In my previous post, I briefly touched upon the importance of using old Chinese sources for reconstructing the historical geography of Southeast Asia and touched on possible references to the eastern archipelago of present-day Indonesia. If you have not read that post, I recommend starting there. At this point, I want to draw some attention... Continue Reading →
In another academic life, I might have become a historian of China. I studied Mandarin in high school in Singapore, spent a year between high school and university at Beijing Foreign Studies University, and returned to Beijing during my junior year of college. As an undergraduate, I minored in Chinese. I majored in History and... Continue Reading →
Hey everyone! It has been quite a few years since my last blog post. That said, I have not stepped away from studying Southeast Asian history or learning new languages. Rather, teaching and dissertation writing have taken priority in recent years, and this blog was one of the projects I had to put on hold.... Continue Reading →
On March 21st of last year, the Netherlands’ Malukan community commemorated the 70th anniversary of the arrival in the port of Rotterdam of the Kota Inten, the first of a series of ships carrying Malukan soldiers who served in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) and their families to the Netherlands. Television programs, news... Continue Reading →
The neighborhood children in Masohi used to warn me about the various ghosts and monsters lurking in the dark. They shared stories of beasts as tall as the palm trees, the ghost of a mother searching for her children, and a host of other setan (devils) and hantu or spok (ghosts) [1]. They advised me... Continue Reading →
It is an understatement to say that these are exceptional times. The spread of Covid-19 and the havoc it has wreaked on our healthcare systems and the political landscape has greatly limited our ability to meet and to travel. For those in academia, this means that many of us have had to cancel plans to... Continue Reading →
“Taking them island by island: Makasar, Butun and Banggawi, / Kunir, Galiyahu and Salaya, Sumba, Solot and Muwar, / As well as Wandan, Ambwan, Maloko and Wwanin, / Seran and Timur as the main ones among the various islands that remembered their duty.” (Desawarnana 14:5, translated by Stuart Robson, 1995:34). The islands and towns of... Continue Reading →
“Oh! Look who controls all the islands. It’s the Mahajapit! [X] Majahapit! [X] Mapajahit! [X] Mahapajit! [X] Mapajahit! [X] Maja-pahit? [✓]” – Bill Wurtz in “history of the entire world, i guess” About two years ago, a strange phenomenon occurred: friends and family members from across the United States suddenly seemed to be aware of... Continue Reading →
There are relatively few local non-European written sources on the history of Maluku and Ambon in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that themselves can be traced to those centuries. The seventeenth century Malay-language Hikayat Tanah Hitu written by the Hituese imam Rijali is one of those few written sources. Composed while Rijali was in exile... Continue Reading →
Full disclosure: Animal History is not my area of expertise and I do not intend to turn my current research in that direction. Perhaps, this may inform a future project. That being said, I was recently browsing the pages of the Treatise on the Moluccas, a mid-16th century Portuguese administrator/sailor’s description of present-day North Maluku... Continue Reading →
Benjamin L. Moseley 