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JAVA

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 467 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JAVA .) Inhabitants.-The See also:

majority of the native inhabitants of the See also:Malay See also:Archipelago belong to two races, the See also:Malays and the Melanesians (See also:Papuans). As regards the See also:present racial See also:distribution, the view accepted by many anthropologists, following A. H. See also:Keane, is that the See also: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 See also:Polynesia. At some date See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also: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 See also:strain is evident in Java and others of the western islands; See also: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 See also:early date: the first Dutch invaders found them settled at Jacatra; and many of them, as, for instance, the See also:colony of See also:Ternate, have taken so kindly to their new See also: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 See also: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 See also:Low See also:German holds to High German, and the Madurese in the relation of a strongly individualized See also:dialect. Among the other languages which have been reduced to See also: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 See also:language to be fairly widely spoken-little, however, by Europeans. See also:Political See also:Division.-Politically the whole of the archipelago, except See also:British See also:North Borneo, &c. (see BORNEO), See also:part of See also:Timor (Portuguese), New See also:Guinea See also:east of the 141st See also: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 See also: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 See also: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.

End of Article: JAVA

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