Talk:Malay Archipelago

Proposed merge with Maritime Southeast Asia
Both terms are describing the same area/grouping of countries. robertsky (talk) 06:25, 7 August 2019 (UTC)


 * Oppose Maritime South East Asian is a contemporary term for the region. Malay Archipelago is an anachronistic colonial term and the article should describe it as such a term (although it is used sometimes in biology contexts). --Merbabu (talk) 11:45, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Updated oppose comment - so I had a quick look back through some very old discussions. I still oppose, but suggest that the lead term should be MSEA. This is based on contemporary geographically based definition (and neatly complements the notion of Mainland Southeast Asia. The "Malay Archipelago" in contrast is a an old colonial term, derived from outdated notions of race and ethnicity (ie, "Malay" - the vast majority of the regions demographic - ie Indonesians - might think that term a bit odd). Further, most of Malaysia is not an archipelago. So, in summary - ideally MA should be merged into MSEA, not the other way around as proposed here. As a compromise, and given the problems with MA, we keep both articles - MSEA deals with the contemporary region, and the MA article discusses the history of the use of "Malay Archipelago", and cross references to each be provided in the leads. --Merbabu (talk) 02:39, 8 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Strong Oppose - 'same area' is very debatable - the exact content of what constitutes the malay archipelago is not necessarily consistent over time, and indeed if a careful examination of sources over two hundred years, then there is no actual coincidence between the two articles - as opposed to the terms. They are not contiguous and the separate articles should be well left alone and separate. JarrahTree 11:54, 7 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Oppose - Maritime Southeast Asia as a historical, cultural, and political concept often includes the Malay Peninsula, while Malay Archipelago, which is strictly geographic, does not. Nusantara is the closest thing to the concept of Maritime Southeast Asia, but the term is Indonesia-centric and often does not include the Philippines. Malay world is a cultural concept, primarily defined as region where Malay is spoken. These are often used interchangeably, but they are distinct terms and represent (at least slightly) different concepts nevertheless.  Masjawad99  💬 00:12, 11 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I suspect you reserved the terms here? Malay Archipelago is historical, Maritime SEA is not. Jpatokal (talk)
 * Huh, yes, I suppose. In any case, my main point was that MSEA often includes the Malay Peninsula, while Malay Archipelago doesn't. And you're right in saying that they have very different cultural connotations.  Masjawad99  💬 23:20, 1 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Oppose. While the geographical regions are similar, the cultural connotations of the terms are very different, and the two should be kept separate. Jpatokal (talk) 03:01, 17 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Oppose "Malay Archipelago" is an old colonial term, and ethnocentric to the Malay people (who aren't even close to being the majority ethnic group in the region) and the outdated concept of the Malay race. Geographically, it's as meaningless as the similar colonial term "East Indies". It was a vague region inhabited by Malays and people similar to Malays, according to Europeans. -- O BSIDIAN  †  S OUL  09:08, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I propose to merge Insulindia into Malay Archipelago. It seems they duplicate each other. (Generated using markasduplicate.js.) --Luan (discussão) 15:56, 8 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Comment: Not quite sure about the proper target (here or Maritime Southeast Asia, but Insulindia definitely does not really need a standalone article. The term is not really common even in the specialized lit, unlike the French equivalent Insulinde. Adding to the ping. –Austronesier (talk) 16:59, 2 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Merged to Malay Archipelago, it definitely doesn't need a standalone article. New Guinea is not a part of Southeast Asia, while Insulindia seems to include it just like Malay Archipelago. Bluesatellite (talk) 05:30, 8 February 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅ Klbrain (talk) 13:19, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

Map / coordinates
The infobox currently displays a second map that only shows Belitung island. This looks silly and is also geographically wrong: the actual center is probably located somewhere around the Makassar Strait. Can we shift the coordinates and also do something about the scale of the map? If we shift the center to somewhere in the sea, this scale will only show us a piece of blue. Austronesier (talk) 11:14, 9 April 2024 (UTC)


 * Can we? The second map is being inherently generated by the presence of Template:Infobox islands, we don't have any code in this article's infobox defining it. CMD (talk) 11:39, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
 * The coordinates are in the article in the coord-template. I'll remove it and see what happens. –Austronesier (talk) 16:44, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Still there, looks like the template grabs the coordinates from Wikidata. Wonder if there is a way to suppress it. –Austronesier (talk) 16:54, 9 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Not sure why this article has coordinates anyway, but posted at Template talk:Infobox islands. CMD (talk) 08:55, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Someone has now changed Q208643 and it shows a wider scope for me now. CMD (talk) 13:58, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I could be nitpicking and say that the dot offshore of Mangole island is too far in the east. But the most important thing is that the scale now provides a complete view of the archipelago. –Austronesier (talk) 18:08, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

Singapore inconsistency
The list of countries in the archipelago in the second paragraph of the article doesn't mention Singapore, and Singapore doesn't appear to be highlighted on the map in the infobox (but it's hard to tell). But Singapore appears on the list of the most populated islands in the archipelago. Is Singapore part of the archipelago or isn't it? I have no opinion on this matter, but the article should be consistent. AJD (talk) 22:07, 26 April 2024 (UTC)


 * Geography is fuzzy, my note here is the current lead cite to Britannica does not include Singapore. CMD (talk) 11:27, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
 * In that case, should we remove it from the list of most populous islands? AJD (talk) 13:25, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Probably, with the note that this does not solve the general lack of sources in that section. CMD (talk) 15:06, 27 April 2024 (UTC)