The Malay Archipelago

b >> by Alfred Russell Wallace >> The Malay Archipelago

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In the affections and moral sentiments, on the other hand, the
Papuans seem very deficient. In the treatment of their children
they are often violent and cruel; whereas the Malays are almost
invariably kind and gentle, hardly ever interfering at all with
their children's pursuits and amusements, and giving them perfect
liberty at whatever age they wish to claim it. But these very
peaceful relations between parents and children are no doubt, in
a great measure, due to the listless and apathetic character of
the race, which never leads the younger members into serious
opposition to the elders; while the harsher discipline of the
Papuans may be chiefly due to that greater vigour and energy of
mind which always, sooner or later, leads to the rebellion of the
weaker against the stronger,--the people against their rulers,
the slave against his master, or the child against its parent.

It appears, therefore, that, whether we consider their physical
conformation, their moral characteristics, or their intellectual
capacities, the Malay and Papuan races offer remarkable
differences and striking contrasts. The Malay is of short
stature, brown-skinned, straight-haired, beardless, and smooth-
bodied. The Papuan is taller, is black-skinned, frizzly-haired,
bearded, and hairy-bodied. The former is broad-faced, has a small
nose, and flat eyebrows; the latter is long-faced, has a large
and prominent nose, and projecting eyebrows. The Malay is
bashful, cold, undemonstrative, and quiet; the Papuan is bold,
impetuous, excitable, and noisy. The former is grave and seldom
laughs; the latter is joyous arid laughter-loving,--the one
conceals his emotions, the other displays them.

Having thus described in some detail, the great physical,
intellectual, and moral differences between the Malays and
Papuans, we have to consider the inhabitants of the numerous
islands which do not agree very closely with either of these
races. The islands of Obi, Batchian, and the three southern
peninsulas of Gilolo, possess no true indigenous population; but
the northern peninsula is inhabited by a native race, the so-
called Alfuros of Sahoe and Galela. These people are quite
distinct from the Malays, and almost equally so from the Papuans.
They are tall and well-made, with Papuan features, and curly
hair; they are bearded and hairy-limbed, but quite as light in
colour as the Malays. They are an industrious and enterprising
race, cultivating rice and vegetables, and indefatigable in their
search after game, fish, tripang, pearls, and tortoiseshell.

In the great island of Ceram there is also an indigenous race
very similar to that of Northern Gilolo. Bourn seems to contain
two distinct races,--a shorter, round-faced people, with a Malay
physiognomy, who may probably have come from Celebes by way of
the Sula islands; and a taller bearded race, resembling that of
Ceram.

Far south of the Moluccas lies the island of Timor, inhabited by
tribes much nearer to the true Papuan than those of the Moluccas.

The Timorese of the interior are dusky brown or blackish, with
bushy frizzled hair, and the long Papuan nose. They are of medium
height, and rather slender figures. The universal dress is a long
cloth twisted round the waist, the fringed ends of which hang
below the knee. The people are said to be great thieves, and the
tribes are always at war with each other, but they are not very
courageous or bloodthirsty. The custom of "tabu," called here
"pomali," is very general, fruit trees, houses, crop, and
property of all kinds being protected from depredation by this
ceremony, the reverence for which is very great. A palm branch
stuck across an open door, showing that the house is tabooed, is
a more effectual guard against robbery than any amount of locks
and bars. The houses in Timor are different from those of most of
the other islands; they seem all roof, the thatch overhanging the
low walls and reaching the ground, except where it is cut away
for an entrance. In some parts of the west end of Timor, and on
the little island of Semau, the houses more resemble those of the
Hottentots, being egg-shaped, very small, and with a door only
about three feet high. These are built on the ground, while those
of the eastern districts art, raised a few feet on posts. In
their excitable disposition, loud voices, and fearless demeanour,
the Timorese closely resemble the people of New Guinea.

