-->WRITING in The Malays - A Cultural History, the British administrator Richard Winstedt observed: "A faculty that has always made for the Malay's progress has been his power to accept the new and adjust it to the old."
The culture of the Malays has been distinguished mainly by its experience of evolution. The various communities that comprise the Malay race have, through the ages, accommodated themselves to the separate historical and cultural influences that have come its way.
Yet, much of
the culture of these communities was also defined by its experience of
migration.
This is especially prominent in the Malay peninsula where
Malay communities settled in specific areas which beckoned the nature
and characteristics of those particular communities.
Examples
would be the Minangkabau of Negeri Sembilan, the Javanese and Bugis in
Johor and Selangor, the Achenese in the northern states of Kedah and
Penang, and the indigenous Malay communities of the north-eastern states
of Kelantan and Terengganu.
