NETWORKS AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES AROUND THE INDIAN OCEAN

自早期几个世纪以来，印度洋一直是阿拉伯、波斯、亚美尼亚、印度、东南亚、中国、犹太和西方商人和旅行者的重要海域。这些人偶尔迁移到另一个地方，建立各种网络。印度移民成功地在东南亚、非洲和印度之间建立了经济网络。海外华人也与祖国建立了牢固的经济联系。阿拉伯人经常移民到非洲、印度和东南亚，并在这些地方建立穆斯林社区，通过移民，他们参与了世界体系的建立。阿拉伯移民往往刺激当地人成为穆斯林，扩大伊斯兰社区。此外，海外华人偶尔也会帮助构建中国的世界体系。东南亚的阿拉伯人、华人和印度移民在被西方殖民统治后，大多成为现代世界体系的积极支持者，同时也对当地社会的整合发挥了重要作用。中国和阿拉伯移民都成为能够在外部世界和当地社区之间进行调解的关键人物。一些东南亚阿拉伯移民的后裔成功地成为沿海王国的统治者。菲律宾的混血华人和马来西亚的印度穆斯林也积极参与了民族国家的建设。这些案例表明，印度洋是最复杂的海域之一，各种网络通过这些移民的活动发展起来。调解人将不同的网络综合为一个网络，并将一个网络分为两个或两个以上网络，调解人的作用的重要性需要重新审查。

Since early centuries the Indian Ocean has been an important maritime zone among Arab, Persian, Armenian, Indian, Southeast Asian, Chinese, Jewish and Western merchants and travelers. Those people occasionally migrated to another place and established various kinds of networks. Indian migrants successfully established economic networks among Southeast Asia, Africa and India. Overseas Chinese also set up firm economic ties with their homeland. Arabs often migrated to Africa, India and SoutheastAsia and established Muslim communities in those places.Through migration, they involved themselves in the establishment of the world system. Arab migrants often stimulated local people to become Muslims and enlarged the Islamic community. Also overseas Chinese occasionally helped in constructing the Chinese world system. Most of Arab, Chinese and Indian migrants in Southeast Asia after being put under Western colonial rule became active supporters of the modern world system.Those migrants at the same time played an important role in the integration of local society. Both Chinese and Arab migrants became key persons who were able to mediate between the outside world and their local community. Some of the descendants of Arab migrants in Southeast Asia successfully became rulers of coastal kingdoms. Also Chinese mestizo in the Philippines and Indian Muslims in Malaysia actively involved themselves in their nation state building.These cases suggest that the Indian Ocean has been one of the most complicated maritime zones where various networks developed through activities of those migrants. The importance of the role of mediators who synthesized different networks into one and who differentiated one into two or more, needs to be reexamined.