In the islands west of Timor, as far as Flores and Sandalwood
Island, a very similar race is found, which also extends eastward
to Timor-laut, where the true Papuan race begins to appear. The
small islands of Savu and Rotti, however, to the west of Timor,
are very remarkable in possessing a different and, in some
respects, peculiar race. These people are very handsome, with
good features, resembling in many characteristics the race
produced by the mixture of the Hindoo or Arab with the Malay.
They are certainly distinct from the Timorese or Papuan races,
and must be classed in the western rather than the eastern
ethnological division of the Archipelago.

The whole of the great island of New Guinea, the Ke arid Aru
Islands, with Mysol, Salwatty, and Waigiou, are inhabited almost
exclusively by the typical Papuans. I found no trace of any other
tribes inhabiting the interior of New Guinea, but the coast
people are in some places mixed with the browner races of the
Moluccas. The same Papuan race seems to extend over the islands
east of New Guinea as far as the Fijis.

There remain to be noticed the black woolly-haired races of the
Philippines and the Malay peninsula, the former called
"Negritos," and the latter "Semangs." I have never seen these
people myself, but from the numerous accurate descriptions of
them that have been published, I have had no difficulty in
satisfying myself that they have little affinity or resemblance
to the Papuans, with which they have been hitherto associated. In
most important characters they differ more from the Papuan than
they do from the Malay. They are dwarfs in stature, only
averaging four feet six inches to four feet eight inches high, or
eight inches less than the Malays; whereas the Papuans are
decidedly taller than the -Malays. The nose is invariably
represented as small, flattened, or turned up at the apex,
whereas the most universal character of the Papuan race is to
have the nose prominent and large, with the apex produced
downwards, as it is invariably represented in their own rude
idols. The hair of these dwarfish races agrees with that of the
Papuans, but so it does with that of the negroes of Africa. The
Negritos and the Semangs agree very closely in physical
characteristics with each other and with the Andaman Islanders,
while they differ in a marked manner from every Papuan race.

A careful study of these varied races, comparing them with those
of Eastern Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Australia, has led me
to adopt a comparatively simple view as to their origin and
affinities.

If we draw a line (see Physical Map, Vol. 1. p. 14), commencing
to the east of the Philippine Islands, thence along the western
coast of Gilolo, through the island of Bouru, and curving round
the west end of Mores, then bending back by Sandalwood Island to
take in Rotti, we shall divide the Archipelago into two portions,
the races of which have strongly marked distinctive
peculiarities. This line will separate the Malayan and all the
Asiatic races, from the Papuans and all that inhabit the Pacific;
and though along the line of junction intermigration and
commixture have taken place, yet the division is on the whole
almost as well defined and strongly contrasted, as is the
corresponding zoological division of the Archipelago, into an
Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan region.

I must briefly explain the reasons that have led me to consider
this division of the Oceanic races to be a true and natural one.
The Malayan race, as a whole, undoubtedly very closely resembles
the East Asian populations, from Siam to Mandchouria. I was much
struck with this, when in the island of Bali I saw Chinese
traders who had adopted the costume of that country, and who
could then hardly be distinguished from Malays; and, on the other
hand, I have seen natives of Java who, as far as physiognomy was
concerned, would pass very well for Chinese. Then, again, we have
the most typical of the Malayan tribes inhabiting a portion of
the Asiatic continent itself, together with those great islands
which, possessing the same species of large Mammalia with the
adjacent parts of the continent, have in all probability formed a
connected portion of Asia during the human period. The Negritos
are, no doubt, quite a distinct race from the Malay; but yet, as
some of them inhabit a portion of the continent, and others the
Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, they must be considered to
have had, in all probability, an Asiatic rather than a Polynesian
origin.

Now, turning to the eastern parts of the Archipelago, I find, by
comparing my own observations with those of the most trustworthy
travellers and missionaries, that a race identical in all its
chief features with the Papuan, is found in all the islands as
far east as the Fijis; beyond this the brown Polynesian race, or
some intermediate type, is spread everywhere over the Pacific.
The descriptions of these latter often agree exactly with the
characters of the brown indigenes of Gilolo and Ceram.

