Recording the past of “peoples without history”: Southeast Asia’s sea nomads
Keywords:
Sea people, historiography, state, marginality, “watery Zomia”Abstract
This essay has been developed from the conviction that scholars of all disciplines, particularly from Southeast Asia, must work together to prioritize the task of recording the traditions of “marginalized peoples” before practices, beliefs and memories disappear completely. Although anthropologists dominate contemporary studies, historians have much to offer, especially in dealing with the relationship between such groups and the state. Here I provide a background to historical work on sea peoples, tracking the evolution of the now accepted view that, traditionally, they were respected by land-based states and that this relationship was mutually beneficial. However, the demise of reciprocity combined with state pressure for the adoption of a sedentary existence led to a decline in regard for the maritime skills of sea peoples and the services they once provided. In seeking to resurrect a past that emphasizes indigenous
agency, there is a need to break out of disciplinary confines and develop methodologies and approaches that more effectively link the past with the present.
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footnotes
1. It would be extremely helpful to have a historical overview of work on other sea nomad groups like that supplied in Cynthia Chou, The Orang Suku Laut of Riau, Indonesia: The Inalienable Gift of Territory (London and New York: Routledge, 2010), pp. 50-58.
2. F.H. Verschuer, “De Badjos,” Tijdschrift van het Koninklijke Aardrijkskundig Genootschap 7 (1883): 1-7; Chapter 6 in Leonard Y. Andaya, Leaves of the Same Tree; Trade and Ethnicity in the Straits of Melaka (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2006) provides the information collected by these early ethnographers.
3. Nicholas Tarling, Piracy and Politics in the Malay World: A Study of British Imperialism in Nineteenth-century South-East Asia (Singapore: Donald Moore,
1963). Tarling did not have access to Sopher’s book, which had appeared the year before.
4. Briget Abels, “Introduction,” in Oceans of Sound: Sama Dilaut Performing Arts, eds. Birgit Abels, Hanafi Hussin and Matthew Santamaria (Olms: Hildesheim, 2012), p. 14. Nuraini, “Indonesian Bajo history,” p. 141 compares the lack of research on the Sama Bajau with that of the Sama Dilaut in the Philippines and Sabah.
5. See above, fn. 88. The village in which these interviews took place is Sampela, located on Kaledupa Island in the Wakatobu National Park in Indonesia’s Banda Sea.
Ali, Ismail and Jane Wong Kon Ling. 2008. “The winged boat of the Sea Bajau in Sabah.” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 81(1): 33-49.
Abels, Briget. 2012. “Introduction.” In Oceans of Sound: Sama Dilaut Performing Arts, edited by Birgit Abels, Hanafi Hussin and Matthew Santamaria, 14 .Olms: Hildesheim.
Andaya, Barbara Watson, and Leonard Y Andaya. 2014. A History of Early Modern Southeast Asia, 1400-1830. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Andaya, Barbara Watson. 1993. To Live as Brothers: Southeast Sumatra in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Andaya, Barbara Watson. 2013. “Report of three residents of Jambi about the threat of Johorese war vessels in the Batang Hari River, 11 September
1714.” Accessed May 17, 2019. Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia, https://sejarah-nusantara.anri.go.id/media/dasadefined/HartaKarunArticles/HK010/Doc_10_Eng.pdf.
Andaya, Barbara Watson. 2019. The Mysterious Ocean: Underwater Kingdoms, Sea Creatures, and Saintly Miracles in Early Modern Southeast Asia and Europe. NSC Working Paper No. 31.Singapore: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.
Andaya, Leonard Y.1984.“Historical links between the aquatic populations and the coastal peoples of the Malay World and Celebes.” In Historia: Essays in Commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of the Department of History, University of Malaya, edited by Muhammad Abu Bakar et al., 34-51. Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian Historical Society.
Andaya, Leonard Y. 2006. Leaves of the Same Tree; Trade and Ethnicity in the Straits of Melaka. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Andaya, Leonard Y. 1975. The Kingdom of Johor, 1641-1728. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.
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Barnard, Timothy. 2003. Multiple Centres of Authority: Society and the Environment in Siak and Eastern Sumatra, 1674-1827. Leiden: KITLV
Bellina, Bérénice, Aude Favereau and Laure Dussubieux. 2019. “Southeast Asian early maritime Silk Road trading polities’ hinterland and the sea nomads of the Isthmus of Kra.” Journal of Anthropoligical Archaeology 54: 102-120.
Benda, Harry. 1962. “The Structure of Southeast Asian History: Some Preliminary Observations.” Journal of Southeast Asian History 3(1): 106
Benjamin, Geoffrey, and Cynthia Chou, eds. 2002. Tribal Communities in the Malay World. Singapore: ISEAS.
Borschberg, Peter.,ed. and Roopanjli Roy, trans. 2014. The Memoirs and Memorials of Jacques de Coutre: Security, Trade and Society in 16th- and 17th-century Southeast Asia. Singapore: NUS Press.
