Page 9 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

Assalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb.

This book has been commissioned to provide the public with up to date and objective information about Indonesian
Melanesia.
It enlists the help of a number of academics, each with experience in a variety of fields that can help throw light on the
nature of Melanesia.
The book’s title is The Melanesian Diaspora in Indonesia: From Prehistory to the Present, and this reflects the broad
historical scope of the book, from the earliest times to the present.
As the book’s authors show, the reality of life in the Indonesian archipelago, with its great diversity of peoples, languages
and cultures, is a complex one, better defined by contacts, accommodation and co-existence, than by simplistic, black
and white divisions. It shows that beyond superficial generalizations, the Melanesians are an integral part of Indonesia
today, and along with the majority Austronesian population, share not only language, and culture, but also ancestry.
The book is intended to make a contribution to interdisciplinary works on Melanesia and Indonesia. Melanesia is both
a geographical and cultural region, and a good part of Melanesia falls within Indonesia’s borders. In addition, the largest
Melanesian population of any country is found in Indonesia. Indonesia’s Melanesians are found in East Nusa Tenggara,
Maluku, North Maluku, Papua and West Papua provinces. The people there are diverse and their language, culture and
ancestry have links to thousands of years of contact and mixing between different groups.
The chapters look at Melanesia in Indonesia from the perspectives of the different scientific disciplines. An overview
of the book’s chapters is given here.
Chapter 1, The Prehistory of Melanesia in the Indonesian Archipelago by Harry Truman Simanjuntak reports on the
prehistory of Indonesia, from the perspective of archaeology. This wide-ranging chapter reveals what we know about
life in the archipelago from the earliest times. Chapter 2, The Genetics of Indonesian Melanesia, by Herawati Sudoyo,
provides evidence from research in genetics about the biological makeup of the population in Indonesia. It is clear that
there are not two distinct groups, Melanesian and Austronesian, but that intermarriage over the millennia have led to

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