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The Malay Archipelago #1-2
The Annotated Malay Archipelago
Wallace's Malay Archipelago is a classic account of the travels of a Victorian naturalist through island Southeast Asia. It has been loved by readers ever since its publication in 1869. Despite numerous modern reprints with appreciative introductions, this is the first - and long overdue - annotated edition in English.
This edition explains, updates and corrects the original text with an historical introduction, and hundreds of explanatory notes. Wallace left hundreds of people, places, publications and species unidentified. He referred to most species only with the scientific name current at the time. Whenever available, the common name for species have been provided, and scientific names updated. The content of the book has never been thoroughly analysed and compared against other contemporary sources. It turns out that the book contains many errors. This includes not just incorrect dates and place names but some of the most remarkable anecdotes; for example, the dramatic claim that tigers "kill on an average a Chinaman every day" in Singapore or that a Dutch Governor General committed suicide by leaping from a waterfall on Celebes.
By correcting the text of the Malay Archipelago against Wallace's letters and notebooks and other contemporary sources and by enriching it with modern identifications, this edition reveals Wallace's work as never before.
This edition explains, updates and corrects the original text with an historical introduction, and hundreds of explanatory notes. Wallace left hundreds of people, places, publications and species unidentified. He referred to most species only with the scientific name current at the time. Whenever available, the common name for species have been provided, and scientific names updated. The content of the book has never been thoroughly analysed and compared against other contemporary sources. It turns out that the book contains many errors. This includes not just incorrect dates and place names but some of the most remarkable anecdotes; for example, the dramatic claim that tigers "kill on an average a Chinaman every day" in Singapore or that a Dutch Governor General committed suicide by leaping from a waterfall on Celebes.
By correcting the text of the Malay Archipelago against Wallace's letters and notebooks and other contemporary sources and by enriching it with modern identifications, this edition reveals Wallace's work as never before.
801 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1869
About the author
Alfred Russel Wallace
594 books94 followersAlfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist. He is best known for independently proposing a theory of natural selection which prompted Charles Darwin to publish his own theory.
Wallace did extensive fieldwork, first in the Amazon River basin and then in the Malay Archipelago, where he identified the Wallace Line that divides Indonesia into two distinct parts, one in which animals closely related to those of Australia are common, and one in which the species are largely of Asian origin. He was considered the 19th century's leading expert on the geographical distribution of animal species and is sometimes called the "father of biogeography". Wallace was one of the leading evolutionary thinkers of the 19th century and made a number of other contributions to the development of evolutionary theory besides being co-discoverer of natural selection. These included the concept of warning colouration in animals, and the Wallace effect, a hypothesis on how natural selection could contribute to speciation by encouraging the development of barriers against hybridization.
Wallace was strongly attracted to unconventional ideas. His advocacy of Spiritualism and his belief in a non-material origin for the higher mental faculties of humans strained his relationship with the scientific establishment, especially with other early proponents of evolution. In addition to his scientific work, he was a social activist who was critical of what he considered to be an unjust social and economic system in 19th-century Britain. His interest in biogeography resulted in his being one of the first prominent scientists to raise concerns over the environmental impact of human activity. Wallace was a prolific author who wrote on both scientific and social issues; his account of his adventures and observations during his explorations in Indonesia and Malaysia, The Malay Archipelago, was one of the most popular and influential journals of scientific exploration published during the 19th century.
Wallace did extensive fieldwork, first in the Amazon River basin and then in the Malay Archipelago, where he identified the Wallace Line that divides Indonesia into two distinct parts, one in which animals closely related to those of Australia are common, and one in which the species are largely of Asian origin. He was considered the 19th century's leading expert on the geographical distribution of animal species and is sometimes called the "father of biogeography". Wallace was one of the leading evolutionary thinkers of the 19th century and made a number of other contributions to the development of evolutionary theory besides being co-discoverer of natural selection. These included the concept of warning colouration in animals, and the Wallace effect, a hypothesis on how natural selection could contribute to speciation by encouraging the development of barriers against hybridization.
Wallace was strongly attracted to unconventional ideas. His advocacy of Spiritualism and his belief in a non-material origin for the higher mental faculties of humans strained his relationship with the scientific establishment, especially with other early proponents of evolution. In addition to his scientific work, he was a social activist who was critical of what he considered to be an unjust social and economic system in 19th-century Britain. His interest in biogeography resulted in his being one of the first prominent scientists to raise concerns over the environmental impact of human activity. Wallace was a prolific author who wrote on both scientific and social issues; his account of his adventures and observations during his explorations in Indonesia and Malaysia, The Malay Archipelago, was one of the most popular and influential journals of scientific exploration published during the 19th century.
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November 18, 2021
I wanted to read this to learn more about Alfred Russel Wallace, who came up with the theory of evolution independently of Charles Darwin, whilst travelling amongst the islands of what are now Indonesia and Eastern Malaysia. Wallace actually sent his paper to Darwin for comment before publication. At this point Darwin had been working on his theory for about 10 years but had not published. If Wallace had happened to send his paper to someone else, then it would probably have been published first, and we might today be talking about Wallace’s Theory of Evolution.
Wallace spent 8 years travelling in the archipelago, and the region played a similar role in his life as the Galapagos did for Darwin. In particular, Wallace noted the startling difference in wildlife between the western islands like Borneo, Sumatra and Java and the eastern ones such as New Guinea, Sulawesi and Timor. The former, which are connected to the continent of Asia by shallow seas, have a wildlife similar to mainland Asia, whilst the latter have a wildlife similar to Australia, to which they are in turn connected by shallow seas. Wallace correctly deduced that Borneo, Java etc were once part of the Asian mainland whilst New Guinea, Timor etc were once part of a larger Australia. A deep channel runs between them. At one point it runs between the islands of Bali and Lombok, which are only about 20 miles apart but which have markedly different fauna. This observation got Wallace started on developing his evolutionary theory.
I was hoping for more in this book on how Wallace’s theory developed, but it seems I chose the wrong book for that. It’s set out instead in another book, My Life. This one is more a description of the fauna he saw. Working in the mid-19th century, Wallace couldn’t take photos of the animals, so he instead describes them in detail for his readers. I found this a bit tedious at times. Now of course we can simply look up a species on the Internet to see what it looks like, and that’s what I mostly did.
A couple of warnings for modern readers. Wallace funded his travels by shooting animals and sending their dried skins and skeletons to museums and collectors in Britain, who were willing to pay high prices for such specimens. In addition, he is partial to the kind of racial generalisations that are frowned on today, although Wallace’s views were mild for his time.
I found the first half of the book rather slow, but enjoyed the second half much more. Possibly I was getting more used to the style, but I think it was more to do with the fact that in Wallace’s time the eastern part of the archipelago was more remote, which made his travels more of an adventure. He underwent considerable hardship and danger in making these journeys, but says himself that the Moluccas and the islands around New Guinea were the most rewarding part of his travels.
We all know the old cliché about not judging a book by its cover, but I was partly drawn to this one by the gorgeous cover illustration. However in the Kindle edition I read, the illustrations were only in black and white. I think I would recommend a printed edition with the full colour illustrations. It would really make a difference in this case.
Overall this was probably a 3.5 for me - 3 stars for the first half of the book and 4 for the second. I am pleased though, that I now know more about this remarkable man.
Wallace spent 8 years travelling in the archipelago, and the region played a similar role in his life as the Galapagos did for Darwin. In particular, Wallace noted the startling difference in wildlife between the western islands like Borneo, Sumatra and Java and the eastern ones such as New Guinea, Sulawesi and Timor. The former, which are connected to the continent of Asia by shallow seas, have a wildlife similar to mainland Asia, whilst the latter have a wildlife similar to Australia, to which they are in turn connected by shallow seas. Wallace correctly deduced that Borneo, Java etc were once part of the Asian mainland whilst New Guinea, Timor etc were once part of a larger Australia. A deep channel runs between them. At one point it runs between the islands of Bali and Lombok, which are only about 20 miles apart but which have markedly different fauna. This observation got Wallace started on developing his evolutionary theory.
I was hoping for more in this book on how Wallace’s theory developed, but it seems I chose the wrong book for that. It’s set out instead in another book, My Life. This one is more a description of the fauna he saw. Working in the mid-19th century, Wallace couldn’t take photos of the animals, so he instead describes them in detail for his readers. I found this a bit tedious at times. Now of course we can simply look up a species on the Internet to see what it looks like, and that’s what I mostly did.
A couple of warnings for modern readers. Wallace funded his travels by shooting animals and sending their dried skins and skeletons to museums and collectors in Britain, who were willing to pay high prices for such specimens. In addition, he is partial to the kind of racial generalisations that are frowned on today, although Wallace’s views were mild for his time.
I found the first half of the book rather slow, but enjoyed the second half much more. Possibly I was getting more used to the style, but I think it was more to do with the fact that in Wallace’s time the eastern part of the archipelago was more remote, which made his travels more of an adventure. He underwent considerable hardship and danger in making these journeys, but says himself that the Moluccas and the islands around New Guinea were the most rewarding part of his travels.
We all know the old cliché about not judging a book by its cover, but I was partly drawn to this one by the gorgeous cover illustration. However in the Kindle edition I read, the illustrations were only in black and white. I think I would recommend a printed edition with the full colour illustrations. It would really make a difference in this case.
Overall this was probably a 3.5 for me - 3 stars for the first half of the book and 4 for the second. I am pleased though, that I now know more about this remarkable man.
March 22, 2019
For 8 years, from 1854 to 1862, Alfred Russel Wallace journeyed to the southern portion of the Malay Archipelago including Malaysia, Singapore, the islands of Indonesia (then known as the Dutch East Indies) and the island of New Guinea, travelling over 14.000 miles.
But the 2 volumes he wrote about his journey chronicle not only his exploration of the region and his encounters there, they also describe in detail some of the 125.660 specimens he collected, mostly of insects though he also brought home thousands of molluscs, birds, mammals and reptiles. The books include gorgeous illustrations as well as detailed sketches (though I found out in the meantime that Wallace didn't produce these illustrations and sketches himself) that made reading this account even more exciting.
The author structured the books to take the reader from island to island, much like the author himself travelled, telling of the islands' geographies, human populations, the volcanoes, plants and animals. In between we also learn of the difficulties such journeys pose, the threats, and how he was helped several times by all kinds of people, indiginous and otherwise.
Volume 1 thus starts in Singapore, moving on to Malacca and Mount Ophir, then Borneo (which the author dedicated 3 chapters to), Java, Sumatra, Bali and Lombock, Timor, Macassar, Menado, Banda and Amboyna.
Volume 2 picks up at Ternate, then moves on to Gilolo, the Kaióa Islands, Batchian, Ceram, Goram and the Matabello Islands, Bouru, Aru islands, Ké islands, then going back to the Aru islands for 4 chapters, before going to New Guinea, Ceram, Waigiou and, finally, Ternate. The last few chapters of this volume are dedicated to birds of paradise and the races of man.
Apart from the amicable writing style, I noticed that Wallace was a bit different from other naturalists of his time by not describing himself as being very adventurous. Weird for a guy who travelled from island to island for 8 years. He seems to have been self-confident but not arrogant (you know, in a British colonial sort of way). And I loved that he only believed in what he could see for himself and examine (which probably explains his meticulousness).
