Borneo Research Bulletin articles from January 1 2001

Borneo Research Bulletin archives from January 1 2001

Notes from the editor.
January 1, 2001... With the present volume, we return once again to a more familiar BRB format. The Research Notes and Brief Communications that follow, therefore, again range over the entire island of Borneo, taking in all of its modern political divisions, and...

Datin Julia Chong nee Wu Nga Chee. (Memorials).(musician, composer)(Obituary)
January 1, 2001... 1926-2001 A LIFE DEVOTED TO MUSIC Julia Chong passed away in Singapore on the 4th of November 2001. The sad news reached me while I was preparing an article on the Dayak Cultural Foundation Ethnic Orchestra, which I had intended her to...

Kenelm Hubert Digby. (Memorials).(New Zealand civil servant, also served in Sarawak)(from The Evening Post, Wellington, N.Z., August 23, 2001)(Obituary)(Reprint)
January 1, 2001... 1912-2001 Kenelm Digby was an unusual and courageous civil servant. His downtown colleagues at the State Advances Corporation and then the Health Department knew him as their avuncular office solicitor, but there was more to his bow than...

Clive Marsh. (Memorials).(field biologist, conservationist, Malaysia)(Obituary)
January 1, 2001... 1951-2000 TRIBUTE FROM A FRIEND I first met Clive when he was an undergraduate at Bristol, studying zoology. Oundle was an important way-point. He always told me that his biology teacher at Oundle had helped kindle his interest in the...

Dato Sri William Nais. (Memorials).(government official, collector of oral traditions, Sarawak)(Obituary)
January 1, 2001... 1912-2001 Dato Sri Willaim Nais passed away at his residence, Sunny Estate, Kuching, on Saturday, November 3, 2001. He was 89 years old. He was laid to rest at the Anglican cemetery at Batu Kitang, after a service in St. Thomas' Cathedral,...

Tan Sri Datuk Amar (Dr) Ong Kee Hui. (Memorials).(chairman of Sarawak United People's Party, cabinet minister, Malaysia)(Obituary)
January 1, 2001... 1914-2000 The notice in the local press read: The cortege will leave No. 12, Taman Liong Seng, Rock Road, Kuching for the Sarawak United People's Party Headquarters at 1:00 PM on Thursday, 20th April 2000 for friends and party members...

Tan Sri Datuk Amar Stephen Yong Kuet Tze. (Memorials).(political statesman)(Obituary)
January 1, 2001... 1921-2001 Soft spoken and driven by a quiet determination, Stephen Yong will be remembered as a leading figure in giving the ordinary Chinese in Sarawak a political voice through his role as Secretary-General of the Sarawak United People's...

Fire in East Kalimantan: a panoply of practices, views, and [discouraging] effects (1). (Research Notes).
January 1, 2001... Introduction and Study Sites In 1997-98, East Kalimantan was hit by the most severe El Nino of the 20th century. The area burned was estimated at 5.2 million ha in that province alone (Hoffman 1999). Although this catastrophe spawned...

Dayak Kings, Malay sultans, oral histories, and colonial archives: a comment on Djuweng (1999) and Sellato (1999). (Research Notes).
January 1, 2001... Djuweng's (1999) research note claims the existence of Ulu Are, a Dayak "kingdom" that had ritual seniority and historical precedence to the Malay kingdoms in the Ketapang regency of West Kalimantan. One might be excused for some initial...

The forest as income: testing the economic resilience of swidden farmers in the Lower Sugut, Sabah (1). (Research Notes).
January 1, 2001... I. INTRODUCTION In these sunny garden scenes, man is the Adam of a modem Eden... in the Bornean forests Nature still reigns supreme. Here with us man wrests his sustenance from her--there she is lavish in the bestowal of gifts unsought...

A Tumon Dayak burial ritual (Ayah Besar): description and interpretation of its masks, disguises, and ritual practices. (Research Notes).
January 1, 2001... The settlement areas of the Tumon The main settlement areas of the Tumon are located in the border region between Kalimantan Tengah and Kalimantan Barat, along the upper reaches and at the headwaters of the Lamandau River, particularly...

