On the origin of the name Papua
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2870769 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J H F Sollewijn Gelpke (. [email protected], corresponding author) |
| Year | 1993 |
| Volume | 149 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 318-332 |
| Publication date | 1993-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Bijdragen tot de taal- land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0006-2294 • E-ISSN: 2213-4379 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1163/22134379-90003129 |
| OpenAlex | W2042607133 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas divided the then s?li mainly undiscovered world between Spain and Portugal. According to this agreement, the Spaniards henceforward had to approach the Spice Islands by way of the Americas. On many islands in the West Pacific and in the Moluccas1 they observed the resemblance of the frizzy-haired inhabitants to those of the Guinea Coast in West Africa (Urdaneta, in Torres de Mendoza 1866:63). The mainland of New Guinea received its name from the Spanish captain Y?igo Ortiz de Retes, who on 20 June 1545 claimed possession of the territory for the Spanish Crown near a river called Bi?r in the area of present-day Sarmi. In the modern sense, Papua(n) is the general name for the frizzy-haired populadon of New Guinea. Already in the first half of the sixteenth century, however, the Portuguese and Spaniards referred to the archipelago to the east of Halmahera and to the north of Ceram as the 'Papuan Islands'. In English publications the Papuan Islands sometimes include the islands in Geelvink Bay, and even those farther to the east. The French terms Papouasie and Papoun?sie often refer to New Caledonia, and occasionally to all islands with frizzy-haired inhabitants in the Pacific. When about 1900 the Dutch colonial administration was established in West New Guinea, the island-realms of the Kalana Fat (Four Kings) on Waig?o, Salawati and Miso?l, together with scores of smaller islands, gradually came to be known by the old Malay equivalent for this term, namely as the Raja Ampat (Islands), ?mpat representing the regional pronunciation of Malay Emp?t. The name '.Papuan Islands' fell into disuse, and in 1952 the Raja Empat became a separate administrative district (Gouvernementsblad van Nieuw-Guinea 1952, no. 25). Since in the vernacular of mainly East Indonesian petty officials and village teachers the word Papua was increasingly used in a pejorative sense, M.W. Kaisiepo in 1945 proposed replacing this name Papua with Irian, a
Ancient history · Archaeology · Archipelago · Bay · Colonialism · Ethnology · Geography · Mainland · New guinea · New Hebrides · Portuguese · Possession (linguistics · Treaty · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1996 - 2023 (28) |
| Highly cited | No |