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The people of the island can be divided into more than 250 sub-groups, which are closely related to the islands along the southern rim of the Pacific and include among others, the Marind-anim, Yah'ray, Asmat, Mandobo, Dani and Afyat. Those in the central highlands still preserve their customs and traditions and, because communications have always been difficult here, different tribes have lived for centuries in isolation of each other for the most part, resulting in an incredibly diverse cultures and languages mixture. Jayapura Provincial capital is built on hills that slope down to the sea and is accessible by boat and plane. It was here in fact, that General MacArthur assembled his fleet for the invasion of the Philippines during the Second World War, remains of which can still be found. Maluku people have been sailors and traders for thousands of years. The earliest archaeological evidence of human occupation of the region is about thirty-two thousand years old, but the evidence of even older settlements in Australia may mean that Maluku had earlier visitors. The evidence of increasingly long-distance trading relationships and of more frequent occupation of many islands, begins about ten to fifteen thousand years later. Onyx beads and segments of silver plate used as currency on the Indian subcontinent around 200BC have been unearthed on some of the islands. In addition, local dialects employ derivations of the Malay word then in use for 'silver', in contrast to the term used in wider Melanesian society, which has etymological roots in Chinese, a consequence of the regional trade with China that developed in the 500s and 600s. Although the cultures varied across this dispersed group of islands, there is a sense in which the Moluccas were a cosmopolitan society, in that traders from across the region took residence in Moluccan settlements, or in nearby enclaves, to conduct the spice business. Arab and Chinese traders frequently visited or lived in the region. In 1513 the Portuguese landed on Ambon Island, which produced some cloves, but also played an entropy role in the region. A Portuguese fort and a degree of security followed, helped by a buffer of indigenous Christian converts who were settled about the fort and formed the nucleus of what became Ambon city (the current capital of Maluku province). But the Portuguese presence on Ambon Island was regularly challenged by attacks from indigenous Muslims on the island's northern coast, in particular Hitu, which had trading and religious links with major port cities on Java's north coast. Indeed, the Portuguese never managed to control the spices local trade, and failed in attempts to establish their authority over Banda Island, the nearby centre of nutmeg production. The Spaniards took control of Ternate and Tidore. While the Roman Catholicism slowly spread among the Ambon native population (for a time the missionary Saint Francis Xavier who resided in Ambon) most of the region remained as Moslems. [ More >>> ]
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