I must admit that I found these books by coincidence and that I hadn't known about this man before despite him being one of the co-discoverers of natural selection and him obviously having been an influence on other, perhaps more well-known, naturalists and later scientists!
There is for example the Wallace-Line, a faunal boundary he drew in 1859 (it was named later by the English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley) that separates the ecozones of Asia and Wallacea, a transitional zone between Asia and Australia.
Or the Wallace-Effect, which is a process of speciation (also known as reinforcement) where natural selection increases the reproductive isolation between two populations of species as a result of selection acting against the production of hybrid individuals as those would be less fit. While the modern concept originates from another scientist, Wallace did lay the foundation.
As you can see, the man was important for our modern understanding of the natural world, evolution and geology and I'm glad I found this gorgeous edition of his journals (yes, the design is what made me buy them) and that I was thus able to complete my own journey through natural history and the voyages of discovery from around that time by also having read this meticulous man's journals.
But the 2 volumes he wrote about his journey chronicle not only his exploration of the region and his encounters there, they also describe in detail some of the 125.660 specimens he collected, mostly of insects though he also brought home thousands of molluscs, birds, mammals and reptiles. The books include gorgeous illustrations as well as detailed sketches (though I found out in the meantime that Wallace didn't produce these illustrations and sketches himself) that made reading this account even more exciting.
The author structured the books to take the reader from island to island, much like the author himself travelled, telling of the islands' geographies, human populations, the volcanoes, plants and animals. In between we also learn of the difficulties such journeys pose, the threats, and how he was helped several times by all kinds of people, indiginous and otherwise.
Volume 1 thus starts in Singapore, moving on to Malacca and Mount Ophir, then Borneo (which the author dedicated 3 chapters to), Java, Sumatra, Bali and Lombock, Timor, Macassar, Menado, Banda and Amboyna.
Volume 2 picks up at Ternate, then moves on to Gilolo, the Kaióa Islands, Batchian, Ceram, Goram and the Matabello Islands, Bouru, Aru islands, Ké islands, then going back to the Aru islands for 4 chapters, before going to New Guinea, Ceram, Waigiou and, finally, Ternate. The last few chapters of this volume are dedicated to birds of paradise and the races of man.
Apart from the amicable writing style, I noticed that Wallace was a bit different from other naturalists of his time by not describing himself as being very adventurous. Weird for a guy who travelled from island to island for 8 years. He seems to have been self-confident but not arrogant (you know, in a British colonial sort of way). And I loved that he only believed in what he could see for himself and examine (which probably explains his meticulousness).
I must admit that I found these books by coincidence and that I hadn't known about this man before despite him being one of the co-discoverers of natural selection and him obviously having been an influence on other, perhaps more well-known, naturalists and later scientists!
There is for example the Wallace-Line, a faunal boundary he drew in 1859 (it was named later by the English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley) that separates the ecozones of Asia and Wallacea, a transitional zone between Asia and Australia.
Or the Wallace-Effect, which is a process of speciation (also known as reinforcement) where natural selection increases the reproductive isolation between two populations of species as a result of selection acting against the production of hybrid individuals as those would be less fit. While the modern concept originates from another scientist, Wallace did lay the foundation.
As you can see, the man was important for our modern understanding of the natural world, evolution and geology and I'm glad I found this gorgeous edition of his journals (yes, the design is what made me buy them) and that I was thus able to complete my own journey through natural history and the voyages of discovery from around that time by also having read this meticulous man's journals.
Read
November 6, 2013Oh, to be a 19th Century man of science and discovery! To drink bitters and claret upon a ship with a name like the "HMS Gallant" and smoke a pipe of finest Virginia 'pon the sands as your Balinese boys fetch you a cocoa-nut for an evening repast. As someone who was raised on a steady diet of Indiana Jones and Sherlock Holmes, I need no convincing.
And Wallace is rapturous about everything he comes into contact with. Whether he's writing about the virtues of breadfruit, the plumage of a tropical bird, or how he beat an orangutan too severely this time, he's a compassionate and witty observer, and also faintly ridiculous.
Of course, a lot of Goodreads reviewers are going to comment on Wallace's racism. To be fair, while he comes off as a haughty Victorian imperialist nowadays (yeah, those Malays need to be in perennial debt to coffee planters so they can develop a work ethic!), his views in the context of the time were almost radical:
"We shall never, as regards the whole community, attain to any real or important superiority over the better class of savages."
"As regards true social science, we are still in a state of barbarism."
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, defense rests.
And Wallace is rapturous about everything he comes into contact with. Whether he's writing about the virtues of breadfruit, the plumage of a tropical bird, or how he beat an orangutan too severely this time, he's a compassionate and witty observer, and also faintly ridiculous.
Of course, a lot of Goodreads reviewers are going to comment on Wallace's racism. To be fair, while he comes off as a haughty Victorian imperialist nowadays (yeah, those Malays need to be in perennial debt to coffee planters so they can develop a work ethic!), his views in the context of the time were almost radical:
"We shall never, as regards the whole community, attain to any real or important superiority over the better class of savages."
"As regards true social science, we are still in a state of barbarism."
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, defense rests.
October 1, 2015
The Malay Archipelago by Victorian English naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace was first published in 1869 and dedicated to Charles Darwin. Wallace is perhaps most famous for postulating the view, without specific reliance on Darwin’s theory, that life evolves. The Malay Archipelago was an instant and resounding success and has since been republished and translated many times.
Published by the National University of Singapore (NUS), this latest version is unique on several counts. Most notably, editor John van Wyhe, a historian of science at NUS and an expert on both Wallace and Darwin, has used his extensive knowledge to skillfully annotate Wallace’s original text—the first of its type in English. Hundreds of footnotes point out factual errors, provide explanations for inconsistencies, add more detail to illuminate certain points, provide context for certain sections and give common names for species of animals, insects and plants.
The book is beautifully produced with a mid-section of color drawings that depict animals, birds, insects and flowers. Dotted through the chapters are new charcoal sketches of exotic birds, animals, indigenous people and significant places. As well as an updated itinerary and wonderful maps that brings Wallace’s epic journey even more to life, the original illustrations are also included.
The Malay Archipelago text itself is, in Wallace’s own words, the result of “eight years of wanderings among the largest and most luxuriant islands which adorn our earth’s surface.” He travels across current day Java, Borneo, Sumatra, Sulawesi, The Philippines, Bali, Timor, Papua New Guinea and many more islands in between. We are treated to his thoughts, impressions, experiments, findings and analysis of scientific data on what he saw, experienced and collected during his wanderings.
From a very modest background, Wallace survived by selling his specimens to museums in Britain—but he was no mercenary. His love for travel and commitment to the study of nature are revealed in every chapter. This, on a butterfly now called Wallace’s Golden Birdwing:
The beauty and brilliancy of this insect are indescribable, and none but a naturalist can understand the intense excitement I experienced when I at length captured it.
In the course of his trip over 100,000 creatures, insects, flowers, plants were collected, captured and studied by him and his team of assistants, most from indigenous populations. Of course, many birds and animals were shot and killed—the orang-utan being the most famous. Indeed, among the most astonishing sections are those that contain details of Wallace’s encounters with Borneo’s orang-utans. It is not for nothing the book is subtitled “The Land of the Orang-Utan, and the Bird of Paradise”.
Despite shooting dead its mother (warning: there is little remorse for killing in the name of science) he shows incredible compassion and affection for an injured and orphaned infant orang-utan:
When handled or nursed, it was very quiet and contented, but when laid down by itself it would invariably cry. I fitted up a little box for a cradle, with a soft mat for it to lie upon…and I soon found it necessary to wash the little Mias* as well…and when I brushed its hair [it] seemed perfectly happy.
* Dyak name for orang-utan
As well as being an adventurous explorer and skilled botanist it is clear Wallace was also a talented writer. The literary merit and page-turning qualities of his prose are evident at every turn. His writing is vivid and evocative, in particular, the extensive descriptions of the birds he caught, dissected or studied.
On finding a new species of the famous Bird of Paradise, beautifully illustrated in this edition, Wallace writes:
The general plumage is very sober, being a pure ashy olive with a purplish tinge on the back; the crown of the head is beautifully glossed with a pale metallic violet and the feathers at the front extend as much over the beak as in the rest of the family.
* * *
In later chapters, Wallace moves away from flora and fauna, giving us “A general sketch of the races of man in the Archipelago”. Seemingly incongruous with what has come before, these sections are nevertheless important because they define his views on the clear racial and cultural differences between the Malay and Polynesian peoples, i.e. that they developed almost entirely separately from each other.
Some readers may wish to approach the ‘human’ chapters with caution. Wallace’s comments on “savages” and the relative beauty and moral character of different races appear insensitive or even racist to today’s ears. But he was of course a man of his era and the terminology he used needs to be viewed in the light of more respectful comments on the native populations.
In one of more profound moments of philosophical insight in The Malay Archipelago, Wallace praises the law-free yet peace-loving societies he comes across all over the region and contrasts them favourably against Victorian Britain, with its growing socio-economic problems. Perhaps intending to criticise European society more than to proclaim the superiority of the people he met on his travels, Wallace writes:
...it is very remarkable that among people in a very low stage of civilization, we find some approach to such a perfect state. In such a community, all are nearly equal. There are none of those wide distinctions, of education and ignorance, wealth and poverty, master and servant which are the product of our civilization.
* * *
The publication of this book is a triumph for the NUS. Those interested in expanding their knowledge of natural sciences, including students and others already aware of Wallace, will find this edition rewarding.
But it deserves to find a wider audience among lovers of the region’s flora and fauna as well as those attracted by a great historical travel saga. In his excellent, informative Introduction, John van Wyhe claims that Wallace was “indisputably one of the great naturalists” of his age.
Elegantly written, The Annotated Malay Archipelago containing Wallace’s seminal contribution to science and nature, runs to almost 800 pages and can be dipped into now and again or enjoyed as a long involved read.
Published by the National University of Singapore (NUS), this latest version is unique on several counts. Most notably, editor John van Wyhe, a historian of science at NUS and an expert on both Wallace and Darwin, has used his extensive knowledge to skillfully annotate Wallace’s original text—the first of its type in English. Hundreds of footnotes point out factual errors, provide explanations for inconsistencies, add more detail to illuminate certain points, provide context for certain sections and give common names for species of animals, insects and plants.
The book is beautifully produced with a mid-section of color drawings that depict animals, birds, insects and flowers. Dotted through the chapters are new charcoal sketches of exotic birds, animals, indigenous people and significant places. As well as an updated itinerary and wonderful maps that brings Wallace’s epic journey even more to life, the original illustrations are also included.
The Malay Archipelago text itself is, in Wallace’s own words, the result of “eight years of wanderings among the largest and most luxuriant islands which adorn our earth’s surface.” He travels across current day Java, Borneo, Sumatra, Sulawesi, The Philippines, Bali, Timor, Papua New Guinea and many more islands in between. We are treated to his thoughts, impressions, experiments, findings and analysis of scientific data on what he saw, experienced and collected during his wanderings.
