Rivers and the Penan Landscape
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33736/jbk.9420.2025Keywords:
Penan, Belaga, Baram, narrative, rivers and streamsAbstract
Keeping clear of polemology or irenology theories and the various explanations tendered about religious reasons for tribal war and headhunting practices, as well as of recent international conflicts, this essay describes the general Borneo setting and the particular situation of the Kapit-and-Baleh region as the meeting point of five of the island’s major river basins. In an attempt to uncover features common to the island as a whole, it first focuses on its heartland, and examines the customs or adat relative to waging war and restoring peace among traditional peoples of the interior. Then, in a diachronic perspective, it tries to figure out how these peoples’ assumed autochthonous methods of conflict prevention and resolution changed across historical periods, from pre-colonial times, insofar as they can be properly identified from both interviews with local people and data from the extant literature; via innovations progressively introduced by contact with and influences from coastal (“Malay”) societies; to the sweeping effect of the colonial states’ administrative policies; and the subsequent powerful impact of modern national (or State) societal practices and legal procedures. While the last phase has led to the local development of new forms of written adat corpuses, this essay also points to some other post-independence developments, and to what may remain today of ancient patterns regarding conflicts, their prevention, and their resolution.
References
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Langub, J. (2011), “Making sense of the landscape: Eastern Penan perspectives.” Sarawak Museum Journal, 60(90): 79-110.
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