The Study of Indonesian Maritime History: Problems and Challenges in Theory and Methodology Perspective

Abstract

The writing of maritime history in Indonesia has become an interesting study for scholars. The maritime history can not be separated from the history of Indonesia, because the Indonesian territory developed from the maritime sectors. This paper examines the development of maritime historiography in Indonesia in the theory and methodology perspectives which are then linked up with issues that evolve in methodological aspects. Based on the results of literature studies show that the maritime historiography today in Indonesia is still far behind with other historical writings which are various in methodologies. There are several facts that are found, firstly, the lack of local historians who wrote maritime history after the great work of maritime historian Indonesia, AB Lapian in 1987. Secondly, the limited local sources and dominant colonial sources also influenced the interpretation results in the maritime history which tended to be colonialcentric so that override local sources. Lastly, that so far, the study of sociocultural contemporer aspects especially cultural (anthropology) approach in Indonesian maritime historiography is also rarely done, so that social aspects in maritime world tends to be opaque and more dominated by economic aspects, trades, politics, etc. These problems are certainly a challenge for scholars to provide the development of maritime history in Indonesia, especially reconstructing historical facts, re-analyzing historical sources, and enriching the Indonesian maritime historiography among the other historical writings.



Author Information
Maisarah, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia

Paper Information
Conference: ACAH2018
Stream: History/Historiography

This paper is part of the ACAH2018 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon