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So everyone knows what "Asians" look like and what they stereopically consist of culturally:Buddhism,Confucianism,and Hinduism or all three in Asia.And of course,Mongoloid physical features and eating and farming rice.Then all these features coincide with Geography and tectonic plates and certain fauna and flora.Also,Sino Tibetan and Austro Asiatic languages along with the Asiatic Austronesian languages.
First,when I say East Indonesia I will exclude West Papua and Sulawesi,and be talking specifically about Nusa Tengarra(Timor,Sumba,Flores,Sumbawa,etc) and the Maluku Islands.All these inbetween Sulawesi and Papua,south of the Phillipines.Now on more than half of these account,Eastern Indonesia fails at.Eastern Indonesian islands are not only VERY heavily admixed or even mostly Papuan in ancestry like certain Timorese and Moluccans from Seram or Kei or the most isolated and mountainous jungle tribes,but quite a few languages in East Indo are not even Austronesian but belong to or are related to Papuan languages.
Up next is the fact that Wallacea has never even been part of the Asian mainland nor Asian tectonic plates,which gives Wallacea extremely unique fauna such as Komodo Dragons,Birds of Paradise species,and Marsupial species.Yes,you heard that right.East Indonesia,such as the island of Seram,the biggest and most isolated Moluccan island,has ****ING KANGAROO species.The isolated tribesman there such as the Masuane and Nuaulu even hunt eat them.
And this comes to another point,religion.Wallacea is the only majority protestant region in Southeast Asia,with a minorit6 of Catholics and Islam.Wallacea never really had any influence at all from East Asian philosophy such as Confucianism and Buddhism,and had even neligible influence from Hinduism unlike West Indonesia.Physical appearance,East Indos and Timorese seldom resemble any East Asian Mongoloids as well.And my last point is East Indos just dont "seem" very stereotypically Asian.In general and from even my own family and anecdotal exp.,Moluccans are very warm,extroverted,religious,family oriented,passionate,musical and creatively inclined,and also temperamental compared to any other East Asians.Just look at the history of the Dutch Moluccans RMS independence movement and protest and terrorism and riot history.
And speaking of family,Moluccans have gigantuc families,average family size being 4-8 kids.Lastly,Moluccans and most East Indos DONT use rice as a staple food but instead use sago,taro,cassava,and breadfruit as mainstays witn rice more an afterthought just like the South Pacific.So what is yalls thoughts?Anecdotal experience is welcome.
Courtesy of a close Dutch Moluccan(Seramese) friend from a scientific anthropoligical source
Maps of Wallaceas distinctiveness
Masaman,the Youtube Anthropoligist finally actually include Eastern "Indonesia" in Oceania where it rightly belongs!
Hei aru you moluccan ? yeah Indonesia is very diverse ,I'm agree with your posting sulawesi even bali is the intersection between west and east. I'm not too familiar with central - eastern Indonesians / Wallacea people , but I found some of them are hard-working people and have a good personality , when they were in the West Indonesia neighborhood , people would be able to guess they were people from the eastern
the Island of New Guinea is a part of the Pacific Islands or South Pacific, geographically
but just like Time Zones, where you want to belong is a matter of politics. since Indonesia controls the islands and half of New Guinea, it gets included as part of SE Asia
Indonesia is actually considered transcontinental,just like Russia amd Turkey.Also,Eastern Indonesia has Oceanic species such as Marsupials and birds of Paradise.
Two links with interesting articles about the Spice Islands of Maluku and its intricate,pivotal,and complex history with both Melanesia and greater Oceania.
Its already common knowledge that many of the spices so prized by Europeans during the Middle Ages were only found in a select few Maluku islands,hence the nickname "The Spice Islands".Yup,Maluku is the infamous islands Columbus was searching for but instead found America and the rest is history.What I dont understand is,if Maluku has such a pivotal role in world history,why is it such an overlooked and unknown area?There are artifacts showing that the spices and spice trade from Maluku was connected with ancient Mesopotamia,India,and Egypt as well.
Two links with interesting articles about the Spice Islands of Maluku and its intricate,pivotal,and complex history with both Melanesia and greater Oceania.
Its already common knowledge that many of the spices so prized by Europeans during the Middle Ages were only found in a select few Maluku islands,hence the nickname "The Spice Islands".Yup,Maluku is the infamous islands Columbus was searching for but instead found America and the rest is history.What I dont understand is,if Maluku has such a pivotal role in world history,why is it such an overlooked and unknown area?There are artifacts showing that the spices and spice trade from Maluku was connected with ancient Mesopotamia,India,and Egypt as well.
the needs of the people always change. from spice to silk. so once they discovered a safer route thru the oceans instead of the caravans, then they focused their attention on how to trade with china with its silk and porcelain.
even the spaniards once they discovered another route thru the pacific, just concentrated on trading with the chinese instead of looking for gold and silver in the philippines
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