From a very modest background, Wallace survived by selling his specimens to museums in Britain—but he was no mercenary. His love for travel and commitment to the study of nature are revealed in every chapter. This, on a butterfly now called Wallace’s Golden Birdwing:
The beauty and brilliancy of this insect are indescribable, and none but a naturalist can understand the intense excitement I experienced when I at length captured it.
In the course of his trip over 100,000 creatures, insects, flowers, plants were collected, captured and studied by him and his team of assistants, most from indigenous populations. Of course, many birds and animals were shot and killed—the orang-utan being the most famous. Indeed, among the most astonishing sections are those that contain details of Wallace’s encounters with Borneo’s orang-utans. It is not for nothing the book is subtitled “The Land of the Orang-Utan, and the Bird of Paradise”.
Despite shooting dead its mother (warning: there is little remorse for killing in the name of science) he shows incredible compassion and affection for an injured and orphaned infant orang-utan:
When handled or nursed, it was very quiet and contented, but when laid down by itself it would invariably cry. I fitted up a little box for a cradle, with a soft mat for it to lie upon…and I soon found it necessary to wash the little Mias* as well…and when I brushed its hair [it] seemed perfectly happy.
* Dyak name for orang-utan
As well as being an adventurous explorer and skilled botanist it is clear Wallace was also a talented writer. The literary merit and page-turning qualities of his prose are evident at every turn. His writing is vivid and evocative, in particular, the extensive descriptions of the birds he caught, dissected or studied.
On finding a new species of the famous Bird of Paradise, beautifully illustrated in this edition, Wallace writes:
The general plumage is very sober, being a pure ashy olive with a purplish tinge on the back; the crown of the head is beautifully glossed with a pale metallic violet and the feathers at the front extend as much over the beak as in the rest of the family.
* * *
In later chapters, Wallace moves away from flora and fauna, giving us “A general sketch of the races of man in the Archipelago”. Seemingly incongruous with what has come before, these sections are nevertheless important because they define his views on the clear racial and cultural differences between the Malay and Polynesian peoples, i.e. that they developed almost entirely separately from each other.
Some readers may wish to approach the ‘human’ chapters with caution. Wallace’s comments on “savages” and the relative beauty and moral character of different races appear insensitive or even racist to today’s ears. But he was of course a man of his era and the terminology he used needs to be viewed in the light of more respectful comments on the native populations.
In one of more profound moments of philosophical insight in The Malay Archipelago, Wallace praises the law-free yet peace-loving societies he comes across all over the region and contrasts them favourably against Victorian Britain, with its growing socio-economic problems. Perhaps intending to criticise European society more than to proclaim the superiority of the people he met on his travels, Wallace writes:
...it is very remarkable that among people in a very low stage of civilization, we find some approach to such a perfect state. In such a community, all are nearly equal. There are none of those wide distinctions, of education and ignorance, wealth and poverty, master and servant which are the product of our civilization.
* * *
The publication of this book is a triumph for the NUS. Those interested in expanding their knowledge of natural sciences, including students and others already aware of Wallace, will find this edition rewarding.
But it deserves to find a wider audience among lovers of the region’s flora and fauna as well as those attracted by a great historical travel saga. In his excellent, informative Introduction, John van Wyhe claims that Wallace was “indisputably one of the great naturalists” of his age.
Elegantly written, The Annotated Malay Archipelago containing Wallace’s seminal contribution to science and nature, runs to almost 800 pages and can be dipped into now and again or enjoyed as a long involved read.
Want to Read
July 19, 2026Other than spelling Wallace's name wrong on the cover, this looks to be a good (if voluminous) read - long overdue!
December 28, 2022
Ever since I found out about the Wallace line and how Alfred Wallace spent many years travelling around the archipelago to study nature, I was very curious about this book. But the size of this book intimidated me. This year, however, I finally decided to tackle this. First of all, I like how the book is structured - Wallace starts off in Singapore and dedicates almost each chapter to an island. The narrative focuses a lot on the findings he makes catching butterflies, beetles, studying animals etc. He also writes extensively about how he searches for/builds accommodation in each place. After each region, he draws a conclusion on the natural geography and sometimes even writes about the people. I guess I was expecting a lot more cultural information but instead he focused on nature. Keeping in mind that this was written during a completely different time, it nonetheless made me uncomfortable to read Wallace describing the native people as savages, openly praising and supporting the Dutch colonial system, shooting and killing orang utans and birds of paradise to finance his trip. And it took me a long time to read this book because somehow the writing wasn't that very captivating. That's why I'm giving this a mediocre rating. However, at the end of the book Wallace makes the conclusion that Europe might not be as civilized as they believe to be.
"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. […] Now, although we have progressed vastly beyond the savage state in intellectual achievements, we have not advanced equally in morals. […] 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 nature has led to a rapid growth of population, and a vast accumulation of wealth; but these have brought with them such an 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. […] 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 uncivlized man. I now bid my readers - Farewell!"
"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. […] Now, although we have progressed vastly beyond the savage state in intellectual achievements, we have not advanced equally in morals. […] 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 nature has led to a rapid growth of population, and a vast accumulation of wealth; but these have brought with them such an 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. […] 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 uncivlized man. I now bid my readers - Farewell!"
Did Not Finish
March 3, 2016gifted... looks quite interesting and has good pictures. Surely I would learn much of use, but can't be doing with all this 'higher races' business, tedious travel details etc in laborious C19th style for 700 pages. Life is too short!
July 26, 2022
I picked this book up at both the right and wrong time. Right, because it provided welcome respite from the decidedly mediocre writing I had at the time been obliged to read (work-related), and wrong, because it provided too welcome a distraction from that same uninspiring work-related writing. Because of this ongoing tussle, I took a long time to finish it. That, and the fact that I spent lots of time trawling the web for many species described by Wallace, just to see if they were as fabulous as he had made them out to be (they almost always were, provided I somehow managed to navigate my way through the multiple Latin name revisions to images of the actual creatures).
Wallace's observations of the natural world are astute and penetrating, and his passion for it, palpable. His excitement when encountering particularly spectacular species hardly makes for objective scientific writing, but I don't blame him for casting formality aside to gush over the golden wings of Ornithoptera croesus or the claret-red belly of an elusive bird-of-paradise.
Wallace also writes compellingly and sometimes offensively about the races and tribes he encounters on his way. While a number of his assertions will not pass muster today, there is much that is irresistible - his open-mindedness (especially for that time) when enountering unfamiliar cultures and ways of life, the warmth undergirding his dealings and general interaction with the people around him, his sparkling, self-deprecating humour and ability to make light of an unfortunate situation, and his excoriating assessment of the civilised English society of his time (which is still troublingly applicable to modern capitalist society).
This was altogether a wonderfully evocative and plush account of a grand adventure in a foreign world, filtered through the genuinely curious eye and brilliant mind of a quite singular man.
Wallace's observations of the natural world are astute and penetrating, and his passion for it, palpable. His excitement when encountering particularly spectacular species hardly makes for objective scientific writing, but I don't blame him for casting formality aside to gush over the golden wings of Ornithoptera croesus or the claret-red belly of an elusive bird-of-paradise.
Wallace also writes compellingly and sometimes offensively about the races and tribes he encounters on his way. While a number of his assertions will not pass muster today, there is much that is irresistible - his open-mindedness (especially for that time) when enountering unfamiliar cultures and ways of life, the warmth undergirding his dealings and general interaction with the people around him, his sparkling, self-deprecating humour and ability to make light of an unfortunate situation, and his excoriating assessment of the civilised English society of his time (which is still troublingly applicable to modern capitalist society).
This was altogether a wonderfully evocative and plush account of a grand adventure in a foreign world, filtered through the genuinely curious eye and brilliant mind of a quite singular man.
January 30, 2015
With eight years of travel around the islands of Indonesia to condense into one volume there was bound to be some repetition, and at points I did feel a certain ennui when a pattern established itself of "travel to island, meet head man, arrange house, go collecting, prepare collections, fight predations of insects upon collection, become dissatisfied with range of wildlife, leave island'. But though it did have aspects of this it is a book of such broad scope and I can see how Wallace wanted to cover every aspect of the region that he could, that you can forgive these small difficulties upon the reader. This was the period when evolution, geology and other sciences were being worked out and it is fascinating to see these new ideas taking shape in the pages of Wallace's book.He also demonstrates the oddities of the Victorian mindset; both regarding the indigenous people as 'savages' and primitive, yet at the same time feeling that they are somehow presenting a far more enlightened civilisation than that of the western world.
A fascinating book, for certain.
A fascinating book, for certain.
March 9, 2018
3,5 stars!
a nice insight on natural and sociological condition of Indonesia (and the sorrounding area) in the late 1800s.
a nice insight on natural and sociological condition of Indonesia (and the sorrounding area) in the late 1800s.
April 23, 2020
A book that is as much fun to read as Voyage of the Beagle. The revolutionary ideas of Wallace and Darwin about the evolution of species were presented jointly, but only after Wallace had asked Darwin's opinion of his own exposition of the proposition. This book gives an account of the several years that Wallace spent collecting specimens and thinking about what he saw in what is now Indonesia and Malaysia.
April 28, 2008
This has been permanently shelved for the time being. A brief note: from what I read, one of the more interesting aspects were the pure imperial aspects and different attitudes of the time. This man was, in as much as we could say of that era, a naturalist. Yet, the way he enacted this was more or less to kill any interesting animal he saw and preserve it for science. I had a hard time stomaching the massacres of orangutans, the orphanage of a baby, which he attempted to feed on coconut milk, and which subsequently starved to death. Herein lies the question, what is best for the environment. Unquestionably, this man's methods seem contrary to the preservation of animal life, but the knowledge he brought to the western world through the preservation of the dead specimens would eventually help to bring recognition of the amazing ecological diversity of lands outside their own, and the need to preserve them. BUT, would these places and their creatures be in danger at all if not for the spread of imperialism and western culture, which promotes intensive agriculture for export and convinces people of a need to live a very inefficient and wasteful lifestyle? Who is to say again that those very same people would eventually not develop these things on their own? So many questions.
In one of David Attenborough's videos on youtube, he is reflecting on the things he has just seen, and then pulls out this book and proceeds to read from it. Apparently this was also Conrad's "Bedside Companion," and Wallace, who wrote it, proposed a theory of natural selection in a letter to Darwin only a short while before Darwin himself was to publish "On the Origin of Species."
In one of David Attenborough's videos on youtube, he is reflecting on the things he has just seen, and then pulls out this book and proceeds to read from it. Apparently this was also Conrad's "Bedside Companion," and Wallace, who wrote it, proposed a theory of natural selection in a letter to Darwin only a short while before Darwin himself was to publish "On the Origin of Species."
February 16, 2010
Do not read the Stanfords Travel Classics edition. One of the few books I've ever read where the typographical errors detract from the sense and the enjoyment of the narrative. Natives in brass huts! Canoes on the peaches! I'd say the error rate is higher than 1/page.
In fact, the publisher's negligence suggests ethical and intellectual failings bordering on criminal. The only book I've ever read where ONE LETTER WORDS were spelled wrong. Obviously this series is a scam which attempts to use automated character recognition and a spell-checker to make an easy buck from unsuspecting readers.