Interethnic ties along the Kalimantan-Sarawak border: the Kelabit and Lun Berian in the Kelabit-Kerayan Highlands. (Research Notes).(Borneo and Malaysia)
January 1, 2001... Introduction This paper aims to highlight certain effects of the imposition of an arbitrary political boundary line between Kalimantan and Sarawak. It seeks to shed some light on how one cultural group was artificially divided by the...

Who are the Maloh? Cultural diversty and cultural change in interior Indonesian Borneo. (Research Notes).
January 1, 2001... Ethnic Names: Embaloh, Taman, Kalis, Banuaka', Maloh The following research note is occasioned by my reading of Jay Bernstein's excellent book Spirits Captured in Stone. Shamanism and Traditional Medicine among the Taman of Borneo (1997). I...

Iranun and Balangingi: globalization, maritime raiding and the birth of ethnicity. (Research Notes).
January 1, 2001... Introduction: An Ethnohistorical Enigma The aim of this paper is to explore ethnic, cultural, and material changes in the transformative history of oceans and seas, commodities and populations, mariners and ships, and raiders and refugees...

The mediated production of ethnicity and nationalism among the Iban of Sarawak, 1954-1976 (1). (Research Notes).(Malaysia)
January 1, 2001... Introduction Among the recent deluge of anthropological writings on ethnicity (see Levine 1999), J. Comaroff's (1996) essay Ethnicity, Nationalism, and the Politics of Difference in an Age of Revolution stands as a model of clarity and...

Gender differences in tobacco habits among rural Kadazans and Bajaus in Sabah. (Research Notes).
January 1, 2001... Introduction Cigarettes became the dominant form of tobacco use in the twentieth century with the introduction of machine-manufactured cigarettes in 1881. European powers changed the agricultural patterns of their colonies in many parts of...

Healing flora of the Brunei Dusun. (Research Notes).
January 1, 2001... Introduction The Dusun of northwest Borneo inhabit the Tutong and Belait River watersheds of Brunei Darussalam (Fig. 1). Although officially recognized as Malay by the Brunei government, the Dusun are linguistically related to the Bisaya,...

Sixth Biennial Meetings.(Borneo Research Council conference, July 2000)
January 1, 2001... SIXTH BIENNIAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE BORNEO RESEARCH COUNCIL "BORNEO 2000" For five days, from the 10th through the 14th of July, 2000, over 160 participants from Malaysia and more than 40 other countries gathered in...

Rapid assessment of rapid change: health in rural Sarawak. (Brief Communications).(Malaysia)
January 1, 2001... When it became clear to the people of Lubok Antu that I was not a missionary but was "something medical," I was told who had died of malaria, the problems of seeing a dentist in Sri Aman, and how one woman had a lump on her breast. And I saw...

The Dayak Cultural Foundation's Ethnic Orchestra. (Brief Communications).
January 1, 2001... In November 1999, when I first came to Sarawak, I found that the three officially recognized Dayak communities: Bidayuh, Iban, and Orang Ulu, each had its own cultural organization in the modem state capitol, Kuching. (1) Moreover, in 1992, the...

A checklist of British Borneo manuscript and photographic materials in Rhodes House Library, Oxford. (Brief Communications).(Bibliography)
January 1, 2001... The following list has been compiled from the MS card catalogue at Rhodes House under the categories Ind. Ocn., Pac. And Brit. Emp., supplemented by Manuscript Collections in Rhodes House Library's typescript listing of uncatalogued items. It...

More on Masa Jepun: a response to Batty-Smith. (Brief Communications).
January 1, 2001... The letters quoted by Mr. William Batty-Smith are of interest, but I reckon that the rest of his brief communication ("Masa Jepun", Borneo Research Bulletin, Volume 30 (1999): 142-46) is of little value, except for what it tells us about the...

More on Masa Jepun. (Brief Communications).
January 1, 2001... I have only recently seen a copy of the Borneo Research Bulletin Vol.30, 1999, as I have been abroad, back in Sarawak as it happens. I wish to refer in particular to the article written by Mr. William Batty-Smith where he refers to a brief...

Crime scene: The Muller Mountains region in Japanese times. (Brief Communications).
January 1, 2001... This brief communication was prompted by the notes of Beatrice Clayre and William Batty-Smith in the Borneo Research Bulletin (Volume 30, 1999, respectively pp. 140-142 and 142-146), both referring to Bob Reece's recent book, Masa Jepun (1998)....

