Borneo Research Bulletin articles from January 1 2008

Borneo Research Bulletin archives from January 1 2008

Notes from the editor.
January 1, 2008... In This Issue We begin this issue with a memorial section dedicated to two extraordinarily gifted scholars, Reed Wadley and Robert Barrett. Both died, tragically, at the peak of their intellectual powers. Of the two, Reed was the...

Reed L. Wadley: 1962-2008.(MEMORIALS)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Reed Wadley, Associate Professor at the University of Missouri (Columbia) died June 28 after a courageous two-year long battle with Ewing's sarcoma. Dr. Wadley's cremated remains were divided between his family in...

In honor of Reed Lee Wadley.(MEMORIALS)
January 1, 2008... Sometime before June 1992, I had heard about a brief study by a doctoral student, Reed Wadley, on the impact of roads in the area of Danau Sentarum Wildlife Reserve. My husband, 10-year old son, and I were headed up the Kapuas River to work in...

Remembering Reed Wadley--"... and you will.".(In memoriam)
January 1, 2008... In my mind today, I can hear those three short words just as I did during my Ph.D. qualifying exam. The goal that day was for a committee to identify my weaknesses--a necessary, but unpleasant rite of passage--and we had been at it for several...

Robert John Barrett: 1949-2007.(In memoriam)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A Passionate Love: The Contributions of the Late Professor Robert John Barrett Professor Robert John Barrett died suddenly, after a long and difficult illness, on January 12th, 2007. At the time of his death, at...

Negara Brunei Darussalam: obituary 2008.(MEMORIALS)
January 1, 2008... Introduction The most remarkable Bruneian who died during 2008 was Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Dipa Negara Laila Diraja Pengiran Haji Abdul Momin bin Pengiran Haji Ismail, a ceteria who served as a Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) from 1970...

In search of Simon [Sindurang Bulakang]: a pioneer defender of Kadazan rights in colonial North Borneo.(RESEARCH NOTES)(Report)
January 1, 2008... In 1910, the Dusun of Papar (2) engaged the services of an English lawyer to summon the North Borneo (Chartered) Company administration to answer to charges that the Company had erred in selling land owned by members of the community to the...

Daniel Smith's last seven years: hardships in country trade in the East Indies in the early nineteenth century.(RESEARCH NOTES)
January 1, 2008... Introduction: The "country trade" and Borneo in the early nineteenth century After the occupation of Prince of Wales Island (Penang) (2) in 1786 by the East India Company (EIC), there soon arose a small community of merchants and traders...

An interview with Dr. Hj. Zaini Ahmad, Kuala Lumpur, 1985.(RESEARCH NOTES)(Interview)
January 1, 2008... I first met Zaini Ahmad in Kuala Lumpur in 1985 when he was in charge of the hostel for Sabah students in Jalan Ampang while working for PERKIM, the Muslim Welfare Association of Malaysia. As executive secretary of Partai Ra'ayat Brunei (PRB),...

The Lahanan of the Balui, 1963-2006.(RESEARCH NOTES)(Report)
January 1, 2008... The Lahanan of the Batang Balui were the focus of research I started as a Queen Elizabeth II Research Fellow at Macquarie University in Sydney. My original plan was to carry out a demographic and socio-economic study of Levu Lahanan, Long...

Penan and the Pulong Tau National Park: historical links and contemporary life.(RESEARCH NOTES)(Company overview)
January 1, 2008... Introduction A number of people live adjacent to the Pulong Tau National Park (PTNP): the Lun Bawang to the north, the Kelabit to the east and south, the Sa'ben to the southeast, and the Penan to the west and south. This paper is a general...

The Punan Vuhang belief system: cosmology and rituals.(RESEARCH NOTES)
January 1, 2008... Introduction In 1994, decades after the Punan Vuhang and spirits of their cosmos had ceased contact with each other due to the Punan Vuhang's conversion to Christianity, two dwarflike otu dokgek spirits appeared to the people to appeal for...

Ethnohistory of the Kayanic peoples in Northeast Borneo (Part 2): expansion, regional alliance groups, and Segai disturbances in the colonial era.(RESEARCH NOTES)(Report)
January 1, 2008... Datu Mancang (1) came up the Kayan River searching for local inhabitants. He found a village on the island of Busa:ng Aru:, near the mouth of the Pengian tributary (on the lower Kayan). There lived the Hopan, descendants of a female chief,...

The strange case of the missing village rights to land: G.C. Woolley's compilation of customary law in the colony of North Borneo.(RESEARCH NOTES)
January 1, 2008... I consider it a mistake to allow any body of men, who have monetary interests, to have absolute control over a territory; for as long as human nature is what it is there must always be a temptation for the directors and shareholders in such a...