It is to be especially remarked that the brown and the black
Polynesian races closely resemble each other. Their features are
almost identical, so that portraits of a New Zealander or
Otaheitan will often serve accurately to represent a Papuan or
Timorese, the darker colour and more frizzly hair of the latter
being the only differences. They are both tall races. They agree
in their love of art and the style of their decorations. They are
energetic, demonstrative, joyous, and laughter-loving, and in all
these particulars they differ widely from the Malay.

I believe, therefore, that the numerous intermediate forms that
occur among the countless islands of the Pacific, are not merely
the result of a mixture of these races, but are, to some extent,
truly intermediate or transitional; and that the brown and the
black, the Papuan, the natives of Gilolo and Ceram, the Fijian,
the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands and those of New Zealand,
are all varying forms of one great Oceanic or Polynesian race.

It is, however, quite possible, and perhaps probable, that the
brown Polynesians were originally the produce of a mixture of
Malays, or some lighter coloured Mongol race with the dark
Papuans; but if so, the intermingling took place at such a remote
epoch, and has been so assisted by the continued influence of
physical conditions and of natural selection, leading to the
preservation of a special type suited to those conditions, that
it has become a fixed and stable race with no signs of
mongrelism, and showing such a decided preponderance of Papuan
character, that it can best be classified as a modification of
the Papuan type. The occurrence of a decided Malay element in the
Polynesian languages, has evidently nothing to do with any such
ancient physical connexion. It is altogether a recent phenomenon,
originating in the roaming habits of the chief Malay tribes; and
this is proved by the fact that we find actual modern words of
the Malay and Javanese languages in use in Polynesia, so little
disguised by peculiarities of pronunciation as to be easily
recognisable--not mere Malay roots only to be detected by the
elaborate researches of the philologist, as would certainly have
been the case had their introduction been as
remote as the origin of a very distinct race--a race as different
from the Malay in mental and moral, as it is in physical
characters.

As bearing upon this question it is important to point out the
harmony which exists, between the line of separation of the human
races of the Archipelago and that of the animal productions of
the same country, which I have already so fully explained and
illustrated. The dividing lines do not, it is true, exactly
agree; but I think it is a remarkable fact, and something more
than a mere coincidence, that they should traverse the same
district and approach each other so closely as they do. If,
however, I am right in my supposition that the region where the
dividing line of the Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan regions of
zoology can now be drawn, was formerly occupied by a much wider
sea than at present, and if man existed on the earth at that
period, we shall see good reason why the races inhabiting the
Asiatic and Pacific areas should now meet and partially
intermingle in the vicinity of that dividing line.

It has recently been maintained by Professor Huxley, that the
Papuans are more closely allied to the negroes of Africa than to
any other race. The resemblance both in physical and mental
characteristics had often struck myself, but the difficulties in
the way of accepting it as probable or possible, have hitherto
prevented me front giving full weight to those resemblances.
Geographical, zoological, and ethnological considerations render
it almost certain, that if these two races ever had a common
origin, it could only have been at a period far more remote than
any which has yet been assigned to the antiquity of the human
race. And even if their lenity could be proved, it would in no
way affect my argument for the close affinity of the Papuan and
Polynesian races, and the radical distinctness of both from the
Malay.

Polynesia is pre-eminently an area of subsidence, and its goat
widespread groups of coral-reefs mark out tile position of former
continents and islands. The rich and varied, yet strangely
isolated productions of Australia and New Guinea, also indicate
an extensive continent where such specialized forms were
developed. The races of men now inhabiting these countries are,
therefore, most probably the descendants of the races which
inhabited these continents and islands. This is the most simple
and natural supposition to make. And if we find any signs of
direct affinity between the inhabitants of any other part of the
world and those of Polynesia, it by no means follows that the
latter were derived from the former. For as, when a Pacific
continent existed, the whole geography of the earth's surface
would probably be very different from what it now is, the present
continents may not then have risen above the ocean, and, when
they were formed at a subsequent epoch, may have derived some of
their inhabitants from the Polynesian area itself. It is
undoubtedly true that there are proofs of extensive migrations
among the Pacific islands, which have led to community of
language from the sandwich group to New Zealand; but there are no
proofs whatever of recent migration from any surrounding country
to Polynesia, since there is no people to be found elsewhere
sufficiently resembling the Polynesian race in their chief
physical and mental characteristics.

