Peradaban Melayu - Nusantara

Abstract

This is an effort to discover the so called Malay Civilization and identify its distinctive characteristics. Firstly, we show the cases in which the concept of civilization has been used interchangebly with the concept of culture by certain writers in Malaysia. In order to comprehend the distinction between the two concepts, we trace the history of them. The concept of civilization stems from the word civilisation in French, the notion of which refer to civiliser (to civilize) and civilisé (civilized), or the opposite of the condition of barbarie (barbarian) and sauvage (savage). While the concept of culture stems from the word kultur in German language, the meaning of which is almost the same as civilisation in French. A prominent English scholar, E.B. Tylor, in his book published in 1871, formulated the definition of the concept of civilization in line with that of culture. For him then, civilization and culture referred to more or less the same fenomenon. However, in the early of the twentieth century the concept of culture, thank to the anthropologist Franz Boas, developed in its own direction, diviate from that of civilization. Since then each concept followed its own way, the concept of culture become the primary concept in anthropology, while civilization in comparative history. A number of definitions of the concept of civilization espoused by the comparative historian will be searched further. The indicators they pointed are used as the parameters to identify the Malay-Nusantara civilization.