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The colonial ethnological line: Timor and the racial geography of the Malay Archipelago

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2018

Ricardo Roque
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Abstract

This article examines the connected histories of racial science and colonial geography in Island Southeast Asia. By focusing on the island of Timor, it explores colonial boundaries as modes of arranging racial classifications, and racial typologies as forms of articulating political geography. Portuguese physical anthropologist António Mendes Correia's work on the ethnology of East Timor is examined as expressive of these productive connections. Correia's classificatory work ingeniously blended political geography and racial taxonomy. Between 1916 and 1945, mainly based on data from the Portuguese enclave of Oecussi and Ambeno, he claimed a distinct Malayan racial type for the whole colony of ‘Portuguese Timor’. Over the years he developed an anthropogeographical theory that simultaneously aimed to reclassify East Timor and to revise the racial cartography of the Malay Archipelago, including Wallace's famous ethnological line.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , October 2018 , pp. 387 - 409
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 2018 

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Footnotes

The research for this article was supported by a FCT-Portugal grant (HC/0089/2009), and by the Race and Ethnicity in the Global South Laureate Program (REGS), University of Sydney (ARC FL 110100243). I thank Warwick Anderson for comments and encouragement; and Fenneke Sysling and Jamie Dunk for their readings of drafts. All translations from Portuguese and French are mine.

References

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6 See Warwick Anderson and Ricardo Roque, ‘Introduction. Imagined laboratories: Colonial and national racialisations in Island Southeast Asia’, this issue.

7 The precolonial origins of the Servião/Belos divide are the object of historical debate. See Hägerdal, Hans, ‘Servião and Belu: Colonial conceptions and the geographical partition of Timor’, Studies on Asia III, 3, 1 (2006): 49–64Google Scholar.

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15 Mendes Correia was also responsible for the posthumous invention of Fonseca Cardoso as founding-father of ‘Portuguese colonial anthropology’. See Roque, Ricardo, ‘Equivocal connections: Fonseca Cardoso and the origins of Portuguese colonial anthropology’, Portuguese Studies 19 (2003): 105–24Google Scholar.

16 In 1911, the Portuguese Republican government undertook a major reform of higher education, creating two new universities in Porto and Lisbon. The first anthropology course was offered at Coimbra University in 1885.

17 Friedrich Ratzel coined the term ‘anthropogeography’ in his two-volume work Anthropogeographie, published between 1882 and 1891. See Oliveira, Alexandre, ‘A influência da antroposociologia e criminalística na trajetória intelectual de Mendes Correia’, in Miguel Bombarda (1851–1910) e as singularidades de uma época, ed. Pereira, Ana Leonor and Pita, João Rui (Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, 2006) pp. 180–81Google Scholar.

18 Director of the Faculty of Sciences of Porto University, José Diogo Arroyo, to Armando da Fonseca Cardoso, Porto, 12 Mar. 1915. Private archives of Fonseca Cardoso family.

19 See Mendes Correia to José Leite de Vasconcelos, s.l. [11 Jan.]-1917. Lisbon, Epistolário José Leite de Vasconcelos, Museu Nacional de Arqueologia, ref. 5494.

20 Correia's prolific scientific and political career has recently become the object of revisionist historical research in Portugal. See Oliveira, ‘A influência da antroposociologia’; Bruno Henriques, A ressurreição da raça portuguesa no pensamento de Mendes Correia: História, antropologia, eugenia (1911–1960) (MA diss., University of Porto, 2012); Patrícia Ferraz de Matos, Mendes Correia e a escola de antropologia do Porto: Contribuição para o estudo das relações entre antropologia, nacionalismo e colonialismo (de finais do século XIX aos finais da década de 50 do século XX) (PhD diss., University of Lisbon, 2012).

21 See Correia, A.A. Mendes, Raça e nacionalidade (Porto: Renascença Portuguesa, 1919)Google Scholar.

22 See Roque, Ricardo, ‘A antropologia colonial portuguesa c. 1911–1950’, in Estudos de sociologia da leitura em Portugal no século XX, ed. Curto, Diogo R. (Lisbon: FCG/FCT, 2006), pp. 789–822Google Scholar.

23 Correia, A.A. Mendes, Sobre três crânios de negros Mossumbes (Porto: Tip. Porto Médico, 1915), p. 15Google Scholar.

24 Correia sought to ally himself with influential former colonial officers in Timor, most notably Leite de Magalhães. See Roque, Headhunting and colonialism, ch. 6.

