This book is about the interactions of people and their environments.It is often assumed that humans have conquered nature, that they are above its constraining influence. Indonesia provides a wealth of evidence to support the contention that a lattice of relationships binds environment, economy and society. Because Indonesia embraces such a range of environments, these interactions have produc…
The bones of some of the earliest humans lie deep in the earth of Indonesia. For over a million years, Indonesia has been the scene of human activity. Although ancient fossils have also been found in remote parts of Africa and China. Indonesia passesses the longest continuous record of human occupation in the wolrd, from the formation of early humans through the aearly agricultural phase, thro…
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika - it is various, and yet it is one. This mystical saying of a 14th century Javanese poet is profoundly appropriate as the motto for the Indonesian state. It is the variety of Indonesia that gives it is common character. Each region replicates, in its own way, the diversities between mountail and valley, upstream and downstream large (mainland) islands and small ones, forest…