The concept of a Malay race (Malay: Bangsa Melayu) was proposed by the German scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840). The Malay language ( ISO 639-1 code MS is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people and people of other ethnic groups who reside in the Johann Friedrich Blumenbach ( May 11, 1752 – January 22, 1840) was a German doctor and Physiologist, ^[1] Since Blumenbach, many anthropologists have rejected his theory of five races, citing the enormous complexity of classifying races. The term race or racial group usually refers to the concept of categorizing Humans into Populations or groups on the basis of various sets However, the term Malay is still often used in this context, and it is the basis for Malay identity within the Malaysian nation. For the biogeographical region see Malesia Malaysia (məˈleɪʒə or /məˈleɪziə/ is a country that consists of thirteen states and

Origins

In his 1775 doctoral dissertation titled De generis humani varietate nativa (On the Natural Varieties of Mankind), Blumenbach outlined four main human races by skin color, namely Caucasian (white), Ethiopian (black), Native American (red), and Mongolian (yellow). A dissertation (also called thesis or disquisition) is a document that presents the author's Research and findings and is submitted in support of candidature The Caucasian race, sometimes the Caucasoid race, is a term of Racial classification, coined around 1800 by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach for the " NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page The indigenous people of the Everglades region arrived in the Florida Peninsula approximately 15000 years ago probably following large game The term " Mongoloid " is a variation of the word "Mongol" meaning "Mongol-like"

By 1795, Blumenbach added another race called 'Malay' which he considered to be a subcategory of both the Ethiopian and Mongoloid races. The Malay race were those of a "brown color, from olive and a clear mahogany to the darkest clove or chestnut brown. " Blumenbach expanded the term "Malay" to include the inhabitants of the Marianas, the Philippines, the Malukus, Sundas, as well as Pacific Islands such as Tahitians. The Mariana Islands (also the Marianas; up to the early 20th century sometimes called Ladrones Islands, from Spanish Islas de los Ladrones meaning The Philippines ( Filipino: Pilipinas, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (fil ''Republika ng Pilipinas'' RP The Maluku Islands (also known as the Moluccas, Moluccan Islands, the Spice Islands or simply Maluku) are an Archipelago The Sunda Islands are a group of Islands in the western part of the Malay Archipelago. The Pacific Ocean contains an estimated 20000 to 30000 Islands (the exact number has yet to be precisely determined Tahiti is the largest Island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the Archipelago of Society Islands in the He considered a Tahitian skull he had received to be the missing link; showing the transition between the "primary" race, the Caucasians, and the "degenerate" race, the Negroids.

Blumenbach writes:

Malay variety. Tawny-coloured; hair black, soft, curly, thick and plentiful; head moderately narrowed; forehead slightly swelling; nose full, rather wide, as it were diffuse, end thick; mouth large. upper jaw somewhat prominent with the parts of the face when seen in profile, sufficiently prominent and distinct from each other. This last variety includes the islanders of the Pacific Ocean, together with the inhabitants of the Marianne, the Philippine, the Molucca and the Sunda Islands, and of the Malayan peninsula. I wish to call it the Malay, because the majority of the men of this variety, especially those who inhabit the Indian islands close to the Malacca peninsula, as well as the Sandwich, the Society, and the Friendly Islanders, and also the Malambi of Madagascar down to the inhabitants of Easter Island, use the Malay idiom. ^[2]

Colonial influences

The view of Malays held by Thomas Stamford Raffles had a significant influence on English-speakers, lasting to the present day. He is probably the most important voice who promoted the idea of a ‘Malay’ race or nation, not limited to the Malay ethnic group, but embracing the peoples of a large but unspecified part of the South East Asian archipelago. Malays (Melayu are an Ethnic group of Austronesian peoples predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, the east coast of Sumatra, the coast Raffles formed a vision of Malays as a language-based 'nation', in line with the views of the English Romantic movement at the time, and in 1809 sent a literary essay on the topic to the Asiatic Society. After he mounted an expedition to the former Minangkabau seat of royalty in Pagaruyung, he declared that it was the ‘the source of that power, the origin of that nation, so extensively scattered over the Eastern Archipelago’. The Minangkabau ethnic group (also known as Minang or Padang) is indigenous to the highlands of West Sumatra, in Indonesia. Pagaruyung (also Pagarruyung and Pagar Ruyung) was the seat of Minangkabau kings though little is known about it In his later writings he moved the Malays from a nation to a race. ^[3]

