William Marsden and his Malayo-Polynesian legacy

Abstract

William Marsden (1754-1836) exercised a strong influence on the study of island Southeast Asia. After early experience in Sumatra, he returned to England in December 1779. His journal publications quickly established him among the intellectual elite. In 1783 some months before the publication of the History of Sumatra Marsden was elected to the Royal Society. Between 1795 and 1807 he was a high-ranking civil servant at the Admiralty. His scholarly life was thus neatly divided into an eighteenth century and an early nineteenth century period. Inspired and informed by the publication of Cook's voyages, Marsden was instrumental in identifying the Malayo-Polynesian language family, especially through his 1783 History of Sumatra. Marsden identified the major components of Malay languages and culture as MalayoPolynesian, Islamic and Hindu-Buddhist. The Malayo-Polynesian and Islamic were dominant in the 1783 History; the third emerged from an article completed from his work in the 1790s. These three elements effectively dictated the future directions of Malay studies. Although there were radical changes in the nature of scholarship during the nineteenth century Marsden's article identifying Hindu elements in Malay culture was immensely influential in the formative years of Peninsular Malay studies. The two main versions of his History were written for entirely different audiences. The 1783 History was intended as a scholarly work that would explain and provide evidence for Marsden' s linguistic theories. It is a work of its time. This thesis elucidates the eighteenth century world view and ideas of civilisation which underlay the work, as well as analysing the work itself. The revisions in the 1811 History were intended to improve its practical usefulness and reflect the changed intellectual context of the early nineteenth century. In the 1783 edition of his History Marsden employed the eighteenth century concept of "national character" to explain the "physical" and "moral" causes of similarities and difference. He demonstrated that similarities between the Sumatrans and the Polynesians had "physical" causes. Marsden argued that the Sumatran languages were more "improved" and that the Malay language was the most "improved" of the MalayoPolynesian language group. Further the literate Sumatran peoples were more "advanced" and the Malays the most "advanced" of the Malayo-Polynesian peoples. To this end he also argued that there were significant differences between the Malays and all other Malayo-Polynesians of the Archipelago. Marsden introduced the issue of Malay "identity" in Malay studies and argued that the Malays had a "national character" that was distinct from that of "other" Sumatrans. His description of Malay "identity" is very similar to that found in Malay literature of the period. The 1811 edition of Marsden's History is more encyclopaedic than the 1783 edition. The delineation of Sumatra's economic potential and the incorporation of material collected from a variety of sources to update and expand the account tends to overshadow the former scholarly focus on the peoples of Sumatra and on his original observation. In the final chapter, the mixed legacy of Marsden's scholarship is traced, chiefly through the papers published by other British scholars over the succeeding century.