Encountering of Cultures

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Encountering of Cultures

• Masao ISHII
• Faculty of Humanities Social Sciences
• Mie Univeristy

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Cultures in Conflict?

• Two contrasting examples from Insular S.E. Asia
  Pacific
• In Melanesia Native Fijians and Indo-Fijians
• In Borneo Malays and Kadayans

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In FijiContrasting Two Cultures

• The native Melanesian culture and the South Asian
  culture.
• Two cultures encountered in the late 19th century
  under the British colonial rule.
• The Melanesians fear to lose their native land
  rights following the increase of Indian
  population.

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Two Ethnic Groups of Fiji
775,077
393,575
338,818
42,684
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Village Life of Fijians
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Conflict between Two Groups

• Military coup detat against Indian dominated
  government in 1987.
• Col. Rabuka stayed in power as Prime Minister
  until General election in 1999.
• First Indo-Fijian Prime Minister formed a
  coalition government in 1999.
• In May 2000, the coalition government was
  overthrown by a militia group of Native Fijians

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In Northern SarawakTwo Similar Cultures

• Malays and Kadayans are both under the rule of
  Brunei Saltanate since 14th century or earlier.
• Kadayns and Malays speak almost the same
  language, and share common customs.
• Kadayans were confined to lower status against
  ruling Brunei Malays.
• In Brunei, Kadayans are silently merging into
  Malays since the colonial days.

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Kadayans in Sarawak

• In Sarawak under the rule of Brooke, Kadayans
  enjoyed higher status than their counterpart in
  Brunei.
• Their ethnic identiy is circumstantial.
• Ethnic awareness is getting vigorous recently,
  through carrying out the traditional rituals, and
  the activities of the Kadayan Ethnic Association.

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Kadayans of Sarawak
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Ethnic Conflicts ?

• Conflicts are mostly concentrated in the urban
  area.
• The stereotyped images of the culture.
• How and why these images are formed ?
• Political background and the role of the mass
  media.