The Maleische Ras (English: Malay race) is the ethnographic classification used in the Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas (1926) for the predominant population group of the western half of the Indonesian Archipelago.
Account from Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas (1926) — The Malay Race
The atlas states: “In de westelijk helft van den Archipel behoort de hoofdbevolking tot het Maleische ras, dat uit Azië afkomstig is en, naar men kan aannemen, de Indonesiërs heeft verdrongen. Tot dit ras behooren: de Maleiers (de volksstam dus), de Atjehers, de Javanen, de Soendaneezen, de Madoerezen, de Balineezen, de Makassarezen, de Boegineezen en de Maleiers op verschillende eilanden der Molukken.”
(In the western half of the Archipelago, the principal population belongs to the Malay race, which is of Asian origin and, as one may assume, displaced the Indonesians. To this race belong: the Malays [the ethnic group proper], the Atjehers, the Javanese, the Sundanese, the Madurese, the Balinese, the Makassarese, the Buginese, and the Malays on various islands of the Moluccas.)
The atlas immediately adds the crucial qualification: “Deze Maleische volken zijn echter niet van onvermengde afkomst; Hindoes, Chineezen en andere Aziaten hebben zich er in opgelost.” (These Malay peoples are, however, not of unmixed origin; Hindus, Chinese, and other Asians have been absorbed into them.)
Significance for Acheh
The classification of the Atjehers within the Malay race, with the specific note that this racial group was not of unmixed origin, provides a framework for understanding the atlas’s separate observation about the particular mixed origins of the North Sumatran population (absorbing peoples from Hindustan, Arabia, and Java). The Atjehers thus belong to the broader Malay racial family while simultaneously being one of its most ethnically composite members — a duality that reflects Acheh’s history as a major trading sultanate and centre of Islamic scholarship.
See Also
Sources
Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas met korte beschrijvingen, uitgegeven door Volkslectuur, Weltevreden, Java. Weltevreden: G. Kolff & Co., January 1926. Chapter II (Land en Volk), p. 24.