Otherwise a fascinating artifact of one of Victorian England's most important field naturalists. You may cringe as he slaughters orangutans (for Science!), and his views of nature and society are certainly affected by his culture, but come on: this is a first hand narrative of the birth of biogeography, evolutionary theory, and our understanding of plate tectonics. Not to mention the ultimate 3-page rant on the moral inferiority of "civilized" vs. "primitive" man.
I'd give Wallace's material -- to the extent I could judge -- 4-5 stars. The nocturnal sailboat expedition in comet-light is worth the effort by itself. And I'll be looking for a facsimile edition.
I recommend this book. Find an edition with the original figures. Find an edition that's been proofread.
In fact, the publisher's negligence suggests ethical and intellectual failings bordering on criminal. The only book I've ever read where ONE LETTER WORDS were spelled wrong. Obviously this series is a scam which attempts to use automated character recognition and a spell-checker to make an easy buck from unsuspecting readers.
Otherwise a fascinating artifact of one of Victorian England's most important field naturalists. You may cringe as he slaughters orangutans (for Science!), and his views of nature and society are certainly affected by his culture, but come on: this is a first hand narrative of the birth of biogeography, evolutionary theory, and our understanding of plate tectonics. Not to mention the ultimate 3-page rant on the moral inferiority of "civilized" vs. "primitive" man.
I'd give Wallace's material -- to the extent I could judge -- 4-5 stars. The nocturnal sailboat expedition in comet-light is worth the effort by itself. And I'll be looking for a facsimile edition.
I recommend this book. Find an edition with the original figures. Find an edition that's been proofread.
April 25, 2025
What a man! What a journey! What a book!!! Highly recommend as a read to accompany travel in Indonesia. There were a few jarring reminders that Wallace was writing in the 17th century (his failed attempts to keep baby monkeys as pets, and the various ethnographical chapters), however, this book on the whole was surprisingly contemporary. The ending— a condemnation of the ‘civilised’ world’s ‘social barbarism’ produced by private property + unequal wealth accumulation through free trade, and a reflection that the ‘uncivilised’ of the Malay archipelago are closer to a perfect social state by virtue of their lack of inequality and individual competition — is radical even today. “Our vast manufacturing system, our gigantic commerce…creates and maintains in life-long labour an ever-increasing army, whose lot is the more hard to bear, by contrast with the pleasures, the comforts, 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”. Comrade!
May 28, 2009
Alfred Russel Wallace is the man who simultaneously to Darwin came up with the theory of evolution by natural selection. Wallace had no college degree and came from a poor English family, unlike Darwin, and he deferred to Darwin and gave Darwin credit for the theory throughout his life. The Malay Archipelago chronicles Wallace's eight years exploring and documenting the natural history of southeast Asia from Singapore through Indonesia and to Papua New Guinea. Of strong constitution, unlike Darwin, he withstands malaria, dengue fever, being stuck at sea for weeks at a time, and near attacks by vipers and other creatures. Everywhere he went, he quickly won over indigenous people with his quiet and friendly demeanor, while he amassed tremendous collections of species new to science for museums in England. Read this book if you are interested in natural selection, biogeography, natural history, southeast Asian culture, and adventure.
December 15, 2008
Better than The origin of species.
poor Wallace, scientific world should pay more attention to his tribute on theory of evolution.
poor Wallace, scientific world should pay more attention to his tribute on theory of evolution.
July 30, 2018
Alfred Russel Wallace's 1869 account of his travels and observations in what is today Indonesia and that occurred mostly in 1858, the year that he and Darwin published on the Theory of Evolution. Wallace describes his adventures visiting the many islands in the archipelago and his constant search for and preparation of bird and insect specimens that he sent back to England and with which he supported himself. At one point he comments that he is the only white person residing on the thousand-mile-long island of New Guinea, where he is primarily interested in finding new examples of the Bird of Paradise. His description of hunting the Orang-Utan is especially disturbing in light of its recent endangerment. Wallace discusses the biogeography of the archipelago at length including the faunal divide that would later be called the Wallace Line. He also discusses the people of the islands at length, frequently comparing the Malay and Papuan "races" and their degrees of civilization or barbarity. This Victorian view of humanity is sometimes trying, although Wallace makes several comments admiring the noble savages around him who live in peace and harmony without any of the oppressive social structures that are necessary at home. (Later in life he became a social activist supporting women's suffrage and opposing eugenics, the destruction of the environment by human activity, and militarism.) The Folio Society edition of this book has beautiful color plates with drawings by the author and some photographs.
January 26, 2020
This is massively detailed and does become a bit overwhelming, but there are parts where we know what he is saying is revolutionary about evolution. The parts about human races make uncomfortable reading now but he was a product of his time and that’s reflected here. I did admire his forever trying to keep animals alive even though every time he failed. The parts where he complains about the food, the coffee, the accommodation, the travel and his illnesses were so human and made it feel like a postcard home.
July 25, 2017
Buku hasil penetian ilmiah yang dilakukan Wallace selama beberapa tahun ia melakukan eksplorasi keragaman species di Hindia Belanda yang melahirkan Wallace's Line. Disampaikan dengan bahasa yang ringan dan runut, serupa catatan harian, membuat kita dapat merasakan petualangan yang dijalani Wallace selama melakukan penelitian. Wallace tidak hanya membahas temuan ilmiahnya, namun juga menceritakan keadaan budaya daerah setempat yang ia kunjungi.
February 15, 2025
Had bought the book a few years back, but was hesitant to start, unsure about how I would like the many detailed descriptions of insects and birds. However, when I finally picked it up I was fully absorbed and fascinated by the Malay Archipelago. It felt like I was travelling together with Wallace, being there and living his mid 19th century adventures. It probably helped that over the years I have travelled some parts of Wallace's 8 year journey (including places like Banda, Ternate, Macassar, the Kai islands), but Wallace's writings do have a timeless quality.
The book has different layers; besides the detailed descriptions of the various species he collects (Wallace for sure wasted little time shooting and collecting a wide range of animals). He calls out the orang- utans and the birds of paradise prominently, besides many many other species. But the book also describes the colonial Dutch/ European reality of the Netherlands East Indies (current day Indonesia) in a matter-of-fact way that is fascinating. Although the world has moved on from European colonial structures, it is refreshing to see it through the lens of a contemporary non-political observer. The observations of his day-to-day travels and local life are beautiful, and also makes you understand the realities and constraints of travel and exploration in the 1850ties.
Then there is the historical and scientific significance. This is obviously more than a well written travel book. Wallace, a modest character, was overshadowed by Darwin, and Wallace dedicated the Malay Archipelago to Darwin. Wallace is known today for the "Wallace line", as he observed the fundamental differences in species between say Bali and Lombok, even if these islands have very little distance between them. We now know that this is because of the different tectonic plates that separate these islands.
And then the final chapter: this really blew me away; just a few quotes, which in my mind describes the author, makes his book feel timeless and very human:
"Although we have progressed vastly beyond the savage state in intellectual achievements, we have not advanced equally in Morals"
"A deficient morality is the great blot of modern civilization"
"..the wealth and knowledge and culture of the few do not constitute civilisation"
I read the annotated version by John van Wyhe, which I thought added a lot to the original text.
Overall a beautiful and fascinating read.
The book has different layers; besides the detailed descriptions of the various species he collects (Wallace for sure wasted little time shooting and collecting a wide range of animals). He calls out the orang- utans and the birds of paradise prominently, besides many many other species. But the book also describes the colonial Dutch/ European reality of the Netherlands East Indies (current day Indonesia) in a matter-of-fact way that is fascinating. Although the world has moved on from European colonial structures, it is refreshing to see it through the lens of a contemporary non-political observer. The observations of his day-to-day travels and local life are beautiful, and also makes you understand the realities and constraints of travel and exploration in the 1850ties.
Then there is the historical and scientific significance. This is obviously more than a well written travel book. Wallace, a modest character, was overshadowed by Darwin, and Wallace dedicated the Malay Archipelago to Darwin. Wallace is known today for the "Wallace line", as he observed the fundamental differences in species between say Bali and Lombok, even if these islands have very little distance between them. We now know that this is because of the different tectonic plates that separate these islands.
And then the final chapter: this really blew me away; just a few quotes, which in my mind describes the author, makes his book feel timeless and very human:
"Although we have progressed vastly beyond the savage state in intellectual achievements, we have not advanced equally in Morals"
"A deficient morality is the great blot of modern civilization"
"..the wealth and knowledge and culture of the few do not constitute civilisation"
I read the annotated version by John van Wyhe, which I thought added a lot to the original text.
Overall a beautiful and fascinating read.
April 6, 2025
The foreword to my edition of The Malay Archipelago begins (in all caps) with “OH HOW I WISH I HAD KNOWN WALLACE!”. Now that I’ve finished his book, I get it and completely agree. Published in 1869, The Malay Archipelago covers Alfred Russell Wallace’s 8 years of scientific exploration through Southeast Asia from 1854-1862 (mostly spent collecting insects and birds); it’s part travel journal, part naturalist notes and social commentary (note: some of the social commentary hasn’t aged great). Although not nearly as much of a household name as he should be, Wallace came up with the theory of evolution contemporaneously with Charles Darwin, based largely on his observations traveling through Southeast Asia collecting specimens to send back to natural history museums in England. One of the most enduring insights from his travels (beyond his contributions to the theory of natural selection) is the Wallace Line which describes a geographic boundary in Southeast Asia that separates ancestral Asiatic species from ancestral Australian species, and allowed him to draw conclusions about the geological history of the region (how cool is it that you can use static, modern observations of organic life to infer inorganic geological changes from eons ago??). Anyway, huge fan of this book and of Wallace, and I’d recommend it if you’re into natural history, historical travel notes, or entomology/ornithology.
October 31, 2024
Dikke pil uit 1868, maar verrassend modern en zeer goed leesbaar dankzij de heldere schrijfstijl van Wallace en mooie vertaling van Rook. En ook nog eens heel interessant. Het verslag van Wallace's lange reis langs de eilanden van Indonesië mid-19e eeuw neemt je mee op een ontdekkingstocht door de veelzijdige natuur en cultuur van een toen nog totaal onbekend werelddeel.
Het is geen droge opsomming van "en toen zag ik dit"-niveau, maar het leest als een spannende avonturenroman. Wallace beschrijft de prachtige natuur in vele facetten en laat verbanden en verschillen zien in de natuur waarvoor de - o.a. op basis van deze gegevens - door hem én (!) Darwin uitgewerkte evolutietheorie de verklaring biedt.
Het is ook boeiend om te lezen hoe anders de relatie tussen mens en natuur toen was en ook hoe er tegen andere bevolkingsgroepen aangeleken werd. Wallace beschrijft dit prachtig en voorziet de gevaren van over-exploitatie van de natuur, het kapitalisme en kolonialisme, en de eenzijdige focus op individuele welvaart waarbij de sociale beschaving uit het oog verloren is. Na 175 jaar zijn deze problemen helaas niet verandert... Aanrader!
Het is geen droge opsomming van "en toen zag ik dit"-niveau, maar het leest als een spannende avonturenroman. Wallace beschrijft de prachtige natuur in vele facetten en laat verbanden en verschillen zien in de natuur waarvoor de - o.a. op basis van deze gegevens - door hem én (!) Darwin uitgewerkte evolutietheorie de verklaring biedt.
