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Article: Feudalism in pre-colonial Malaya: the past as a colonial discourse.
- Article from:
- Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
- Article date:
- September 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Cambridge University Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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What of the "feudalisms" throughout the world from China to the Greece of the beautifully greaved Achaeans? For the most part, they bear scarcely any resemblance to each other. That is because nearly every historian understands the word as he pleases.
- Marc Bloch, The Historian's Craft(1)
Introduction
The term "feudal" has been used by British writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to refer to the territories of Brunei, Sumatra, Java and the Malay peninsula. What were the factors which had led to its usage? Was it really an attempt to understand the cultures of these societies, or to prepare the ground for their eventual appropriation? ...