Page 75 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

55 cm
Items of Dongson culture which
were traded in Indonesia around
the beginning of the Christian era. 23 cm
17 cm

4 cm
79 cm

44 cm

4 cm

Trading activities flourished because the people of the Indonesian archipelago had
interacted with the rest of the world. It is possible that in coastal areas, and also perhaps
inland, the rudimentary beginnings of some cities which often had connections with the
outside world had been established. Social stratification based on specialization and
expertise of certain population groups had been distinguished. There were population of
traders who often had contacts with the outside world, populations of farmers, and there
were also traditional leaders who got respect because of their seniority, experience and
their capabilities in doing certain things. These leaders had greater access to the exotic
goods although other social groups might also have been able to obtain them.
The developing complexity of life was resulting in the readiness of the people in the
Indonesian archipelago to embrace outside influences, and foreign culture. But those
cultures were not adopted wholesale as they were practiced in their original countries.
In architecture, the structure of temples when Hindu and Buddhist cultures arrived in
the Indonesian archipelago around early AD was influenced by Indian and Indonesian
cultures. Hindu temples, for example, were a combination of Hindu temple architecture

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MELANESIA BOOK FA LAYOUT 051216.indd 75 2/10/17 2:10 PM