Life Strategies of Hunter-Gatherers: A Comparative Social History of The Indigenous Peoples of Borneo and Jomon-Period Japan

Authors

  • Kentaro Kanazawa

Keywords:

Comparative social history, hunter-gatherers, indigenous peoples, life-strategies, sustainable society

Abstract

The characteristic of the Jomon period in Japan is that it lasted for a long time. Traditionally, this has been explained solely by the heteronomous factor that the transmission of agricultural culture from the continent was delayed, but in recent years we have come to appreciate the potential of Jomon society itself. This study compares the social history of the hunter-gatherers of Borneo with the Jomon-period people of the Japanese archipelago focusing on their life strategies, that is, their behavior in selecting livelihoods and lifestyles in order to survive as a group in response to changes in the natural or social environment. Both the Borneo and Jomon-period peoples aspired to a nomadic lifestyle with low population density in a rich natural environment. They are basically self-sufficient in food, and in the case of the Penan people they have been able to secure food from plants called the sago palms, and from tree nuts in the case of the Jomon people. A barter market called “Tamu” was a place of exchange that became established in nature and society, and at the same time it was a meeting place and a place of cultural celebration. Similarly, social networks between regional groups had already been formed during the Jomon period.

References

Brosius, J. P. (1999) Locations and representations: Writing in the political present in Sarawak, East Malaysia. Identities, 6, 345-386.

Daikuhara, Y. (2002) Kokuyoseki no ryutuu wo meguru shakai [Society Supervising Obsidian Distribution]. In Anzai, M. (Ed.) Jomon shakairon jokan [Jomon society Vol. 1] (pp. 67-131). Doseisha Publishers (in Japanese).

Daikuhara, Y. (2007) Kokuyoseki no koueki system: Kanto Chubu chiho no yousou [Obsidian trading system: Aspects of the Kanto and Chubu regions]. In Kosugi, Y., Mizunoe, K., Taniguchi, Y., Yano, K. and Nishida, Y. (Eds.) Monozukuri: Dougu seisaku no gijutsu to soshiki [Manufacturing: tool making technology and organization] (pp. 164-177). Doseisha Publishers (in Japanese).

Habu, J. (2004) Ancient Jomon of Japan. Cambridge University Press.

Harrison, T. (1949) Notes on some nomadic Punans. Sarawak Museum Journal, 15(1), 130-146.

Inamura, K. (1996) Prehistoric Japan: New perspectives on insular East Asia. ‎ Routledge.

Janowski, M. (2003) The forest: source of life. The Kelabit of Sarawak. British Museum; Sarawak Museum.

Langub, J. (1984) Tamu: Barter trade between Penan and their neighbours. Sarawak Gazette, 55(1485), 11-15.

Kanazawa, K. (2017) Sustainable harvesting and conservation of agarwood: A case study from the Upper Baram River in Sarawak, Malaysia, Tropics, 25(4), 139-146.

Kawashima, T. (2015) Food Processing and Consumption in the Jōmon, Quaternary International, 404, 16-24.

Koyama, S. and Okada, Y. (2000) Jomon jidai no shounin-tachi [Merchants in the Jomon period]. Yousensha Publishers (in Japanese).

Kuzmin Y. V. and Glascock, M.D. (Eds.) (2010) Crossing the straits: Prehistoric obsidian Source Exploitation in the North Pacific Rim. (BAR International Series 2152). Archaeopress.

Kuzmin, Y., Oppenheimer, C. and Renfrew, C. (2020) Global perspectives on obsidian studies in archaeology, Quaternary International, 542, 41-53.

Noshiro, S., Kudo, Y. and Sasaki, Y. (2016) Emergence of prehistoric management of plant resources during the incipient to initial Jomon periods in Japan, Quaternary International, 426, 175-186.

Noshiro, S. and Sasaki, Y. (2014) Pre-agricultural management of plant resources during the Jomon period in Japan-a sophisticated subsistence system on plant resources, Journal of Archaeological Science, 42, 93-106.

Society of Sago Palm Studies (2015) The sago palm: The food and environmental challenges of the 21st Century. Kyoto University Press

Tsutumi, T. (2010) Prehistoric procurement of obsidian from sources on Honshu Island (Japan). In
Kuzmin Y. V. and Glascock, M.D. (Eds.) Crossing the straits: Prehistoric obsidian source exploitation in the North Pacific Rim. (BAR International Series 2152). Archaeopress, 27-55.

Watanabe, M. (1975) Jomon jidai no shokubutsu-shoku [Plant diet in the Jomon period]. Yuzankaku Publishers (in Japanese).

Downloads

Published

2021-12-30

How to Cite

Kanazawa, K. (2021). Life Strategies of Hunter-Gatherers: A Comparative Social History of The Indigenous Peoples of Borneo and Jomon-Period Japan. Journal of Borneo-Kalimantan, 7(2), 28–39. Retrieved from https://publisher.unimas.my/ojs/index.php/BJK/article/view/4400