Borschberg, Peter. 2002. “The seizure of the Santa António at Patani. VOC free booting, the Estado da Índia and peninsular politics, 1602-1619.” Journal of the Siam Society 90, 1-2: 59-72
Bourdier, Frédéric, Maxime Boutry, Jacques Ivanhoff and Olivier Ferrari. 2015. From Padi States to Commercial States: Reflections on Identity and the Social
Construction of Space in the Borderlands of Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Chou, Cynthia. 2019. “The sound of music and the Orang Suku Laut in the Riau Islands today.” In Performing the Arts of Indonesia: Malay Identity and Politics in the Music, Dance and Theatre of the Riau islands, edited by Margaret Kartomi, 58-76. Copenhagen: NIAS Press.
Chou, Cynthia. 2003. Indonesian Sea Nomads. Money, Magic and Fear of the Orang Suku Laut. London: Routledge-Curzon.
Chou, Cynthia. 2006. “Research trends on Southeast Asian sea nomads.” Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia 7:246.
Chou, Cynthia. 2010. The Orang Suku Laut of Riau, Indonesia: The Inalienable Gift of Territory. London and New York: Routledge.
Chou, Cynthia and Margaret Kartomi. 2019. “Sounds of the ‘People of the Sea’: From the former Riau-Lingga Sultanate to today’s Riau Islands’ province” In Hearing Southeast Asia: Sounds of Hierarchy and Power in Context, edited by Nathan Porath. Forthcoming, Copenhagen: NIAS Press.
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Cortesão, Armando.,ed. 1944. The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires. 1 vols. London: The Hakluyt Society.
Duncan, Christopher R. ed., 2004. Civilizing the Margins: Southeast Asian Government Policies for the Development of Minorities. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
Mozaffari-Falarti, Maziar. 2013. Malay Kingship in Kedah: Religion Trade and Society. New York: Lexington Books.
Forrest, Thomas. 1779. A Voyage to New Guinea and the Moluccas from Balambangan. London: Scott.
Fox, James J. 1977. “Notes on the southern voyages and settlements of the Sama-Bajau.” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 133(4): 459-465.
Gaynor, Jennifer L. 2016. Intertidal History, Submerged Genealogy and the Legacy of Coastal Capture in Island Southeast Asia. Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program.
Gislen, A., M. Dacke, R. H. Kroger, M. Abrahamsson, D. E. Nilsson, and E.J. Warrant. 2003. “Superior Underwater Vision in a Human Population of Sea Gypsies”. Current Biology 13(10): 833-836.
Gislén A, EJ Warrant, M Dacke, and RH Kröger. 2006. “Visual Training Improves Underwater Vision in Children.” Vision Research 46(20): 3443-3450.
Hall, Kenneth R., Suchandra Ghosh, Kaushik Gangopadhyay and Rila Mukherjee. eds., 2018. Cross-Cultural Networking in the Eastern Indian Ocean Realm, c. 1400–1800. Delhi: Primus Books.
Hoogervorst, Tom Gunnar. 2012. “Ethnicity and Aquatic Lifestyles: Exploring SoutheastAsia’s Past and Present Seascapes.” Water History 4: 245-265.
Horstmann, Alexander and Reed L. Wadley, eds. 2006. Centering the Margin: Agency and Narrative in Southeast Asian Borderlands. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Ilardo, Melissa A. et al., 2018. “Physiological and Genetic Adaptations to Diving in Sea Nomads.” Cell 173(3): 569–580. doi.10.1016/j.cell.2018.03.054.
Ilardo, Melissa A. 2018. “Man and the Sea: Genetics in Maritime Populations.” PhD diss., Natural History Museum of Denmark, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen.
Ivanoff, Jaques. 2018. “Ethnic reconstruction and Austronesian strategies at the Recording the past of “peoples without history” borders: The Moken social space in Burma,” In Routledge Handbook of Asian Borderlands, edited by Alexander Horstmann, Martin Saxer, and Alessandro Rippa, 277-288. London and New York.
Ivanoff, Jaques. 1999. The Moken Boat: Symbolic Technology. Bangkok: White Lotus Press.
Jonsson, Hjorleifur. 2005. Mien Relations: Mountain People and State Control in Thailand. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Kusuma, Pradiptajati. et al. 2017. “The last sea nomads of the Indonesian archipelago: Genomic origins and dispersal.” European Journal of Human
Genetics 25 : 1004–1010.
Lenhart, Lioba. 1995. “Recent Research on Southeast Asian sea Nomads.” Nomadic Peoples 36/37: 245- 260.
Leur, Jacob Cornelis. 1955. Indonesian Trade and Society: Essays in Asian Social and Economic History. The Hague: W. van Hoeve. Luce, Gordon H.1965. “Rice and religion: A study of Old Mon-Khmer Evolution and Culture.” Journal of the Siam Society 53 : 146.