25 Correia, ‘Timorenses de Okussi e Ambeno’, p. 36.

26 Ibid., p. 38.

27 Castro, Flores de coral, p. 409.

28 Correia, ‘Timorenses de Okussi e Ambeno’, pp. 36–7, nn. 1–5.

29 See Correia, A.A. Mendes, Timor Português: Contribuição para o seu estudo antropológico (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional; Junta das Missões Geográficas e de Investigações Coloniais, 1944)Google Scholar.

30 Correia, ‘Timorenses de Okussi e Ambeno’, p. 38.

31 Established in 1915, the Netherlands Indies Bureau for Ethnology chose Timor as its first area of interest and lobbied the Indies Committee for Scientific Research for research support on the Timor Archipelago. See Sysling, Fenneke, Racial science and human diversity in colonial Indonesia (Singapore: NUS Press, 2015), pp. 126Google Scholar, 129.

32 Kate, Herman Ten, ‘Contribution à l'anthropologie de quelques peuples d'Océanie’, L'Anthropologie 4 (1893): 279–300Google Scholar.

33 Ten Kate, ‘Contribution à l'anthropologie’, p. 290.

34 Correia, ‘Timorenses de Okussi e Ambeno’, p. 47. This opinion contradicted Deniker, another of Correia's main references. For Deniker, except for Malay influence on the coast, ‘Papuan blood’ prevailed among the ‘Ema-Belos of the middle of the island’. Correia disregarded this for the sake of his argument. Deniker, Joseph, The races of man: An outline of anthropology and ethnography (London: Walter Scott, 1900), pp. 491–2Google Scholar.

35 Correia, ‘Timorenses de Okussi e Ambeno’, pp. 40, 48.

36 A surprising conclusion, perhaps, considering that ethnologists generally presumed that highlanders were darker skinned and as a rule representative of black races, in contrast with the mixed coastal populations, tendentiously argued as more infused with a Malayan character.

37 Correia, ‘Timorenses de Okussi e Ambeno’, p. 40.

38 Ibid., p. 47.

39 The article was published also in Portuguese, in Porto, originally in the journal Revista dos Liceus. Correia, Mendes, Antropologia Timorense (Porto: Typographia da Renascença Portuguesa, 1916)Google Scholar.

40 Ibid., pp. 5–6.

41 But see Correia, ‘Timorenses de Okussi e Ambeno’, p. 38.

42 Kate, Herman Ten, ‘Mélanges anthropologiques (III). Indigènes de l'Archipel Timorien’, L'Anthropologie 26 (1915): 524Google Scholar.

43 Ibid., p. 531.

44 Ibid., pp. 562, 564.

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid., p. 7.

47 Ibid.

48 See de Roever, Arend, ‘The partition of Timor: An historical background’, in A Ásia do Sudeste: História, cultura e desenvolvimento, ed. Schouten, M.J. (Lisbon: Vega, 1998), pp. 45–56Google Scholar; de Figueiredo, Fernando Augusto, Timor: A presença portuguesa (1769–1945) (Lisbon: Centro de Estudos Históricos, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2012), pp. 61–7Google Scholar.

49 Verneau, René, ‘Timorenses de Okussi e Ambeno & Antropologia Timorense’, L'Anthropologie 27 (1916): 481Google Scholar.

50 Ibid.

51 Ibid., p. 480.

52 Ibid., p. 482.

53 Verneau, René, ‘Errata’, L'Anthropologie 27 (1916): 609Google Scholar.

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid.

56 Ibid., pp. 609–10.

57 Ten Kate joined SPAE in June 1919, after being proposed by Correia; Verneau joined in December 1918, and was proposed by Aarão de Lacerda.

58 Correia, Mendes, ‘Herman Ten Kate (Um amigo de Wenceslau de Morais)’, Trabalhos de Antropologia e Etnologia 5, 3 (1932): 1–40Google Scholar; Correia, Mendes, ‘Antropologia de Timor’, Boletim Geral das Colónias 108 (1934): 206Google Scholar.

59 Correia, ‘Antropologia de Timor’, pp. 205–7.

60 Ibid. See de Magalhães, António Leite, ‘Subsídios para o estudo etnológico de Timor’, Trabalhos da Sociedade Portuguesa de Antropologia e Etnologia 2, 1 (1920): 37–65Google Scholar.

61 Mendes Correia, Sessão da Assembleia Nacional, 20 Jan. 1950, cit. in de Matos, Mendes Correia e a escola de antropologia do Porto, p. 331. See Correia, Mendes, ‘Um mês em Timor’, Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa 32, 10 (1955): 5–24Google Scholar.

62 Anthropometric photography and the use of face/profile portraits as evidence in racial analysis had become an acceptable procedure since the late nineteenth century. On the history of the album see Oliveira, Alexandre, ‘A imagem colonial de Timor: O álbum fotográfico do Governador Álvaro da Fontoura’, in Os Portugueses e o Oriente: História, itinerários, representações, ed. Perez, Rosa Maria (Lisbon: D. Quixote, 2006), pp. 319–36Google Scholar.

