The Republic of Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous
nation, has 203 million people living on nearly one thousand
permanently
settled islands. Some two-to-three hundred ethnic groups with
their own
languages and dialects range in population from the Javanese
(about 70
million) and Sundanese (about 30 million) on Java, to peoples
numbering in
the thousands on remote islands. The nature of Indonesian national
culture
is somewhat analogous to that of India—multicultural, rooted in
older societies and interethnic relations, and developed in
twentieth
century nationalist struggles against a European imperialism that
nonetheless forged that nation and many of its institutions. The
national
culture is most easily observed in cities but aspects of it now
reach into
the countryside as well. Indonesia's borders are those of the
Netherlands East Indies, which was fully formed at the beginning
of the
twentieth century, though Dutch imperialism began early in the
seventeenth
century. Indonesian culture has historical roots, institutions,
customs,
values, and beliefs that many of its people share, but it is also a
work
in progress that is undergoing particular stresses at the
beginning of the
twenty-first century.
The name Indonesia, meaning Indian Islands, was coined by an
Englishman,
J. R. Logan, in Malaya in 1850. Derived from the Greek,
Indos
(India) and
nesos
(island), it has parallels in Melanesia, "black islands";
Micronesia, "small islands"; and Polynesia, "many
islands." A German geographer, Adolf Bastian, used it in the title
of his book,
Indonesien
, in 1884, and in 1928 nationalists adopted it as the name of
their
hoped-for nation.
Most islands are multiethnic, with large and small groups forming
geographical enclaves. Towns within such enclaves include the
dominant
ethnic group and some members of immigrant groups. Large cities
may
consist of many ethnic groups; some cities have a dominant
majority.
Regions, such as West Sumatra or South Sulawesi, have developed
over
centuries through the interaction of geography (such as rivers,
ports,
plains, and mountains), historical interaction of peoples, and
political-administrative policies. Some, such as North Sumatra,
South
Sulawesi, and East Java are ethnically mixed to varying degrees;
others
such as West Sumatra, Bali, and Aceh are more homogeneous. Some
regions,
such as South Sumatra, South Kalimantan, and South Sulawesi, share
a
long-term Malayo-Muslim coastal influence that gives them similar
cultural
features, from arts and dress to political and class
stratification to
religion. Upland or upriver peoples in these regions have
different
social, cultural, and religious orientations, but may feel
themselves or
be perforce a part of that region. Many such regions have become
government provinces, as are the latter three above. Others, such
as Bali,
have not.