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The Ethnic Profile of Djakarta
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References
1967
Year
EthnicityEthnic ProfileSouth Asian CultureNationalismEast Asian StudiesOrientalismNew York CityEducationEthnic Group RelationPolitical DramaGlobal StudiesCultural StudiesCultural AnalysisRegional ResearchEthnic StudiesLanguage StudiesIntense LifeDiaspora StudyCulturePolitical GeographyEthnographyAnthropologySocial AnthropologyCultural Anthropology
In the spate of studies about Indonesia since Independence, the phenomenon of Djakarta has been much noted but little investigated. The political drama enacted there is avidly studied, yet the people of the city remain less familiar than the Chinese of Semarang or the Javanese of Modjokuto. Djakarta, it is realized, is a mosaic, reproducing in microcosm the rivalries of the wider society.1 But, like New York City, it is also a region in itself, with interests of its own over against the rest of the country. Its immigrants are not a random selection and they do not remain unaffected by the intense life of the metropolis. Djakarta is the point at which the fashions, ideas and artifacts of the outside world are most available, yet it is paradoxically the most--even the only--Indonesian city.2 Israel Zangwill's well-worn metaphor of the melting-pot comes to mind--into the Crucible, Sundanese, Javanese, Chinese and Batak: God is making the Indonesian!