W.S. Buck: Sarawak Government in exile. (Brief Communications).(transcript of 1942 government report)(Transcript)
January 1, 2001... [Editor's note: The following copy of a typescript report, originally submitted to the Sarawak Government in exile in Australia in 1942, was found by William Batty-Smith among his late father-in-law's papers and was submitted to the BRB for the...

Working in the Dutch colonial archives: a follow-up to Knapen (1997). (Brief Communications).(response to article by Han Knapen, 1997)
January 1, 2001... Having recently returned from conducting archival research at the Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia (ANRI) in Jakarta, I would like to offer this note as a follow-up to Han Knapen's (1997) very helpful article on the subject. Unlike Knapen, I...

The last Basap cave dwellers in the Mangkalikat karst mountains, East Kalimantan--a brief report. (Brief Communications).
January 1, 2001... Introductory remarks For three months in 1976 and, again, for another three months in 1978, I was assigned as a consultant on forest ecology to the Governor of Kalirnantan Timur, Abdul Wahab Syahrany. During these six months, I had the...

Environmental change in native and colonial histories of Borneo: lessons from the past, prospects for the future. (Regional News).
January 1, 2001... 10-11 August 2000, Leiden, The Netherlands During the closing decades of the twentiety century, the island of Borneo and its peoples have faced many critical environmental challenges. Controversial transmigration, oil palm plantation...

International workshop on managing anthropogenic impact on Lake Sentarum National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, June 10, 2002. (Kalimantan News).
January 1, 2001... International workshop on managing anthropogenic impact on Lake Sentarum National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, June 10, 2002 Borneo Conservancy (Yayasan Konservasi Borneo) In collaboration with Yayasan Riak Bumi This...

Establishment of Dayak Studies at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas). (Sarawak News).
January 1, 2001... A Dayak Studies Program was inaugurated at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, in January 2001. Created within the Institute of East Asian Studies, and sustained by an endowment from the Dayak Cultural Foundation, the...

Faith, Love and Hope in Borneo. .(Book Review)
January 1, 2001... Martin Baier. Glaube, Liebe und Hoffnung auf Borneo (Faith, Love and Hope in Borneo). Religionswissenschaftliche und kulturanthropologische Erkenntnisse bei den Kotawaringin-Dayak aus den Tagebuchern von Johann Georg Baler, 1928-1932,...

Pantang Iban. .(Book Review)
January 1, 2001... Pantang Iban, by Jeroen Franken and Sven Torfinn (1998) Rotterdam: Typography & Other Serious Matters, 160 pages. The Dutch have been arriving in Borneo for several centuries on various missions ranging from extracting mineral wealth to...

Forests of Fortune? The Environmental History of Southeast Borneo, 1600-1880. .(Book Review)
January 1, 2001... Han Knapen: Forests of Fortune? The Environmental History of Southeast Borneo, 1600-1880. KITLV Press, Leiden 2001. 498 pp. Han Knapens book is a tremendously informative piece of work. As its title indicates, it is a book on environmental...

People before Profits. .(Book Review)
January 1, 2001... People before Profits. Kua Kia Soong, ed. SIRD (Strategic Info Research Development) and Suaram (Suara Rakyat Malaysia), Petaling Jaya: Malaysia, 2001. 201 pp. RM 25.00 What will Malaysia be like in the year 2020? Will the country be...

Indigenous Peoples and the State. Politics, Land, and Ethnicity in the Malayan Peninsula and Borneo. .(Book Review)
January 1, 2001... Indigenous Peoples and the State. Politics, Land, and Ethnicity in the Malayan Peninsula and Borneo, Robert L. Winzeler (Ed.), New Haven: Yale Southeast Asia Studies, Monograph No. 46, 1997,316 pp. The expressions "fourth-world colonialism"...

Kayan Religion: Ritual Life and Religious Reform in Central Borneo. .(Book Review)
January 1, 2001... Jerome Rousseau, Kayan Religion: Ritual Life and Religious Reform in Central Borneo (1998) Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde No. 180. Leiden: KITLV Press. In the 1940s a religious reform movement...