Het is ook boeiend om te lezen hoe anders de relatie tussen mens en natuur toen was en ook hoe er tegen andere bevolkingsgroepen aangeleken werd. Wallace beschrijft dit prachtig en voorziet de gevaren van over-exploitatie van de natuur, het kapitalisme en kolonialisme, en de eenzijdige focus op individuele welvaart waarbij de sociale beschaving uit het oog verloren is. Na 175 jaar zijn deze problemen helaas niet verandert... Aanrader!
July 31, 2019
Victorian naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace’s book on his travels through Southeast Asia got annotated and enriched with John van Wyhe’s notes from other sources such as Wallace’s letters, sketches, journals, and the work of other travellers to region.
The addition of the common names and updated scientific names in the footnotes greatly help the reader with recognising the species, or even doing their own reading on it later.
My personal favourite additions to the book would be the dramatic woodcuts and 19th century style colour illustrations.
A must-read if you are into natural history!
The addition of the common names and updated scientific names in the footnotes greatly help the reader with recognising the species, or even doing their own reading on it later.
My personal favourite additions to the book would be the dramatic woodcuts and 19th century style colour illustrations.
A must-read if you are into natural history!
January 9, 2010
If you are interested in a naturalist travel narrative- I recommend "The World Was My Garden" by David Fairchild instead.
If you are interested in the area of biogeography explored by Wallace- I recommend "Song of the Dodo" by David Quammen instead.
I was really disappointed with this and only got about 150 pages into it. Sadly, the image I had in my head of Alfred Wallace has been shattered. I heard stories about his adventures and thought that he lived an amazing life and that he was a survivor; he took the punches and kept going. He wasn't rich like Darwin and had to pay for his adventures by sending back specimens. He got malaria and other tropical illnesses during his travels. When he was coming back from his work in the Amazon, his boat caught fire and he lost most of his precious specimens and only managed to save a few and his journals. But he was so driven as a naturalist that none of these things could stop him. That was my image of him. However, while reading this, I was so annoyed by his constant whining-especially when it was about how the local people wouldn't give him exactly what he wanted, even when it was dangerous for them. The man who saved his journals from a burning ship wouldn't even climb trees to get rare specimens. What??There were a few interesting tidbits, but for the most part this reads like a catalog of all of the animals he found. He does have a few interesting theories, but those I knew from reading Song of the Dodo, which is way more interesting.
Still reading this one, but I just came across this passage about how the Dutch chose to govern Java that threw me off a bit:
"The mode of government now adopted in Java is to retain the whole series of native rulers, from the village chief up to princes, who, under the name of Regents, are the heads of districts about the size of a small English country. With each Regent is placed a Dutch Resident, or Assistant Resident, who is considered his "elder brother," and whose "orders" take the form of "recommendations," which are however implicitly obeyed. Along with each Assistant Resident is a Controller, a kind of inspector of all the lower native rulers, who periodically visits every village in the district, examines the proceedings of the native courts, hears complaints, against the head-men or other native chiefs, and superintends the Government plantations. This brings us to the "culture system," which is the source of all wealth the Dutch derive from Java, and is the subject of much abuse in this country because it is the reverse of "free trade." To understand its uses and beneficial effects, it is necessary first to sketch the common results of free European trade with uncivilized peoples.
Natives of tropical climates have few wants, and, when these are supplied, are disinclined to work for superfluities without some strong incitement. With such a people the introduction of any new or systematic cultivation is almost impossible, except by the despotic orders of chiefs whom they have been accustomed to obey, as children obey their parents. The free competition of European traders, however introduces two powerful inducements to exertion. Spirits and opium is a temptation too strong for most savages to resist, and to obtain these he will sell whatever he has, and will work to get more. Another temptation he cannot resist is goods on credit. The trader offers him gay cloths, knives, gongs, guns and gunpowder, to be paid for by some crop perhaps not yet planted, or some product yet in the forest. He has not sufficient forethought to take only a moderate quantity, and not enough energy to work early and late in order to get out of debt; and the consequence is that he accumulates debt upon debt, and often remained for years, or for life, a debtor and almost a slave. This is the state of things which occurs very largely in every part of the world in which men of a superior race freely trade with men of a lower race. It extends trade no doubt for a time, but it demoralizes the native, checks true civilization, and does not lead to any permanent increase in the wealth of the country; so that the European government of such a country must be carried at a loss."
This continues on like this. Why did this hit me in a particularly hard way? Because this Brit's description of colonization written in the 1800's is disgustingly close to what we're seeing today-that is working/middle class "savages" working for accumulated debts (from being tempted by more than what we need) and accepting the rule of a puppet government being run by other (business/rich people) interests. Apparently, this isn't a very good business model, for even those doing the colonizing must carry the country "at a loss," after demoralizing the population! Wow! It's not like I'm unaccustomed to seeing the western middle class in this light, but to have it repeated back to me from a voice from the past, without any of the pretenses and justifications is kind of chilling. And this passage is just part of the whole. The similarities continue and it's very disturbing.
If you are interested in the area of biogeography explored by Wallace- I recommend "Song of the Dodo" by David Quammen instead.
I was really disappointed with this and only got about 150 pages into it. Sadly, the image I had in my head of Alfred Wallace has been shattered. I heard stories about his adventures and thought that he lived an amazing life and that he was a survivor; he took the punches and kept going. He wasn't rich like Darwin and had to pay for his adventures by sending back specimens. He got malaria and other tropical illnesses during his travels. When he was coming back from his work in the Amazon, his boat caught fire and he lost most of his precious specimens and only managed to save a few and his journals. But he was so driven as a naturalist that none of these things could stop him. That was my image of him. However, while reading this, I was so annoyed by his constant whining-especially when it was about how the local people wouldn't give him exactly what he wanted, even when it was dangerous for them. The man who saved his journals from a burning ship wouldn't even climb trees to get rare specimens. What??There were a few interesting tidbits, but for the most part this reads like a catalog of all of the animals he found. He does have a few interesting theories, but those I knew from reading Song of the Dodo, which is way more interesting.
Still reading this one, but I just came across this passage about how the Dutch chose to govern Java that threw me off a bit:
"The mode of government now adopted in Java is to retain the whole series of native rulers, from the village chief up to princes, who, under the name of Regents, are the heads of districts about the size of a small English country. With each Regent is placed a Dutch Resident, or Assistant Resident, who is considered his "elder brother," and whose "orders" take the form of "recommendations," which are however implicitly obeyed. Along with each Assistant Resident is a Controller, a kind of inspector of all the lower native rulers, who periodically visits every village in the district, examines the proceedings of the native courts, hears complaints, against the head-men or other native chiefs, and superintends the Government plantations. This brings us to the "culture system," which is the source of all wealth the Dutch derive from Java, and is the subject of much abuse in this country because it is the reverse of "free trade." To understand its uses and beneficial effects, it is necessary first to sketch the common results of free European trade with uncivilized peoples.
Natives of tropical climates have few wants, and, when these are supplied, are disinclined to work for superfluities without some strong incitement. With such a people the introduction of any new or systematic cultivation is almost impossible, except by the despotic orders of chiefs whom they have been accustomed to obey, as children obey their parents. The free competition of European traders, however introduces two powerful inducements to exertion. Spirits and opium is a temptation too strong for most savages to resist, and to obtain these he will sell whatever he has, and will work to get more. Another temptation he cannot resist is goods on credit. The trader offers him gay cloths, knives, gongs, guns and gunpowder, to be paid for by some crop perhaps not yet planted, or some product yet in the forest. He has not sufficient forethought to take only a moderate quantity, and not enough energy to work early and late in order to get out of debt; and the consequence is that he accumulates debt upon debt, and often remained for years, or for life, a debtor and almost a slave. This is the state of things which occurs very largely in every part of the world in which men of a superior race freely trade with men of a lower race. It extends trade no doubt for a time, but it demoralizes the native, checks true civilization, and does not lead to any permanent increase in the wealth of the country; so that the European government of such a country must be carried at a loss."
This continues on like this. Why did this hit me in a particularly hard way? Because this Brit's description of colonization written in the 1800's is disgustingly close to what we're seeing today-that is working/middle class "savages" working for accumulated debts (from being tempted by more than what we need) and accepting the rule of a puppet government being run by other (business/rich people) interests. Apparently, this isn't a very good business model, for even those doing the colonizing must carry the country "at a loss," after demoralizing the population! Wow! It's not like I'm unaccustomed to seeing the western middle class in this light, but to have it repeated back to me from a voice from the past, without any of the pretenses and justifications is kind of chilling. And this passage is just part of the whole. The similarities continue and it's very disturbing.
November 18, 2024
This epic of historical, cultural, anthropological, as well as zoological and horticultural study by a man on equal footing with Charles Darwin is one of the coolest books I’ve ever read in the department of travelogues.
To read Alfred Wallace is to get a survey of the territories between Singapore to Papua New Guinea during the 1800’s. I love Wallace’s candid observations and depth of insight. The man had nearly 8 years to travel the Malay Archipelago after all. What follows are my favorite quotes from the book, I consider them the gems that make this book worth the 631 pg. read:
1. One secret of the success of these missions is the rigid economy practised in the expenditure of the funds. A missionary is allowed about 3ol. a year, on which he lives in whatever country he may be. This renders it possible to support a large number of missionaries with very limited means; and the natives, seeing their teachers living in poverty and with none of the luxuries of life, are convinced that they are sincere in what they teach, and have really given up home and friends and ease and safety, for the good of others. No wonder they make converts, for it must be a great blessing to the poor people among whom they labour to have a man among them to whom they can go in any trouble or distress, who will comfort and advise them, who visits them in sickness, who relieves them in want, and who they see living from day to day in danger of persecution and death entirely for their sakes.
2. The men are exceedingly jealous and very strict with their wives. A married woman may not accept a cigar or a sirih leaf from a stranger under pain of death. I was informed that some years ago one of the English traders had a Balinese woman of good family living with him-the connexion being considered quite honourable by the natives. During some festival this girl offended against the law by accepting a flower or some such trifle from another man. This was reported to the Rajah (to some of whose wives the girl was related), and he immediately sent to the Englishman's house ordering him to give the woman up as she must be 'krissed.' In vain he begged and prayed, and offered to pay any fine the Rajah might impose, and finally refused to give her up unless he was forced to do so. This the Rajah did not wish to resort to, as he no doubt thought he was acting as much for the Englishman's honour as for his own; so he appeared to let the matter drop. But some time afterwards he sent one of his followers to the house, who beckoned the girl to the door, and then saying, 'The Rajah sends you this,' stabbed her to the heart.
3. One morning, as we were sitting at breakfast, Mr. Carter's servant informed us that there was an 'Amok in the village- in other words, that a man was running a muck? Orders were immediately given to shut and fasten te gates of our enclosure; but hearing nothing for some time, we went out, and found there had been a false alarm, owing to a slave having run away, declaring he would 'amok,' because his master wanted to sell him. A short time before, a man had been killed at a gaming-table because, having lost half-a-dollar more than he possessed, he was going to 'amok.' Another had killed or wounded seventeen people before he could be destroyed. In their wars a whole regiment of these people will sometimes agree to 'amok,' and then rush on with such energetic desperation as to be very formidable to men not so excited as themselves. Among the ancients these would have been looked upon as heroes or demigods who sacrificed themselves for their country. Here it is simply said,— they made 'amok.'