Malaysian context

Main articles: Malaysian Malay and Article 160 of the Constitution of Malaysia

In Malaysia, the early colonial censuses listed separate ethnic groups, such as "Malays, Boyanese, Achinese, Javanese, Bugis, Manilamen and Siamese". In Malaysia, the Malay population is defined by Article 160 of the Malaysian Constitution as someone born to a Malaysian citizen who professes to be a Muslim, habitually Article 160 of the Constitution of Malaysia defines various terms used in the Constitution. The 1891 census merged these ethnic groups into the three racial categories used in modern Malaysia – Chinese, ‘Tamils and other natives of India’, and ‘Malays and other Natives of the Archipelago’. This was based upon the European view at the time that race was a biologically based scientific category. For the 1901 census, the government advised the word "race" should replace "nationality" wherever it occurs. ^[3]

After a period of generations being classified in these groups, individual identity formed around the concept of bangsa Melayu (Malay race). For younger generations of people, they saw it as providing a unity and solidarity against the colonial powers, and non-Malay immigrants. The Malaysian nation was later formed with the bangsa Melayu having the central and defining position within the country. ^[3]

Philippine context

In the Philippines, many Filipinos consider the term "Malay" to refer to the indigenous population of the country as well as the population of neighboring countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. The Philippines ( Filipino: Pilipinas, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (fil ''Republika ng Pilipinas'' RP Filipinos or the Filipino people are the citizens of the Philippines. This misconception is due in part to American anthropologists H. Otley Beyer who proposed that the Filipinos were actually Malays who migrated from Malaysia and Indonesia. Henry Otley Beyer (July 13 1883- December 31 1966 was an American Anthropologist, who spent most of his adult life in the Philippines teaching Filipinos This idea was in turn propagated by Filipino historians and is still taught in schools. However, the prevalent consensus among contemporary anthropologists, archaeologists, and linguists actually proposes the reverse; namely that the Austronesian people of Malaysia and Indonesia originally migrated south from the Philippines during the prehistoric period. The Austronesian people or Austronesian-speaking people, are a population group present in Oceania and Southeast Asia who speak or had ancestors who spoke

United States context

In the United States, the racial classifcation "Malay race" was introduced in the early twentieth century into the anti-miscegenation laws of a number of western US states. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Anti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation laws, were laws that banned Interracial marriage and sometimes interracial sex between whites and members of other Anti-miscegenation laws were state laws that prohibited marriage between whites and African-Americans and in some states also other non-whites. State law in the United States, is the Law of each separate U African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa After an influx of Filipino immigrants, these existing laws were amended in a number of western states to prohibit marriage between whites and Filipinos, who were designated as members of the Malay race, and a number of Southern states committed to racial segregation followed suit. Eventually 9 states (Arizona, California, Georgia, Maryland, Nevada, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming) explicitly prohibited marriage between whites and Filipinos. ^[4]

Many anti-miscegenation laws were gradually repealed after the Second World War, starting with California in 1948. In 1967, all remaining bans against interracial marriage were judged to be unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia and therefore repealed. Constitutionality is the status of a law, a procedure or an act's accordance with the laws or guidelines set forth in the applicable Constitution. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. Loving v Virginia,, was a landmark Civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court declared Virginia 's Anti-miscegenation

See also

• Bumiputra
• Malay Archipelago
• Malay World
• Maphilindo
• Austronesian people
• Malay supremacy

References