A Trial in East Kalimantan--The Benoaq Dayak Resistance. (Abstracts: Film).(Movie Review)
January 1, 2001... A Trial in East Kalimantan--The Benoaq Dayak Resistance, by Sandeep Ray. Produced by Karma Foley with assistance from Documentary Educational Resources; additional funding from PACT Indonesia and the East Kalimantan Human Rights Committee....

Antropologi Indonesia.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Alqadrie, Syarif Ibrahim, 1999, Konflik etnis di Ambon dan Sambas: suatu tinjauan sosiologis. Antropologi Indonesia, Vol 23 (no. 58): 36-57. Were the ethnic conflicts in Sambas and Ambon the result of the same set of factors? The author of...

Indigenous environmental knowledge and its transformations.(Book Review)
January 1, 2001... Dove, Michael R., 2000, The life-cycle of indigenous knowledge, and the case of natural rubber production. In: Roy Ellen, Peter Parkes, Alan Bicker, eds., Indigenous environmental knowledge and its transformations. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic...

Tonan Ajia kenkyu. (Abstracts: Film).(Indonesian Forest Management Problems)(Movie Review)
January 1, 2001... Guritno, Ali Djoko, 2000, Indonesian forest management problems: what are the comments and opinions of the groups and organizations concerned? Tonan Ajia kenkyu, 37: 492-510. The objectives of this study, which was primarily carried out in...

Saudi Aramco World. (Abstracts: Film).(Movie Review)
January 1, 2001... Hansen, Eric, 2000, The hidden history of a scented wood, Saudi Aramco World, 51 (6): 2-13. For numberless centuries gaharu wood, which is claimed to produce the very best incense, has been one of the most expensive commodities in the...

Human Biology. (Abstracts: Film).
January 1, 2001... Handoko, H., et al. Length variations in the COII-tRNA (lys) intergenic region of mitochondrial DNA in Indonesian Populations. Human Biology 73 (2): 205-223, 2001. Among 99 Dayaks of Palangkaraya, C. Kal., 35% were found in this study to...

National Geographic. (Abstracts).(gliding animals in Borneo's rain forest)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Laman, Tim, 2000, Wild gliders: the creatures of Borneo's rain forest go airborne, National Geographic, 198 (4): 68-85. A number of reptiles (snakes, lizards), amphibians (frogs), and mammals (lemurs) transport themselves from tree to tree...

'Blurring the Boundaries' Manoeuvring State and Non-State Spaces: Rule, Compromise, and Contested Development among the Bajau Laut of the Sulu Sea. (Abstracts).(dissertation)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Lim, Li Ching. 2001, 'Blurring the Boundaries' Manoeuvring State and Non-State Spaces: Rule, Compromise, and Contested Development among the Bajau Laut of the Sulu Sea. M. Phil. degree, Development Studies, Institute of Development Studies,...

The Longhouse and the Legacy of History: Religion, Architecture, and Change among the Bisingai of Sarawak. (Abstracts).(dissertation)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Lindell, Pamela N. 2000 The Longhouse and the Legacy of History: Religion, Architecture, and Change among the Bisingai of Sarawak. PhD dissertation, Univiersity of Nevada, Reno. This dissertation is an anthropological study of the Bisingai,...

Converging Interests. (Abstracts).(essay on tourism in Borneo)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Maier, Judith, 1999, Everyone wants to get a head: environmental and cultural tourism in the Borneo interior. IN: Jill Forshee with Christina Fink and Sandra Cate, ed., Converging Interests. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 51-83....

Bibliography.(Borneo)(Bibliography)
January 1, 2001... Adam, F.J. 1998 Native customary rights over land in Sarawak. Journal of Malaysian and Comparative Law 25: 218-231. Aeria, Andrew 1999 The Idahan origin myth: notes towards a re-evaluation. Sabah Museum Journal 1 (4):...

The sixth international symposium on Malay/Indonesian linguistics. (Regional News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... 3-5 August 2002 Nirwana Resort Hotel, Bintan Island, Riau, Indonesia Papers presented at ISMIL are concerned with the Malay/Indonesian language in any of its varieties. In addition to the standardized versions of Bahasa Melayu and...