4. Macassar is the most celebrated place in the East for “running a muck.” There are said to be one or two a month on the average, and five, ten, or twenty persons are sometimes killed or wounded at one of them. It is the national and therefore the honourable mode of committing suicide among the natives of Celebes, and is the fashionable way of escaping from their dif-faulties. A Roman fell upon his sword, a Japanese rips up his stomach, and an Englishman blows out his brains with a pistol. The Bugis mode has many advantages to one suicidically inclined. A man thinks himself wronged by society-he is in debt and cannot pay-he is taken for a slave or has gambled away his wife or child into slavery-he sees no way of recover-ng what he has lost, and becomes desperate. He will not put up with such cruel wrongs, but will be revenged on mankind and die like a hero. He grasps his kris-handle, and the next moment draws out the weapon and stabs a man to the heart.He runs on, with bloody kris in his hand, stabbing at every one he meets. 'Amok! Amok!' then resounds through the streets.Spears, krisses, knives and guns are brought out against him.He rushes madly forward, kills all he can—men, women, and children-and dies overwhelmed by numbers amid all the excitement of a battle. And what that excitement is those who have been in one best know, but all who have ever given way to violent passions, or even indulged in violent and exciting exer-cises, may form a very good idea. It is a delirious intoxication, a temporary madness that absorbs every thought and every energy. And can we wonder at the kris-bearing, untaught, brooding Malay preferring such a death, looked upon as almost honourable, to the cold-blooded details of suicide, if he wishes to escape from overwhelming troubles, or the merciless clutches of the hangman and the disgrace of a public execution, when he has taken the law into his own hands, and too hastily revenged himself upon his enemy? In either case he chooses rather to 'amok.'
5. The fine tropical flowering-plants cultivated in our hothouses, have been culled from the most varied regions, and therefore give a most erroneous idea of their abundance in any one region.Many of them are very rare, others extremely local, while a considerable number inhabit the more arid regions of Africa and India, in which tropical vegetation does not exhibit itself in its usual luxuriance. Fine and varied foliage, rather than gay flowers, is more characteristic of those parts where tropical vegetation attains its highest development, and in such districts each kind of flower seldom lasts in perfection more than a few weeks, or sometimes a tew days. In every locality a lengthened residence will show an abundance of magnificent and gally blossomed plants, but they have to be sought for, and are rarely at any one time or place so abundant as to form a perceptible feature in the landscape. But it has been the custom of travel-lers to describe and group together all the fine plants they have met with during a long journey, and thus produce the effect of a gay and flower-painted landscape. They have rarely studied and described individual scenes where vegetation was most luxuriant and beautiful, and fairly stated what effect was produced in them by flowers.
6. Captain Van der Beck was never tired of abusing the inhabitants of these Christian villages as thieves, liars, and drunkards, besides being incorrigibly lazy. In the city of Amboyna my friends Doctors Mohnike and Doleschall, as well as most of the European residents and traders, made exactly the same complaint, and would rather have Mahometans for servants, even if convicts, than any of the native Christians. One great cause of this is the fact, that with the Mahometans temperance is a part of their religion, and has become so much a habit that practically the rule is never transgressed. One fertile source of want, and one great incentive to idleness and crime, is thus present with the one class, but absent in the other; but besides this the Christians look upon themselves as nearly the equals of the Europeans, who profess the same religion, and as far superior to the followers of Islam, and are therefore prone to despise work, and to endeavour to live by trade, or by cultivating their own land. It need hardly be said that with people in this low state of civilization religion is almost wholly ceremonial, and that neither are the doctrines of Christianity comprehended, nor its moral precepts obeyed. At the same time, as far as my own experience goes, I have found the better class of Orang Sirani' as civil, obliging, and industrious as the Malays, and only inferior to them from their tendency to get intoxicated.
7. This is a very ingenious contrivance, which measures time well in both rough weather and fine. It is simply a bucket half filled with water, in which floats the half of a well-scraped cocoa-nut shell. In the bottom of this shell is a very small hole, so that when placed to float in the bucket a fine thread of water squirts up into it. This gradually fills the shell, and the size of the hole is so adjusted to the capacity of the vessel that, exactly at the end of an hour, plump it goes to the bottom. The watch then cries out the number of hours from sunrise, and sets the shell afloat again empty. This is a very good measurer of time. I tested it with my watch and found that it hardly varied a minute from one hour to another, nor did the motion of the vessel have any effect upon it, as the water in the bucket of course kept level. It has a great advantage for a rude people in being easily understood, in being rather bulky and easy to see, and in the final submergence being accompanied with a little bubbling and commotion of the water, which calls the attention to it. It is also quickly replaced if lost while in harbour.
8. Think of a vessel going to sea for a month with two holes, each a yard square, into the hold, at thre feet above the water-line,—holes, too, which cannot possibly be closed! But our captain says all praus are so; and though he acknowledges the danger, 'he does not know how to alter. it-the people are used to it; he does not understand praus so well as they do, and if such a great alteration were made, he should be sure to have difficulty in getting a crew!' This proves at all events that praus must be good sea-boats, for the captain has been continually making voyages in them for the last ten years, and says he has never known water enough enter to do any harm.
9. The Portuguese and Spaniards were truly wonderful conquerors and colonizers. They effected more rapid changes in the countries they conquered than any other nations of modern times, resembling the Romans in their power of impressing their own language, religion, and manners on rude and barbarous tribes.
10. The striking contrast of character between these people and the Malays is exemplified in many little traits. One day when I was rambling in the forest, an old man stopped to look at me catching an insect. He stood very quiet till I had pinned and put it away in my collecting box, when he could contain himself no longer, but bent almost double, and enjoyed a hearty roar of laughter. Every one will recognise this as a true negro trait. A Malay would have stared, and asked with a tone of bewilderment what I was doing, for it is but little in his nature to laugh, never heartily, and still less at or in the presence of a stranger, to whom, however, his disdainful glances or whispered remarks are less agreeable than the most boisterous open expression of merriment. The women here were not so much frightened at strangers, or made to keep themselves so much secluded as among the Malay races; the children were more merry and had the 'nigger grin, while the noisy confusion of tongues among the nigger grin, while the noisy confusion of tongues among the men, and their excitement on very ordinary occasions, are altogether removed from the general taciturnity and reserve of the Malay.
11. The natives here, even those who seem to be of pure Papuan race, were much more reserved and taciturn than those of Ké.This is probably because I only saw them as yet among strangers and in small parties. One must see the savage at home to know what he really is. Even here, however, the Papuan character sometimes breaks out. Little boys sing cheerfully as they walk along, or talk aloud to themselves (quite a negro charac-teristic); and, try all they can, the men cannot conceal their emotions in the true Malay fashion. A number of them were one day in my house, and having a fancy to try what sort of eating tripang would be, I bought a couple, paying for them with such an extravagant quantity of tobacco that the seller saw I was a green customer. He could not, however, conceal his delight, but as he smelt the fragrant weed, and exhibited the large handful to his companions, he grinned and twisted and gave silent chuckles in a most expressive pantomime. I had often before made the same mistake in paying a Malay for some trifle. In no case, however, was his pleasure visible on his countenance—a dull and stupid hesitation only showing his surprise, which would be exhibited exactly in the same way whether he was over or under paid. These little moral traits are of the greatest interest when taken in connexion with physical features. They do not admit of the same ready explanation by external causes which is so frequently applied to the latter.
12. Writers on the races of mankind have too often to trust to the information of travellers who pass rapidly from country to country, and thus have few opportunities of becoming acquainted with peculiarities of national character, or even of ascertaining what is really the average physical conformation of the people. Such are exceedingly apt to be deceived in places where two races have long intermingled, by looking on intermediate forms and mixed habits as evidences of a natural transition from one race to the other, instead of an artificial mixture of two distinct peoples; and they will be the more readily led into this error if, as in the present case, writers on the subject should have been in the habit of classing these races as mere varieties of one stock, as closely related in physical conformation as from their geographical proximity one might suppose they ought to be. So far as I have yet seen, the Malay and Papuan appear to be as widely separated as any two human races that exist, being distinguished by physical, mental, and moral characteristics, all of the most marked and striking kind.
13. The chief luxury of the Aru people, besides betel and tobacco, is arrack (Java rum), which the traders bring in great quantities and sell very cheap. A day's fishing or rattan cutting will purchase at least a half-gallon bottle; and when the tripang or birds' nests collected during a season are sold, they get whole boxes, each containing fifteen such bottles, which the inmates of a house will sit round day and night till they have finished.They themselves tell me that at such bouts they often tear to pieces the house they are in, break and destroy everything they can lay their hands on, and make such an infernal riot as is alarming to behold.
14. The stings and bites and ceaseless irritation caused by these pests of the tropical forests, would be borne uncomplainingly; but to be kept prisoner by them in so rich and unexplored a country, where rare and beautiful creatures are to be met with in every forest ramble—a country reached by such a long and tedious voyage, and which might not in the present century be again visited for the same purpose—is a punishment too severe for a naturalist to pass over in silence.
15. 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 nature has led to a rapid growth of population, and a vast accumulation of wealth; but these have brought with them such an amount of poverty and crime, and have fostered the growth of so much sordid feeling and so many fierce pas-sions, 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." And if we continue to devote our chief energies to the utilizing of our knowledge of 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 our power to alleviate. We should now clearly recognise the fact, that the wealth and knowledge and culture of the few do not constitute civil-ization, 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 com-munity, 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!
To read Alfred Wallace is to get a survey of the territories between Singapore to Papua New Guinea during the 1800’s. I love Wallace’s candid observations and depth of insight. The man had nearly 8 years to travel the Malay Archipelago after all. What follows are my favorite quotes from the book, I consider them the gems that make this book worth the 631 pg. read:
1. One secret of the success of these missions is the rigid economy practised in the expenditure of the funds. A missionary is allowed about 3ol. a year, on which he lives in whatever country he may be. This renders it possible to support a large number of missionaries with very limited means; and the natives, seeing their teachers living in poverty and with none of the luxuries of life, are convinced that they are sincere in what they teach, and have really given up home and friends and ease and safety, for the good of others. No wonder they make converts, for it must be a great blessing to the poor people among whom they labour to have a man among them to whom they can go in any trouble or distress, who will comfort and advise them, who visits them in sickness, who relieves them in want, and who they see living from day to day in danger of persecution and death entirely for their sakes.
2. The men are exceedingly jealous and very strict with their wives. A married woman may not accept a cigar or a sirih leaf from a stranger under pain of death. I was informed that some years ago one of the English traders had a Balinese woman of good family living with him-the connexion being considered quite honourable by the natives. During some festival this girl offended against the law by accepting a flower or some such trifle from another man. This was reported to the Rajah (to some of whose wives the girl was related), and he immediately sent to the Englishman's house ordering him to give the woman up as she must be 'krissed.' In vain he begged and prayed, and offered to pay any fine the Rajah might impose, and finally refused to give her up unless he was forced to do so. This the Rajah did not wish to resort to, as he no doubt thought he was acting as much for the Englishman's honour as for his own; so he appeared to let the matter drop. But some time afterwards he sent one of his followers to the house, who beckoned the girl to the door, and then saying, 'The Rajah sends you this,' stabbed her to the heart.
