John Sydenham Furnivall

J.S. Furnivall
Born
John Sydenham Furnivall

(1878-02-14)14 February 1878
Great Bentley, Essex, England
Died7 July 1960(1960-07-07) (aged 82)
Cambridge, England
NationalityBritish
Other namesJS Furnivall
Alma materTrinity Hall, Cambridge University
Leiden University
Occupation(s)Civil servant and Southeast Asian scholar
SpouseMargaret Ma Nyunt (1902-1920)[1]
Children2 daughters[1]
AwardsOrder of Orange-Nassau (1948)
Thado Thiri Thudhamma of Burma (1949)

John Sydenham Furnivall (often cited as JS Furnivall or J.S. Furnivall) was a British-born colonial public servant and writer in Burma. He is credited with coining the concept of the plural society and had a noted career as an influential historian of Southeast Asia, particularly of the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) and British Burma.[1] He published several books over a long career, including the influential Colonial Policy and Practice and wrote for more than 20 major journals, although his work is now criticized as being Eurocentric and biased in favor of continued colonialism.[2]

  1. ^ a b c Coppel, Charles A. (July 1997). "Revisiting Furnivall's 'plural society': Colonial Java as a mestizo society?". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 20 (3): 562–579. doi:10.1080/01419870.1997.9993975.
  2. ^ Boyd, Kelly (1999). Encyclopedia of historians and historical writing. Vol. 1. Taylor & Francis. pp. 427–28. ISBN 978-1-884964-33-6.