If the past history of these varied races is obscure and
uncertain, the future is no less so. The true Polynesians,
inhabiting the farthest isles of the Pacific, are no doubt doomed
to an early extinction. But the more numerous Malay race seems
well adapted to survive as the cultivator of the soil, even when
his country and government have passed into the hands of
Europeans. If the tide of colonization should be turned to New
Guinea, there can be little doubt of the early extinction of the
Papuan race. A warlike and energetic people, who will not submit
to national slavery or to domestic servitude, must disappear
before the white man as surely as do the wolf and the tiger.

I have now concluded my task. I have given, in more or less
detail, a sketch of my eight years' wanderings among the largest
and the most luxuriant islands which adorn our earth's surface. I
have endeavoured to convey my impressions of their scenery, their
vegetation, their animal productions, and their human
inhabitants. I have dwelt at some length on the varied and
interesting problems they offer to the student of nature. Before
bidding my reader farewell, I wish to make a few observations on
a subject of yet higher interest and deeper importance, which the
contemplation of savage life has suggested, and on which I
believe that the civilized can learn something from the savage
man.

We most of us believe that we, the higher races have progressed
and are progressing. If so, there must be some state of
perfection, some ultimate goal, which we may never reach, but to
which all true progress must bring nearer. What is this ideally
perfect social state towards which mankind ever has been, and
still is tending? Our best thinkers maintain, that it is a state
of individual freedom and self-government, rendered possible by
the equal development and just balance of the intellectual,
moral, and physical parts of our nature,--a state in which we
shall each be so perfectly fitted for a social existence, by
knowing what is right, and at the same time feeling an
irresistible impulse to do what we know to be right., that all
laws and all punishments shall be unnecessary. In such a state
every man would have a sufficiently well-balanced intellectual
organization, to understand the moral law in all its details, and
would require no other motive but the free impulses of his own
nature to obey that law.

Now it is very remarkable, that among people in a very low stage
of civilization, we find some approach to such a perfect social
state. I have lived with communities of savages in South America
and in the East, who have no laws or law courts but the public
opinion of the village freely expressed. Each man scrupulously
respects the rights of his fellow, and any infraction of those
rights rarely or never takes place. In such a community, all are
nearly equal. There are cone of those wide distinctions, of
education and ignorance, wealth and poverty, master and servant,
which are the product of our civilization; there is none of that
wide-spread division of labour, which, while it increases wealth,
products also conflicting interests; there is not that severe
competition and struggle for existence, or for wealth, which the
dense population of civilized countries inevitably creates. All
incitements to great crimes are thus wanting, and petty ones are
repressed, partly by the influence of public opinion, but chiefly
by that natural sense of justice and of his neighbour's right,
which seems to be, in some degree, inherent in every race of man.

Now, although we have progressed vastly beyond the savage state
in intellectual achievements, we have not advanced equally in
morals. It is true that among those classes who have no wants
that cannot be easily supplied, and among whom public opinion has
great influence; the rights of others are fully respected. It is
true, also, that we have vastly extended the sphere of those
rights, and include within them all the brotherhood of man. But
it is not too much to say, that the mass of our populations have
not at all advanced beyond the savage code of morals, and have in
many cases sunk below it. A deficient morality is the great blot
of modern civilization, and the greatest hindrance to true
progress.