3. One morning, as we were sitting at breakfast, Mr. Carter's servant informed us that there was an 'Amok in the village- in other words, that a man was running a muck? Orders were immediately given to shut and fasten te gates of our enclosure; but hearing nothing for some time, we went out, and found there had been a false alarm, owing to a slave having run away, declaring he would 'amok,' because his master wanted to sell him. A short time before, a man had been killed at a gaming-table because, having lost half-a-dollar more than he possessed, he was going to 'amok.' Another had killed or wounded seventeen people before he could be destroyed. In their wars a whole regiment of these people will sometimes agree to 'amok,' and then rush on with such energetic desperation as to be very formidable to men not so excited as themselves. Among the ancients these would have been looked upon as heroes or demigods who sacrificed themselves for their country. Here it is simply said,— they made 'amok.'
4. Macassar is the most celebrated place in the East for “running a muck.” There are said to be one or two a month on the average, and five, ten, or twenty persons are sometimes killed or wounded at one of them. It is the national and therefore the honourable mode of committing suicide among the natives of Celebes, and is the fashionable way of escaping from their dif-faulties. A Roman fell upon his sword, a Japanese rips up his stomach, and an Englishman blows out his brains with a pistol. The Bugis mode has many advantages to one suicidically inclined. A man thinks himself wronged by society-he is in debt and cannot pay-he is taken for a slave or has gambled away his wife or child into slavery-he sees no way of recover-ng what he has lost, and becomes desperate. He will not put up with such cruel wrongs, but will be revenged on mankind and die like a hero. He grasps his kris-handle, and the next moment draws out the weapon and stabs a man to the heart.He runs on, with bloody kris in his hand, stabbing at every one he meets. 'Amok! Amok!' then resounds through the streets.Spears, krisses, knives and guns are brought out against him.He rushes madly forward, kills all he can—men, women, and children-and dies overwhelmed by numbers amid all the excitement of a battle. And what that excitement is those who have been in one best know, but all who have ever given way to violent passions, or even indulged in violent and exciting exer-cises, may form a very good idea. It is a delirious intoxication, a temporary madness that absorbs every thought and every energy. And can we wonder at the kris-bearing, untaught, brooding Malay preferring such a death, looked upon as almost honourable, to the cold-blooded details of suicide, if he wishes to escape from overwhelming troubles, or the merciless clutches of the hangman and the disgrace of a public execution, when he has taken the law into his own hands, and too hastily revenged himself upon his enemy? In either case he chooses rather to 'amok.'
5. The fine tropical flowering-plants cultivated in our hothouses, have been culled from the most varied regions, and therefore give a most erroneous idea of their abundance in any one region.Many of them are very rare, others extremely local, while a considerable number inhabit the more arid regions of Africa and India, in which tropical vegetation does not exhibit itself in its usual luxuriance. Fine and varied foliage, rather than gay flowers, is more characteristic of those parts where tropical vegetation attains its highest development, and in such districts each kind of flower seldom lasts in perfection more than a few weeks, or sometimes a tew days. In every locality a lengthened residence will show an abundance of magnificent and gally blossomed plants, but they have to be sought for, and are rarely at any one time or place so abundant as to form a perceptible feature in the landscape. But it has been the custom of travel-lers to describe and group together all the fine plants they have met with during a long journey, and thus produce the effect of a gay and flower-painted landscape. They have rarely studied and described individual scenes where vegetation was most luxuriant and beautiful, and fairly stated what effect was produced in them by flowers.
6. Captain Van der Beck was never tired of abusing the inhabitants of these Christian villages as thieves, liars, and drunkards, besides being incorrigibly lazy. In the city of Amboyna my friends Doctors Mohnike and Doleschall, as well as most of the European residents and traders, made exactly the same complaint, and would rather have Mahometans for servants, even if convicts, than any of the native Christians. One great cause of this is the fact, that with the Mahometans temperance is a part of their religion, and has become so much a habit that practically the rule is never transgressed. One fertile source of want, and one great incentive to idleness and crime, is thus present with the one class, but absent in the other; but besides this the Christians look upon themselves as nearly the equals of the Europeans, who profess the same religion, and as far superior to the followers of Islam, and are therefore prone to despise work, and to endeavour to live by trade, or by cultivating their own land. It need hardly be said that with people in this low state of civilization religion is almost wholly ceremonial, and that neither are the doctrines of Christianity comprehended, nor its moral precepts obeyed. At the same time, as far as my own experience goes, I have found the better class of Orang Sirani' as civil, obliging, and industrious as the Malays, and only inferior to them from their tendency to get intoxicated.
7. This is a very ingenious contrivance, which measures time well in both rough weather and fine. It is simply a bucket half filled with water, in which floats the half of a well-scraped cocoa-nut shell. In the bottom of this shell is a very small hole, so that when placed to float in the bucket a fine thread of water squirts up into it. This gradually fills the shell, and the size of the hole is so adjusted to the capacity of the vessel that, exactly at the end of an hour, plump it goes to the bottom. The watch then cries out the number of hours from sunrise, and sets the shell afloat again empty. This is a very good measurer of time. I tested it with my watch and found that it hardly varied a minute from one hour to another, nor did the motion of the vessel have any effect upon it, as the water in the bucket of course kept level. It has a great advantage for a rude people in being easily understood, in being rather bulky and easy to see, and in the final submergence being accompanied with a little bubbling and commotion of the water, which calls the attention to it. It is also quickly replaced if lost while in harbour.
8. Think of a vessel going to sea for a month with two holes, each a yard square, into the hold, at thre feet above the water-line,—holes, too, which cannot possibly be closed! But our captain says all praus are so; and though he acknowledges the danger, 'he does not know how to alter. it-the people are used to it; he does not understand praus so well as they do, and if such a great alteration were made, he should be sure to have difficulty in getting a crew!' This proves at all events that praus must be good sea-boats, for the captain has been continually making voyages in them for the last ten years, and says he has never known water enough enter to do any harm.
9. The Portuguese and Spaniards were truly wonderful conquerors and colonizers. They effected more rapid changes in the countries they conquered than any other nations of modern times, resembling the Romans in their power of impressing their own language, religion, and manners on rude and barbarous tribes.
10. The striking contrast of character between these people and the Malays is exemplified in many little traits. One day when I was rambling in the forest, an old man stopped to look at me catching an insect. He stood very quiet till I had pinned and put it away in my collecting box, when he could contain himself no longer, but bent almost double, and enjoyed a hearty roar of laughter. Every one will recognise this as a true negro trait. A Malay would have stared, and asked with a tone of bewilderment what I was doing, for it is but little in his nature to laugh, never heartily, and still less at or in the presence of a stranger, to whom, however, his disdainful glances or whispered remarks are less agreeable than the most boisterous open expression of merriment. The women here were not so much frightened at strangers, or made to keep themselves so much secluded as among the Malay races; the children were more merry and had the 'nigger grin, while the noisy confusion of tongues among the nigger grin, while the noisy confusion of tongues among the men, and their excitement on very ordinary occasions, are altogether removed from the general taciturnity and reserve of the Malay.
11. The natives here, even those who seem to be of pure Papuan race, were much more reserved and taciturn than those of Ké.This is probably because I only saw them as yet among strangers and in small parties. One must see the savage at home to know what he really is. Even here, however, the Papuan character sometimes breaks out. Little boys sing cheerfully as they walk along, or talk aloud to themselves (quite a negro charac-teristic); and, try all they can, the men cannot conceal their emotions in the true Malay fashion. A number of them were one day in my house, and having a fancy to try what sort of eating tripang would be, I bought a couple, paying for them with such an extravagant quantity of tobacco that the seller saw I was a green customer. He could not, however, conceal his delight, but as he smelt the fragrant weed, and exhibited the large handful to his companions, he grinned and twisted and gave silent chuckles in a most expressive pantomime. I had often before made the same mistake in paying a Malay for some trifle. In no case, however, was his pleasure visible on his countenance—a dull and stupid hesitation only showing his surprise, which would be exhibited exactly in the same way whether he was over or under paid. These little moral traits are of the greatest interest when taken in connexion with physical features. They do not admit of the same ready explanation by external causes which is so frequently applied to the latter.
12. Writers on the races of mankind have too often to trust to the information of travellers who pass rapidly from country to country, and thus have few opportunities of becoming acquainted with peculiarities of national character, or even of ascertaining what is really the average physical conformation of the people. Such are exceedingly apt to be deceived in places where two races have long intermingled, by looking on intermediate forms and mixed habits as evidences of a natural transition from one race to the other, instead of an artificial mixture of two distinct peoples; and they will be the more readily led into this error if, as in the present case, writers on the subject should have been in the habit of classing these races as mere varieties of one stock, as closely related in physical conformation as from their geographical proximity one might suppose they ought to be. So far as I have yet seen, the Malay and Papuan appear to be as widely separated as any two human races that exist, being distinguished by physical, mental, and moral characteristics, all of the most marked and striking kind.
13. The chief luxury of the Aru people, besides betel and tobacco, is arrack (Java rum), which the traders bring in great quantities and sell very cheap. A day's fishing or rattan cutting will purchase at least a half-gallon bottle; and when the tripang or birds' nests collected during a season are sold, they get whole boxes, each containing fifteen such bottles, which the inmates of a house will sit round day and night till they have finished.They themselves tell me that at such bouts they often tear to pieces the house they are in, break and destroy everything they can lay their hands on, and make such an infernal riot as is alarming to behold.
14. The stings and bites and ceaseless irritation caused by these pests of the tropical forests, would be borne uncomplainingly; but to be kept prisoner by them in so rich and unexplored a country, where rare and beautiful creatures are to be met with in every forest ramble—a country reached by such a long and tedious voyage, and which might not in the present century be again visited for the same purpose—is a punishment too severe for a naturalist to pass over in silence.
15. 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 nature has led to a rapid growth of population, and a vast accumulation of wealth; but these have brought with them such an amount of poverty and crime, and have fostered the growth of so much sordid feeling and so many fierce pas-sions, 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." And if we continue to devote our chief energies to the utilizing of our knowledge of 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 our power to alleviate. We should now clearly recognise the fact, that the wealth and knowledge and culture of the few do not constitute civil-ization, 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 com-munity, 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!
June 29, 2016
Buku yang berat (*dalam arti sebenarnya) ini merupakan catatan perjalanan Alfred Russell Wallace di Nusantara dalam rangka meneliti keanekaragaman hayati di belahan bumi tersebut.
