatra and Borneo. Sometimes they are described as a vast race reaching across Indonesia and the Philippines and on to Madagascar.

So just who are the Malays? This provocative study poses the question and considers how and why the answers have changed over time, and from one region to another. Anthony Milner develops a sustained argument about ethnicity and identity in an historical, 'Malay' context. The Malays is a comprehensive examination of the origins and development of Malay identity, ethnicity, and consciousness over the past five centuries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781444391664
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	03/25/2011
Series:	The Peoples of South-East Asia and the Pacific
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Anthony Milner is Basham Professor of Asian History at the Australian National University, and was Visiting Professor at The Research Institute for the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (Tokyo) in 2007. He has also held appointments as Raffles Visiting Professor of History at the National University of Singapore and Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. His writings on 'the Malays' include The Invention of Politics in Colonial Malaya (1995, 2002), and Kerajaan: Malay Political Culture on the Eve of Colonial Rule (1982). He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

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Table of Contents

List of Figures viii

List of Maps ix

Preface and Acknowledgements x

Note about the Author xiv

1 Thinking about ‘the Malays’ and ‘Malayness’ 1

2 Early Histories: Engaging India and Islam 18

3 The Sultanates 47

4 A ‘Malay’ or Kerajaan World? 75

5 Experiencing Colonialism, and the Making of the Bangsa Melayu 103

6 Building ‘Malays’ into Nation States 145

7 Multiple Forms of ‘Malayness’ 186

8 Ethnicity, Civilization and the Fear of ‘Disappearing from this World’ 229

Bibliography 243

Index 275

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The Malays is a must read book for those interested not only on the ethnic Malays in Southeast Asia but also in the broader field of identity study in the social sciences."
–Shamsul A.B., Institute of Ethnic Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

"The Malays is an important contribution to the literature on the varied and changing meanings of what it is to be Malay by one of the most eminent historians of the peoples on insular and peninsular Southeast Asia. This book provides an interesting case study of the way in which group identities are 'constructed' and reconstructed in particular social and political contexts. Broad ranging in both his temporal and geographical scope and meticulously scholarly in his presentation of evidence, Milner produces fresh insights into the history and possible future of the Malays."
–Joel S. Kahn, La Trobe University, Australia

Editorial Reviews

"The Malays - a volume in Wiley-Blackwell's series ‘The peoples of South-East Asia and the Pacific' - is an absorbing read, clearly written not only for those already interested in the cultural dynamics of the island world of Southeast Asia, but also for everyone who is interested in knowing how to successfully fail in defining a particular race, people or ethnicity." (Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 1 February 2011)

From the Publisher