Matrix to mosaic: habitat fragmentation from 1982-1999 in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.(RESEARCH NOTES)
January 1, 2008... Introduction As the footprint of human society expands on the earth, habitat loss and fragmentation are global problems of increasing significance. Habitat loss and fragmentation cause the natural matrix of a landscape to become a mosaic...

Contesting convention in Malay-world historiography.(The Malays)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Anthony Milner. The Malays, 2008. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, Pp. xiv, 293. ISBN 978-0-631-17222-2. Many of us indulge, from time to time, the affectation of writing in the third person ("the present writer suggests") in order to create...

Rejoinder brief comments on: Iban Art: Sexual Selection and Severed Heads--Weaving, Sculpture, Tattooing and Other Arts of the Iban of Borneo.(Iban Art: Sexual Selection and Severed Heads - Weaving, Sculpture, Tattooing and Other Arts of the Iban of Borneo)(Women's War: An Update of the Literature on Iban Textiles)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Iban Art: Sexual Selection and Severed Heads--Weaving, Sculpture, Tattooing and Other Arts of the Iban of Borneo, by Michael Heppell, Limbang anak Melaka, and Enyan anak Usen (2005). Leiden/ Amsterdam: C. Zwartenkot-Art Books/KIT Publishers ...

Letter from Lundu 10 February 2009.(BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS)
January 1, 2008... I'm neither a former D.O. nor a missionary, yet I too am an Old Hand and one day I too shall write a memoir of life in Sarawak. Or maybe I won't. However, I have a title, and a catchy title is nothing to waste, so here it is: A Lawn in Borneo....

Materials from the Dutch colonial archives deposited by Reed L. Wadley in the Tun Jugah Foundation Archives, Kuching, Sarawak.(BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS)
January 1, 2008... In May 2008, shortly before his death, Dr. Reed Wadley deposited with the Tun Jugah Foundation in Kuching two large storage cartons of archival materials together with a brief inventory describing their content. This inventory is reproduced...

Summary of Professor Robert Barrett's data held in the University of Adelaide Barr Smith Library special collection archives.(BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS)
January 1, 2008... When Professor Barrett passed away he left behind a substantial amount of unfinished work. He also left meticulous field notes from his completed work, along with hundreds of photographs and recordings. His work represents a remarkable devotion...

Past meets future: a trans-border forum for a sustainable future for the highlands of Borneo.(BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS)(Report)
January 1, 2008... Introduction In the heart of Borneo, the highlands at the border between Malaysia and Indonesia, the indigenous peoples of the area have come together to establish a communications forum, Forum Mesyarakat Adat Dataran Tinggi Borneo...

Notes on an Iban community in Danau Sentarum National Park.(BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS)
January 1, 2008... Between 15 August and 25 August 2008, I visited the Iban community of Sungai Pelaik located on the periphery of Danau Sentarum National Park in West Kalimantan. This was a preliminary field survey for thesis research on rural electrification...

A preliminary report on the University of the Philippines' anthropological research in Kota Belud, Sabah.(BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS)
January 1, 2008... The 2007 University of the Philippines Anthropology Field School was undertaken in Kota Belud, Sabah, Malaysia from April 23 to May 20. The field research team consisted of three anthropology professors and 17 undergraduate anthropology...

Borneo Research Council 9th Biennial International Conference (BRC 2008) at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).(NINTH BIENNIAL MEETINGS)(Conference news)
January 1, 2008... "UMS rocks!" was how Professor Vinson Sutlive Jr., Executive Director of the Borneo Research Council, summed up his feelings in his concluding remarks at the Closing Ceremony of the recent Borneo Research Council 9th Biennial International...

Supplemental grants for the collection of oral literature.(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
January 1, 2008... The unique oral literatures of indigenous peoples are rapidly being lost through the death of the traditional practitioners and through the formal schooling of the next generation. The Program for Oral Literature of the Firebird Foundation has...

Conference: South and Southeast Asian Association for the study of culture and religion, 3-6 June 2009.(ANNOUNCEMENTS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... "Water in South and Southeast Asia: interaction of culture and religion," at Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia--Sponsored by the International Association for the History of Religions, with Institut Seni Indonesia and Universitas Hindu Indonesia--Some...

Social Sciences in Asia Monograph Series, Brill.(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
January 1, 2008... Contributions are invited to the interdisciplinary Social Sciences in Asia Monograph Series. The Series publishes original materials and the revised editions of special issues of the Asian Journal of Social Sciences. The Series welcomes...

