Hybrid identities in the fifteenth century Straits of Malacca

Abstract

Although present everywhere, hybridity has been little analysed as a category in Asian history. In many colonial and post-colonial societies it tended to be disdained in racial terms even while applauded in cultural ones (under labels like association or acculturation). There was a significant literature about separate phenomena, notably the mestizo (Chinese and European) in the Philippines, Peranakan and Indo in Indonesia, and Baba and Eurasian in Malaysia/Singapore. But the nature of plural or syncretic identities in Asia has not given rise to a significant analytic literature until recently, in contrast with the ‘creoles’ of the West Indies and Latin America. Show more