During the last century, and especially in the last thirty years,
our intellectual and material advancement has been too quickly
achieved for us to reap the full benefit of it. Our mastery over
the forces of mature has led to a rapid growth of population, and
a vast accumulation of wealth; but these have brought with them
such au amount of poverty and crime, and have fostered the growth
of so much sordid feeling and so many fierce passions, that it
may well be questioned, whether the mental and moral status of
our population has not on the average been lowered, and whether
the evil has not overbalanced the good. Compared with our
wondrous progress in physical science and its practical
applications, our system of government, of administering justice,
of national education, and our whole social and moral
organization, remains in a state of barbarism. [See note next
page.] And if we continue to devote our chief energies to the
utilizing of our knowledge the laws of nature with the view of
still further extending our commerce and our wealth, the evils
which necessarily accompany these when too eagerly pursued, may
increase to such gigantic dimensions as to be beyond cur power to
alleviate.

We should now clearly recognise the fact, that the wealth and
knowledge and culture of the few do not constitute civilization,
and do not of themselves advance us towards the "perfect social
state." Our vast manufacturing system, our gigantic commerce, our
crowded towns and cities, support and continually renew a mass of
human misery and crime absolutely greater than has ever existed
before. They create and maintain in life-long labour an ever-
increasing army, whose lot is the more hard to bear, by contrast
with the pleasures, the comforts, and the luxury which they see
everywhere around them, but which they can never hope to enjoy;
and who, in this respect, are worse off than the savage in the
midst of his tribe.

This is not a result to boast of, or to be satisfied with; and,
until there is a more general recognition of this failure of our
civilization--resulting mainly from our neglect to train and
develop more thoroughly the sympathetic feelings and moral
faculties of our nature, and to allow them a larger share of
influence in our legislation, our commerce, and our whole social
organization--we shall never, as regards the whole community,
attain to any real or important superiority over the better class
of savages.

This is the lesson I have been taught by my observations of
uncivilized man. I now bid my readers--Farewell!

NOTE.

THOSE who believe that our social condition approaches
perfection, will think the above word harsh and exaggerated, but
it seems to me the only word that can be truly applied to us. We
are the richest country in the world, and yet cue-twentieth of
our population are parish paupers, and one-thirtieth known
criminals. Add to these, the criminals who escape detection; and
the poor who live mainly on private charity, (which, according to
Dr. Hawkesley, expends seven millions sterling annually is London
alone,) and we may be sure that more than ONE-TENTH of our
population are actually Paupers and Criminals. Both these classes
we keep idle or at unproductive labour, and each criminal costs
us annually in our prisons more than the wages of an honest
agricultural labourer. We allow over a hundred thousand persons
known to have no means of subsistence but by crime, to remain at
large and prey upon the community, and many thousand children to
grow up before our eyes in ignorance and vice, to supply trained
criminals for the next generation. This, in a country which
boasts of its rapid increase in wealth, of its enormous commerce
and gigantic manufactures, of its mechanical skill and scientific
knowledge, of its high civilization and its pure Christianity,--I
can but term a state of social barbarism. We also boast of our
love of justice, and that the law protects rich and. poor alike,
yet we retain money fines as a punishment, and male the very
first steps to obtain justice a. matter of expense-in both cases
a barbarous injustice, or denial of justice to the poor. Again,
our laws render it possible, that, by mere neglect of a legal
form, and contrary to his own wish and intention, a man's
property may all go to a stranger, and his own children be left
destitute. Such cases have happened through the operation of the
laws of inheritance of landed property; and that such unnatural
injustice is possible among us, shows that we are in a state of
social barbarism. Ono more example to justify my use of the term,
and I have done. We permit absolute possession of the soil of our
country, with no legal rights of existence on the soil, to the
vast majority who do not possess it. A great landholder may
legally convert his whole property into a forest or a hunting-
ground, and expel every human being who has hitherto lived upon
it. In a thickly-populated country like England, where every acre
has its owner and its occupier, this is a power of legally
destroying his fellow-creatures; and that such a power should
exist, and be exercised by individuals, in however small a
degree, indicates that, as regards true social science, we are
still in a state of barbarism.

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