Lye, Tuck-Po. 2001. Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia: A Comprehensive and Annotated Bibliography. Kyoto: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University.
Ma, Huan. 1970. Ying-Yai Sheng-Lan: ‘The Overall Survey of the Ocean’s Shores’ (1433). Translated by J.V.G. Mills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ma, Huan, and J. V. G. Mills. 1970. The overall survey of th ocean’s shores, 1433. Cambridge: The University Press.
Matheson, Virginia.1971. “Tuhfat al-Nafis: Structure and sources.” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 127(3) : 375-92.
McNiven, Ian. 2019. “Navigating the Human-Animal Divide: Marine Mammal-Hunters and rituals of Sensory Allurement.” World Archaeology 42(2): 215-30.
Meilink-Roelofsz, M. A. P. 1962. Asian Trade and European Influence in the Indonesian Archipelago between 1500 and about 1630. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Mills, J. V. 1947. “The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires and the Book of Francisco Rodrigues by Armando Cortesāo.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2: 226-227.
Morgan, James. 2013. “Bajau Laut: Last of the sea nomads. Accessed May 14, 2019.” James Morgan, https://james morgan.co.uk/features/bajaulaut-sea-nomads/
Nimmo, H. Arlo. 1973. “A Tribe of Ancient Mariners Comes Ashore.” Natural History 82(19): 334-45
Nolde, Lance.2014. “Changing Tides: A History of Power, Trade, and Transformation among the Same Bajo Sea Peoples of Eastern Indonesia in the Early Modern Period.” Ph.D. diss., University of Hawai‘i.
Nolde, Lance. 2014.“The Muscles and Sinews of the kingdom: Situating the Sama Bajo sea peoples in early modern Southeast Asian history.” In Sea Nomads of Southeast Asia: Past and Present, edited by Bérénice Bellina, Roger Blench, and Jean-Christophe Galipaud. Forthcoming, Singapore: NUS Press.
Noorduyn, Jacobus. ed. 1983. 96-121 De handelsrelaties van het Makassaarse rijk volgens de Notitie van Cornelis Speelman uit 1670. Amsterdam: Verloren.
Nuraini, Chandra. 2012. “Indonesian Bajo history and narratives: The Iko-Iko epic songs.” In Oceans of Sound: Sama Dilaut Performing Arts, edited by Birgit Abels, Hanafi Hussin and Matthew Santamaria, 141- 166. Olms: Hildesheim.
Pelras, Christian. 1972. “Notes sur Quelques Populations aquatiques de l’Archipel Nusantarien.” Archipel 3(1): 133-68;
Prapanca, Mpu.1995. Deśawarnana (Nagarakrtagama). Translated by Robson, Stuart. Leiden: KITLV Press.
Prapanca, Mpu. 1970. Deśawarnana (Nagarakrtagama). Translated by Stuart Robson. Leiden: KITLV Press.
Reid, Anthony.2015. A History of Southeast Asia: Critical Crossroads. London: John Wiley & Sons.
Rivers, P.J. 2003. “Keramat in Singapore in the mid-twentieth century.” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 76(2): 101.
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footnotes
1. It would be extremely helpful to have a historical overview of work on other sea nomad groups like that supplied in Cynthia Chou, The Orang Suku Laut of Riau, Indonesia: The Inalienable Gift of Territory (London and New York: Routledge, 2010), pp. 50-58.
2. F.H. Verschuer, “De Badjos,” Tijdschrift van het Koninklijke Aardrijkskundig Genootschap 7 (1883): 1-7; Chapter 6 in Leonard Y. Andaya, Leaves of the Same Tree; Trade and Ethnicity in the Straits of Melaka (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2006) provides the information collected by these early ethnographers.
3. Nicholas Tarling, Piracy and Politics in the Malay World: A Study of British Imperialism in Nineteenth-century South-East Asia (Singapore: Donald Moore,
1963). Tarling did not have access to Sopher’s book, which had appeared the year before.
4. Briget Abels, “Introduction,” in Oceans of Sound: Sama Dilaut Performing Arts, eds. Birgit Abels, Hanafi Hussin and Matthew Santamaria (Olms: Hildesheim, 2012), p. 14. Nuraini, “Indonesian Bajo history,” p. 141 compares the lack of research on the Sama Bajau with that of the Sama Dilaut in the Philippines and Sabah.
5. See above, fn. 88. The village in which these interviews took place is Sampela, located on Kaledupa Island in the Wakatobu National Park in Indonesia’s Banda Sea.
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2020-02-07
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Andaya, Barbara Watson. 2020. “Recording the past of ‘peoples Without history’: Southeast Asia’s Sea Nomads”. ASIAN REVIEW 32 (1):5-33. https://so01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/arv/article/view/240175.
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