The Setting

The Indonesian Archipelago comprises more than seventeen thousand islands straddling the equator between 6o N to 11o S latitude and 95o and 140o E longitude. This festoon of islands is situated between two oceans, the Indian Ocean in the west and the Pacific in the east, and between the Asian mainland and Australia-Oceania. During Pleistocene glacials, when the sea levels were much lower than at present, the archipelago was transformed into three biogeographical regions. The major islands to the west, such as Sumatera, Borneo, Java and Bali, amalgamated with mainland Southeast Asia as a vast dry land called Sundaland. To the east, New Guinea (including West Papua) and the Aru Islands merged with the Australian continent to become a single landmass known as Sahulland. In between these landmasses lies Wallacea, which comprises the relatively small islands of Sulawesi, the Moluccas and the Lesser Sundas. Here, the surrounding deep seas and troughs were always present, separating Wallacea from Sundaland and Sahulland (Map 1.31.1). In terms of its fauna, Sundaland is characterised by Oriental (Asian) placental animals, while Australasian marsupials are predominant in Sahulland. In Wallacea, both Oriental and Australasian types can be found together with more endemic animals such as babirusa and anoa (dwarf buffalo). This biogeographical division had a considerable influence on the formation of diverse cultures within the archipelago.