Chapter Eight. Christianity In Papuaглава из книги
Аннотация: Christianity in Papua (successively called Papua land or Tanah Papua, Nieuw Guinee, Nederlands Nieuw Guinea, Irian Barat, Irian Jaya, West Irian Jaya/ Papua and West Papua) represents the response of Papuans to the introduction of the Christian faith by missionaries, mainly from the Netherlands, Germany and the United States.To understand this response we must provide some introduction to the characteristics of Melanesian and Papuan culture and religion.Th e history of Christianity in Papua is quite diff erent from that of most other parts of Indonesia.Until the last decades of the twentieth century there was hardly any active political role by Muslims.Missionary work started in the 1850s and has continued slowly since then.About the early 1960s Christianity was the dominant religion of the people and of the government.Papua still is the province with the highest percentage of Christians in the population.Christian mission began in Papua in 1855, almost half a century before the Dutch colonial government entered the territory to establish its fi rst permanent government posts there.Systematic external interference in Papuan indigenous political and social institutions came late and has been, until recently, quite limited.Traditional ways of life could be preserved, especially in the Highlands, where 40% of the Papuans live.Only in the early 1960s did the Indonesian Government and army begin to intervene intensively, oft en using considerable violence, in the culture, religion and economy of the Papuans.Th is was strongly resisted by the Papuans, who used Christian values and concepts in their struggle for freedom.Since the 1990s Papuans have used mainly non-violent methods, aiming at reconciliation and dialogue as means to solve their confl ict with the Indonesians.Th e movement is nevertheless harshly suppressed by the Indonesian army and police.From 1970 until 1998 Papua was designated a Military Operational Territory (Daerah Operasi Militer, DOM).Th is means that the security forces exercise supremacy in society, in politics and in the economy.Papua is the western part of the island of New Guinea.Its area is 420,000 sq.km, the size of California or one quarter the size of Indonesia without New Guinea.It had in 2004 about 2.5 million inhabitants of whom an estimated 1.6 million (about 65%) are Papuans.Th e remainder are 'newcomers' (pendatang), who came aft er the incorporation of Papua into Indonesia in the 1960s.Th ere are three categories of these: a. the transmigrants, who have been settled in Papua by the government as peasant farmers, b. the 'free' K.A. Steenbrink and J.
Год издания: 2008
Авторы: Karel Steenbrink, J.S. Aritonang
Издательство: Brill
Источник: BRILL eBooks
Ключевые слова: Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies, Island Studies and Pacific Affairs
Открытый доступ: hybrid
Страницы: 345–381