63 Correia's main anthropogeographical conclusions were translated into English at the end of the book. Correia, Timor Português, pp. 179–215, and also into Spanish: Correia, Mendes, ‘Los Timorenses y la posición sistemática de los indonésios’, Investigación y Progreso 15 (1944): 257–61Google Scholar.

64 Correia, Timor Português, p. 7.

65 Ibid., pp. 213–15.

66 Bijlmer, Hendrik J., Outlines of the anthropology of the Timor-Archipelago (Weltevreden: G. Kolff, 1929), p. 189Google Scholar.

67 Ibid., p. 83. Dutch distrust of ethnological demarcation resumes, for example, in Schulte-Nordholt, Henk, The political system of the Atoni (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1971), p. 23Google Scholar: ‘Our conclusion must be, then, that Timor is indeed a marginal area as regards its physical types, although it is impossible to draw an accurate line of demarcation.’

68 See Correia, Timor Português, p. 38.

69 See de Quatrefages, Armand, Histoire générale des races humaines: Introduction à l’étude des races humaines (Paris: A. Henuyer, 1889), p. 513Google Scholar.

70 Correia, Timor Português, p. 156. See also Correia, Mendes, Raças do Império (Lisbon: Agência Geral das Colónias, 1945), pp. 596–7Google Scholar.

71 Correia, Timor Português, pp. 213–15. Correia's anthropogeography also tried to integrate archaeological and sociocultural data. I will not explore these connections here.

72 Correia, Timor Português, p. 71. See also pp. 96, 117–18.

73 Ibid., p. 118.

74 Ibid.

75 See Correia, Raças do império, p. 596; and Sobre um problema de biologia humana em Timor Português (Lisbon: Agência Geral das Colónias, 1945), p. 11Google Scholar.

76 See for example, Gunn, Geoffrey, Timor Loro Sae: 500 years (Lisbon: Livros do Oriente, 1999), p. 32Google Scholar; Thomaz, Luís Filipe, País dos Belos: Achegas para a compreensão de Timor-Leste (Lisboa: Fund. Oriente, 2008), p. 378Google Scholar.

77 Arthur Keith to Mendes Correia, 6 Feb. 1945, in Processo individual de A.A. Mendes Correa, vol. I, Lisboa, Arquivo Histórico da Universidade de Lisboa.

78 Almeida, António de, ‘Os povos actuais do Oriente Português’, Províncias Portuguesas do Oriente: Curso de extensão universitária, ano lectivo 1996–67 (Lisboa: Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas Ultramarinas; Junta de Investigações do Ultramar, 1967), p. 22Google Scholar; and ‘Do factor Rh na antropologia de Timor Português’, Memórias da Academia das Ciências de Lisboa. Classe de ciências 8 (1959): 12Google Scholar.

79 In the United States, for example, Krogman dispassionately acknowledged Correia's ‘efforts to acquaint colonial authorities with the bio-social problems with which they must cope’; in Australia, Capell wrote a rather critical review. Capell, Arthur, ‘A.A. Mendes Corrêa, Timor Português’, Oceania 16 (1945/46): 177–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Krogman, Wilton M., ‘Book reviews: Physical anthropology’, American Anthropologist 50, 2 (1948): 319–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

80 Durand, Frédéric, East Timor: A country at the crossroads of Asia and the Pacific. A geohistorical atlas (Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 2006), p. 30Google Scholar. Also ambivalent geopolitically: Guedes, Armando Marques, ‘Thinking East Timor, Indonesia and Southeast Asia’, Lusotopie (2001): 315–27Google Scholar.

81 See Souto, Luís, Gusmão, Leonor, Amorim, António, Côrte-Real, Francisco, and Vieira, Duarte N., ‘Y-STR haplotype diversity in distinct linguistic groups from East Timor’, American Journal of Human Biology 18, 5 (2006): 691–701CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

82 Strating, Rebecca, ‘Contested self-determination: Indonesia and East Timor's battle over borders, international law and ethnic identity’, Journal of Pacific History 49, 4 (2014): 469–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

83 Anwar Sani, Representative of Indonesia at the United Nations, Speech made before the 4th committee on the question of East Timor 8 Nov. 1977, p. 4. Arquivo & Museu da Resistência Timorense. DRT — Documentos Resistência Timorense — Espaço por Timor, Pasta 05006.012. See also Strating, ‘Contested self-determination’, pp. 482–3.

84 José Ramos-Horta cit. in Strating, ‘Contested self-determination’, p. 492.