The Google Ngram Viewer shows how many times certain terms appear in digitized printed texts.
The image below shows what we see when we input the terms “Srivijiya” and “Sri Vijaya” in the Google Ngram Viewer.
The Google search engine can show us how many websites contain a term that we search for.
The image below shows what we see when we search for the terms “Srivijiya” and “Sri Vijaya” in Google search.
Take a look at those two images and ask yourself: What exactly is the purpose of historical scholarship in the 21st century?
And if you are an historian, you can try (but you’ll probably be happier if you don’t do this, so feel free to stop reading here) asking yourself: What exactly is my purpose now?
And if this does not make any sense to you, please check out the posts on “Srivijiya.”
Since you probably don’t have to worry about paying your bills next month, you are rather free to chose your life’s purpose in accordance with your dispositions. But if you refer to more practical considerations, and you want to see the results being picked up and gain traction, then an article in a respectable journal will be imperative. Since you put the ax to a considerable chunk of Malay history, a good strategy has to be devised on how to make it palatable. A first step might be to get the article translated into Malay. If people want to refute your claims, they will have to investigate the sources again.
Yes, I agree, and an article is under review at the moment. Still, at this point in time, I really don’t think that will even do much within academia. I think we’ve reached a point where so much information is getting produced by so many people in so many different places that it is impossible for new ideas to be accepted and old ideas to be rejected. It is perhaps still possible for this to happen in very small and specialized fields where there is a limited number of people producing scholarship and where they can therefore be aware of what others are writing, but “Srivijaya” is a topic that gets addressed by people in so many different fields/disciplines that I think it will now definitely be with us forever.
A foremost target would be the Wikipedia entry. Since most people do not study at Oxbride or live next door to the Cornell library, most literature is collected online first. Since copyright issues and astronomical prices for many journals tend to slow down the dissemination of new knowledge and give undue precedence to the outdated stuff, easy access to the article would be useful. If a link to a copy of the article is provided inside the Wikipedia entry, it certainly will gain more attention. There is no justification for defeatism.
Another interesting way of publicizing the new insights could be to arrange for an interview with a leading Indonesian/Malaysian newspaper.
Good points!
If I remember correctly the famous American philosopher Sarah Palin once said: Don’t retreat. Reload!
Oh, my goodness!! How did I forget such wise advice!!! Yes, you are exactly right. I need to follow the wisdom of philosopher Palin. 🙂
Hi Mr. Kelly. I’m no historian but you’ve got me hooked on the Srivijaya thing. In fact, I’ve checked out a popular history series on YouTube about Majapahit – a “successor” of the “Srivijaya kingdom” and saw (the first half of) the first episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4zGw2OewIk talking a lot about “Srivijaya kingdom”. In the lights the new info you gave, I assume that the episode’s Srivijaya is a “combination” of Srivijaya from stone inscriptions and Sanfoqi from Chinese sources (of course, the authors of the episode didn’t or don’t know this). Indeed, the recommened reading for the series is the Coedes book. So, I want to make 2 points.
1. About history, it would be interesting to separate that combination. In other words, let’s strip the Angkorian components from the stone-inscription Srivijaya to see what’s left. The other way is fun too, as you already wrote many posts about Sanfoqi.
2. About communication, more than just Wiki articles, the new information about Srivijaya should also be publicized to the authors of the episode (as well as similar people), so that they can make corrections, or at least some disclaimers. Otherwise, as far as I know, because these episodes can be shown in schools (outside Indonesia), the wrong information spread is much harder to contain. Not only the academia is at stake anymore. (of course, I’m talking about outside Indonesia, because Indonesian governments have incentives to continue to spread the wrong information)