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Many of Indonesia's ethnic pockets have remained isolated because of the archipelago's size, its jungles, swamps, highlands, complex customs. You can find ways of life which are 5000 years apart, a journey through time. Cross-sections of the people live in the Neolithic, Bronze, Middle, and Nuclear Ages. Some Indonesians wear rings and rats' ribs in their noses, others read Kafka and dance The Bump. If they have mingled at all, it took place from the sea. Many of the mountain tribes have never recovered from past invasions or migrations when they were scattered into the hills by conquerors who took over the richer valleys and coasts. The Kubu and Mamak tribes of Sumatra, the Punans of Kalimantan, and the Alfuros of the Moluccas, are all descendants of the so-called Veddoids from Central Asia who drifted into the archipelago from 7000-8000 B.C. They are still considered-savages by the present local inhabitants of these areas.

A theme in much Indonesian folklore and wayang is the constant struggle between highlanders and lowlanders, or between the good noble princes and the 'black giants' (the aboriginals of the jungles and mountains). Indonesians can be quite color conscious and many are outright racists. Village women and their little girls smear white powder on their faces to 'beautify' themselves and Indonesian women take all possible precautions against exposing their skin to the sun to prevent a fieldworkei s complexion. It's thought that the darker the skin the more primitive the person is and the lower his or her class. People from Biak look down upon the Papuans from the mainland, urban Timorese regard the mountain people as stupid, and Jakartans hold themselves above the farmers of the countryside