The Tenth Biennial International Conference of the Borneo Research Council: Curtin University of Technology Campus Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia 19-21 July 2010.(ANNOUNCEMENTS)(Conference news)
January 1, 2008... The Tenth Biennial International Conference of the Borneo Research Council will be held 19-21 July, 2010, in Miri, Sarawak, under the sponsorship of Curtin University of Technology Sarawak. The conference theme is "Borneo: Continuity, Change,...

Dr. Annabel Teh Gallop.(BRUNEI NEWS)
January 1, 2008... Dr. Annabel Teh Gallop (British Library) presented a paper entitled "The art of the Qur'an in Brunei" at a Seminar Sejarah Brunei (Brunei History Seminar) organized by the Brunei History Centre, BSB, on 3-5 December 2007 (ASEASUK News, No 43,...

In 2004 A.N. Muellner and C.M. Pannell conducted botanical fieldwork in Brunei, mainly collecting species of Aglaia.(BRUNEI NEWS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... In 2004 A.N. Muellner and C.M. Pannell conducted botanical fieldwork in Brunei, mainly collecting species of Aglaia. Their work was part of a two-year EU project which was undertaken in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and...

Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre.(BRUNEI NEWS)
January 1, 2008... The Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre (KBRSC). The forests of Brunei are among the richest in the world and represent the greatest living natural resource of the country. About 80% of Brunei is under forest cover, the majority of which is...

March 14-27, 2006, L.A. Sukamto, A. Sugiri, Sujadi and T. Uji searched for the medicinal plant Brucea and its relatives in Tumpang Sari village, Kahayan Hulu Utara, Gunung Mas District, Central Kalimantan.(KALIMANTAN NEWS)
January 1, 2008... March 14-27, 2006, L.A. Sukamto, A. Sugiri, Sujadi and T. Uji searched for the medicinal plant Brucea and its relatives in Tumpang Sari village, Kahayan Hulu Utara, Gunung Mas District, Central Kalimantan. Adina minutiflora, Eurycoma...

David T.W. Wong (Open University, UK).(SABAH NEWS)
January 1, 2008... At the twenty-fourth ASEASUK conference at John Moores University (Liverpool) on 21-22 June 2008, " David T.W. Wong (Open University, UK) presented a fascinating paper exploring the concept of 'far-border' locations and cultural links. In...

TuN Mustapha DatU Harun.(SABAH NEWS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... The residence of the late Tua Mustapha Data Harun in Kota Kinabalu was auctioned for more than one million ringgit in June 2007. Pictures of world leaders (Queen Elizabeth II, Muhammad Ali) he met before his death in January 1995 still adorn...

Supt. Mohd Zain Yaacob.(SABAH NEWS)(Obituary)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Supt. Mohd Zain Yaacob, who joined the Sabah Police Force in 1975 and rose to become the Deputy Chief of Police in Sandakan by March 2005, died in office at the age of fifty-three following a heart attack on Monday 1 October 2007. He was...

In August 2007 Royal Brunei Airlines sponsored two Sabahans to fly to Sydney for the Sandakan Memorial Dedication at Burwood Park in Sydney.(SABAH NEWS)
January 1, 2008... In August 2007 Royal Brunei Airlines sponsored two Sabahans to fly to Sydney for the Sandakan Memorial Dedication at Burwood Park in Sydney. Saumin Gadalip @ Kaingal, 82, of Kampong Koparingan, and Domina OKK Akoi, 87, of Paginatan Ranau were...

Mrs. Jean Knappett, 80, daughter of the US novelist, Agnes Keith, paid a visit to Sabah in August 2007 at the invitation of the state government.(SABAH NEWS)
January 1, 2008... Mrs. Jean Knappett, 80, daughter of the US novelist, Agnes Keith, paid a visit to Sabah in August 2007 at the invitation of the state government. Accompanied by her daughter, Leslie Sellers, Mrs. Knappett visited the restored bungalow in...

Pengembara.(SABAH NEWS)(Correction notice)
January 1, 2008... Contrary to the statement by Horton (BRB 2007:260), Wanderer in Malaysian Borneo is not "the last we are going to get in this line." The BRB is assured by Mr. Gallop that at least one further volume is in press. A couple of other errors crept...

Aceh Research Training Institute.(SARAWAK NEWS)
January 1, 2008... Professor Michael Leigh, the former Director of the Institute of East Asian Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), now serves as the Director of the Aceh Research Training Institute (ARTI) in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The Institute was...