Wallace adalah seorang naturalis dan penjelajah yang namanya kelak diabadikan sebagai Garis Wallace, garis zonasi persebaran flora dan fauna yang melintasi kawasan Indonesia dan memisahkan zona persebaran Asia dengan zona transisi antara Asia dan Australia. Membaca kisah Wallace di wilayah tengah dan timur Indonesia kala itu menumbuhkan berbagai perasaan dalam benak saya, antara kagum melihat kegigihannya mengembara di kawasan yang penuh marabahaya, geli karena bahasanya yang blak-blakan dan kadang terkesan 'begajulan', serta takjub karena penjelasannya yang begitu rinci mengenai begitu banyak hal yang belum saya ketahui dari negeri saya sendiri. Buku ini mungkin kadang melelahkan untuk dibaca karena kepadatannya, gaya bahasanya yang 'antik', dan penuturannya yang sering melantur ke mana-mana, tetapi Wallace juga membuatnya terasa begitu 'hidup' berkat antusiasmenya yang bagaikan seorang kanak-kanak yang sedang bertamasya ke kebun binatang terbesar di dunia.
Pada dasarnya, pokok pembahasan adalah teori pola persebaran fauna dan metodologi dalam pencarian serta investigasi spesimen. Buku ini menjadi begitu panjang karena kecenderungan Wallace untuk membahas segala sesuatunya dengan rinci, tentunya lengkap dengan berbagai catatan kaki dan entri glosari yang masing-masing bisa mencapai satu halaman penuh. Bila Anda keberatan membaca >10 halaman deskripsi mengenai sarang burung endemik, berarti buku ini memang bukan untuk Anda, hehe. Selain flora dan fauna, Wallace juga banyak membahas tentang aspek sosial budaya masyarakat Nusantara saat itu dan hal-hal apa saja yang menurut dia menarik. Pembaca modern (khususnya orang Indonesia) mungkin akan mengerutkan kening membaca pemikiran Wallace yang kadang terkesan arogan dan memosisikan diri sebagai bangsa kolonial yang superior, tetapi di lain sisi sangat jelas bahwa ia juga mengagumi banyak hal dari Nusantara. Bagaimanapun, gaya narasinya yang jenaka dan sarkastis itu membuat beberapa kejadian yang diceritakannya menjadi terkenang di hati pembaca, baik itu saat ia debat kusir dengan penduduk pribumi ataupun meratapi nasib spesimen-spesimennya yang habis dilalap serangga. Sebagai bumbu penyedap, terdapat galeri foto-foto margasatwa yang berhasil didapatkan Wallace dengan susah payah.
Saya merasa bersyukur telah ikut berkontribusi untuk proyek produksi buku ini dalam bahasa Indonesia oleh Komunitas Bambu. Banyak sekali hal yang saya pelajari, baik dalam proses pengerjaannya hingga naik cetak maupun dari Mr. Wallace sendiri sebagai seorang manusia dan ilmuwan yang sangat mencintai apa yang ia lakukan.
Wallace adalah seorang naturalis dan penjelajah yang namanya kelak diabadikan sebagai Garis Wallace, garis zonasi persebaran flora dan fauna yang melintasi kawasan Indonesia dan memisahkan zona persebaran Asia dengan zona transisi antara Asia dan Australia. Membaca kisah Wallace di wilayah tengah dan timur Indonesia kala itu menumbuhkan berbagai perasaan dalam benak saya, antara kagum melihat kegigihannya mengembara di kawasan yang penuh marabahaya, geli karena bahasanya yang blak-blakan dan kadang terkesan 'begajulan', serta takjub karena penjelasannya yang begitu rinci mengenai begitu banyak hal yang belum saya ketahui dari negeri saya sendiri. Buku ini mungkin kadang melelahkan untuk dibaca karena kepadatannya, gaya bahasanya yang 'antik', dan penuturannya yang sering melantur ke mana-mana, tetapi Wallace juga membuatnya terasa begitu 'hidup' berkat antusiasmenya yang bagaikan seorang kanak-kanak yang sedang bertamasya ke kebun binatang terbesar di dunia.
Pada dasarnya, pokok pembahasan adalah teori pola persebaran fauna dan metodologi dalam pencarian serta investigasi spesimen. Buku ini menjadi begitu panjang karena kecenderungan Wallace untuk membahas segala sesuatunya dengan rinci, tentunya lengkap dengan berbagai catatan kaki dan entri glosari yang masing-masing bisa mencapai satu halaman penuh. Bila Anda keberatan membaca >10 halaman deskripsi mengenai sarang burung endemik, berarti buku ini memang bukan untuk Anda, hehe. Selain flora dan fauna, Wallace juga banyak membahas tentang aspek sosial budaya masyarakat Nusantara saat itu dan hal-hal apa saja yang menurut dia menarik. Pembaca modern (khususnya orang Indonesia) mungkin akan mengerutkan kening membaca pemikiran Wallace yang kadang terkesan arogan dan memosisikan diri sebagai bangsa kolonial yang superior, tetapi di lain sisi sangat jelas bahwa ia juga mengagumi banyak hal dari Nusantara. Bagaimanapun, gaya narasinya yang jenaka dan sarkastis itu membuat beberapa kejadian yang diceritakannya menjadi terkenang di hati pembaca, baik itu saat ia debat kusir dengan penduduk pribumi ataupun meratapi nasib spesimen-spesimennya yang habis dilalap serangga. Sebagai bumbu penyedap, terdapat galeri foto-foto margasatwa yang berhasil didapatkan Wallace dengan susah payah.
Saya merasa bersyukur telah ikut berkontribusi untuk proyek produksi buku ini dalam bahasa Indonesia oleh Komunitas Bambu. Banyak sekali hal yang saya pelajari, baik dalam proses pengerjaannya hingga naik cetak maupun dari Mr. Wallace sendiri sebagai seorang manusia dan ilmuwan yang sangat mencintai apa yang ia lakukan.
September 7, 2020
The Malay Archipelago is the perfect book about Indonesia for those who love reading about both travel and scientific discoveries. Written by Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago is his memoir of his travels over several years around what is now Indonesia and Malaysia and his theory of the natural history of the archipelago.
Born in the nineteenth century. Alfred Russel Wallace was a naturalist, explorer, traveler, socialist, etc. etc. etc. who independently came up with the theory of evolution based on natural selection at about the same time Charles Darwin did. Unfortunately, most people remember Darwin as the guy who thought of the idea.
Luckily, for Wallace, he did get credit for coming up with another theory that this book is based on and which I explain in the rest of my review, which you can read on my blog: https://thebambootraveler.com/books-o...
Born in the nineteenth century. Alfred Russel Wallace was a naturalist, explorer, traveler, socialist, etc. etc. etc. who independently came up with the theory of evolution based on natural selection at about the same time Charles Darwin did. Unfortunately, most people remember Darwin as the guy who thought of the idea.
Luckily, for Wallace, he did get credit for coming up with another theory that this book is based on and which I explain in the rest of my review, which you can read on my blog: https://thebambootraveler.com/books-o...
August 22, 2023
one of the best books I have ever read
October 3, 2013
Ini buku keren banget! Saya sangat menikmati setiap perjalan Wallace. Setiap pergerakannya di The Malay Archipelago terdeskripsikan dengan baik. Kebahagian yang luar biasa saat Wallace berhasil menemukan ratusan spesies baru, ketakjuban saat menemukan kupu-kupu yang indah, kekecewaan saat berada di daerah yang sangat miskin serangga dan burung, Ketakjuban saat menemukan Bird of Paradise dsb , semua tersampaikan dengan sempurna
Selain belajar banyak tentang kekayaan spesies di nusantara, kita juga disuguhkan berbagai potret budaya. Ada potret lugu dan lucu seperti kisah orang pedalaman borneo yang minta diperlihatkan kulit Wallace dan mereka sangat senang. Ada kisah tentang betapa penasarannya orang Buru tentang kenpa orang kulit putih mongkoleksi sampai serangga jelek dan sangat yakin bahwa ada kekuatan mistis disana (hal. 295). Potret kemalasan di halaman 342 dan juga ada potret kejujuran dan penghargaan terhadap milik orang lain di kisah Borneo : Journey in the Interior dan The Dayaks. serta kejujuran orang di Waigeo. Tak pelak membuat rasa bangga di hati.
Buku ini membuat saya banyak merenung kembali menganalisa potret-potret tersebut. Walau beberapa ada yang terkesan underestimate, tapi tetap ada banyak pelajaran yang bisa diambil.
And, in general I love this book!!!
Selain belajar banyak tentang kekayaan spesies di nusantara, kita juga disuguhkan berbagai potret budaya. Ada potret lugu dan lucu seperti kisah orang pedalaman borneo yang minta diperlihatkan kulit Wallace dan mereka sangat senang. Ada kisah tentang betapa penasarannya orang Buru tentang kenpa orang kulit putih mongkoleksi sampai serangga jelek dan sangat yakin bahwa ada kekuatan mistis disana (hal. 295). Potret kemalasan di halaman 342 dan juga ada potret kejujuran dan penghargaan terhadap milik orang lain di kisah Borneo : Journey in the Interior dan The Dayaks. serta kejujuran orang di Waigeo. Tak pelak membuat rasa bangga di hati.
Buku ini membuat saya banyak merenung kembali menganalisa potret-potret tersebut. Walau beberapa ada yang terkesan underestimate, tapi tetap ada banyak pelajaran yang bisa diambil.
And, in general I love this book!!!
Currently Reading
February 26, 2010Tadinya saya ragu2 mau baca edisi bahasa Indonesia ini. Tujuan penerbitnya mungkin untuk collectible, tapi tetap rasanya terlalu besar dan kurang praktis. Sementara edisi bahasa Inggris milik Periplus yang lebih dulu saya baca, lebih untuk menunjang hal-hal yang tengah saya geluti.
Tapi saat saya mulai membaca, saya sedang berada di tengah hutan hujan tropis Sumatra. Dimulai dengan pengantar dari Tony Whitten yang berkeinginan berkenalan dengan Mr. Wallace, saya menjadi tergugah. Masa Tuan Wallace hingga masa saya, masalah yang dihadapi tak jauh berbeda, mulai dari mencari guide yang cocok, berhadapan dengan kultur yang berbeda-beda di tiap tempat, hingga menemukan obyek yang dicari. Dan Tuan Wallace menyampaikannya kisahnya bagai alunan burung kutilang di pagi hari, berlanjut dengan kerikan cicada saat mentari pagi mulai menyengat, hingga saat hawa udara sore yang membuat para siamang ingin segera pergi tidur. Cerita yang mengalun santai dan selalu ingin diikuti. Eh, ini baru bab 11.....
Tapi saat saya mulai membaca, saya sedang berada di tengah hutan hujan tropis Sumatra. Dimulai dengan pengantar dari Tony Whitten yang berkeinginan berkenalan dengan Mr. Wallace, saya menjadi tergugah. Masa Tuan Wallace hingga masa saya, masalah yang dihadapi tak jauh berbeda, mulai dari mencari guide yang cocok, berhadapan dengan kultur yang berbeda-beda di tiap tempat, hingga menemukan obyek yang dicari. Dan Tuan Wallace menyampaikannya kisahnya bagai alunan burung kutilang di pagi hari, berlanjut dengan kerikan cicada saat mentari pagi mulai menyengat, hingga saat hawa udara sore yang membuat para siamang ingin segera pergi tidur. Cerita yang mengalun santai dan selalu ingin diikuti. Eh, ini baru bab 11.....
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