The Population and Character of Traditional Communities in Insular Southeast Asia

Abstract

This article discusses the character of population distribution and its relation to the structure of societies and states in Insular Southeast Asia in the early and mid nineteenth century. Except in Java and Bali, populations were characterized by sparsity, diversity, smallness, and mutual independence. Despite the effects of crisis mortality, the long-term population growth in the traditional period seems not to have been much different from those in India and China, which suggests the smallness of the original or early populations. New communities were formed through detachment of derivative settlements in the frontier regions. These characteristics were maintained through to the early and mid nineteenth century, when numerous petty states were found in this region.
 The order seems to have collapsed from the late nineteenth century under the unifying forces of colonialism and a rapid population increase, although the principles of social existence under the above population characteristics were maintained to the limit.