Page 22 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

In such a situation, the trading and maritime relationships between the coast of
Papua—Biak and Numfor—and the other islands took place. The merchants brought along
their trade to Tidore, Ternate, Seram and Selayar as well as other regions when the Eastern
muson came by. When the Western muson had blown, then it was the turn of the merchants
and the Javanese sailors to go along the coast of Sumatra to the North. In these maritime
dynamics then there were various kinds of trading networks and cultural relationships
to take place. It was when the transfer of inhabitants to possibly happen and even the
conflict could not be avoided forever. The maritime tradition was usually to blur all kinds
of differences. In such a situation then all kinds of cultural foreignness as if enjoyed trying
to hide their authenticity. The world of maritime and trading was the area which got used
to blur all kinds of cultural differences in the communication system—an event which took
place in a diversified situation.
When the crisis in political power was already unavoidable, then there were also
many possibilities in the trading and maritime world which were tried to take place. In
the dynamics of relationships which demand trading advantage, the process towards
adjusting the meaning of the symbols for the sake of realizing the communicative
relationship was possible to happen. The maritime and trading situation not only created a
more open cultural relationship—in a sense of possibility to comprehend cultural symbols
of other culture—but also explored the growth of intermediary society—between the
foreign maritime world and the remote society who was likely to stay in the situation of
cultural origin.
Despite all of the political claims to be proud of, Nagarakartagama could also be seen
as a historical witness on how relativity of the cultural limits between Majapahit and
the centers of local power and the cultural world of the Western region had happened.
However, what was not less important was this script also confirmed that Majapahit was
also the center of power which had the relationship with some locations in the Eastern part
of Nusantara world—a region consisting of so many kinds of cultural traditions, centers
of power and hundreds of remote communities in the suburbs of big and small islands.
Such situations did not experience fundamental changes but also after Western nations
came along and succeeded in dominating the maritime and commercial relationship. The
existence and competition among them—Portuguese, Spain and Dutch—and even their
success to hold monopoly in trade and government just strengthened further the cultural
tendency which was open in nature. When eventually the Dutch succeeded to put aside the

22 Introduction

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