Institute of East Asian Studies.(SARAWAK NEWS)
January 1, 2008... Dr. Daniel Chew was appointed to the post of Sino-Borneo Chair in the Institute of East Asian Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, on October 15 2008. Dr. Chew is currently working on a study of the social identities of the Chinese in Sarawak...

Professor V.T. King.(SARAWAK NEWS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... In early August 2008 Professor V.T. King (University of Leeds) delivered the keynote address on the theme of "Borneo studies: perspectives from a jobbing social scientist" at the International Conference of the Malaysian Social Science...

Dr. R. Kiew and Ms. J. Sang continue their work on limestone begonias in Sarawak.(SARAWAK NEWS)
January 1, 2008... Dr. R. Kiew and Ms. J. Sang continue their work on limestone begonias in Sarawak. Nine new species were described, making a total of 15 begonias now known from the Kuching Division (Kiew and Sang, 2007, Gard. Bulletin Singapore 58: 199-232).

Dr. S.Y. Wong.(SARAWAK NEWS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Dr. S.Y. Wong (UNIMAS) has been collecting specimens, especially Araceae, Homalomeneae and Schismatoglottideae, in the limestone of Southwest Sarawak, the Song-Kanowit system, the Bintulu shales, and Mulu National Park. Additionally, successful...

Dr. F.S.P. Ng.(SARAWAK NEWS)
January 1, 2008... Dr. F.S.P. Ng as botanical advisor to the Sarawak Biodiversity Council (SBC) designed an ethnobotanic garden in Kuching to showcase plants of cultural importance to Sarawak. The garden is open to the public and will eventually contain about 500...

Alastair Morrison.(SARAWAK NEWS)
January 1, 2008... Alastair Morrison is convalescing in the assisted care section of his residence, St. Andrew Village, Canberra, after having suffered a broken leg in early December. Your Editor and Alastair's many Sarawak and Australian friends wish him a...

Pulong Tau National Park.(SARAWAK NEWS)
January 1, 2008... Pulong Tau National Park (PTNP). The Pulong Tau (which means 'Our Forest' in the Penan language) Nationai Park is located between the Limbang and Marudi Districts in northeastern Sarawak. It occupies an area of 59,817 hectares of the Kelabit...

Dayak Bidayuh National Association (DBNA)/UNESCO Multilingual Education Pilot Project.(SARAWAK NEWS)
January 1, 2008... Dayak Bidayuh National Association (DBNA)/UNESCO Multilingual Edueatioa Pilot Project. A multilingual education seminar was organized by the Bidayuh language development project committee on 30-31 January 2006 at the DBNA headquarters in...

Datuk Wan Othman bin Wan Hamid Al-Khatib.(SARAWAK NEWS)(Obituary)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Datuk Wan Othman bin Wan Hamid Al-Khatib, the composer of Ibu Pertiwi Ku, which was adopted as Sarawak's national anthem in 1988, died aged seventy-seven in hospital on 25 March 2008. He also composed other popular songs. Sometime Treasurer of...

Conklin, Harold C., 2007, Fine Description: Ethnographic and Linguistic Essays.(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Conklin, Harold C., 2007, Fine Description: Ethnographic and Linguistic Essays. Joel Kuipers and Ray McDermott, eds., New Haven: Yale Southeast Asian Studies, Monograph 56, xvii + p. 511. ISBN 0-938692-85-2. For many of us who were...

Fadzilah Majid Cooke, editor. Asia-Pacific Monograph 1: State, Communities and Forests in Contemporary Borneo.(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Fadzilah Majid Cooke, editor. Asia-Pacific Monograph 1: State, Communities and Forests in Contemporary Borneo, 2006. Canberra: The Australian National University Press. 208pp. The contributions to this monograph, State, Communities and...

K. S. Jomo and others, 2004, Deforesting Malaysia: The Political Economy and Social Ecology of Agricultural Expansion and Commercial Logging.(Book review)
January 1, 2008... K. S. Jomo and others, 2004, Deforesting Malaysia: The Political Economy and Social Ecology of Agricultural Expansion and Commercial Logging. London: Zed Books, 253 pp., tables, maps, bibliography, index. RM 50.00. Although published in...

Jamie S. Davidson 2008, From Rebellion to Riots: Collective Violence on Indonesian Borneo.(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Jamie S. Davidson 2008, From Rebellion to Riots: Collective Violence on Indonesian Borneo. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 274 pp. This reviewer has often lamented the absence of a wider theoretical relevance in much...

Charles Clarke and Ch'ien Lee, 2004, Pitcher Plants of Sarawak.(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Charles Clarke and Ch'ien Lee, 2004, Pitcher Plants of Sarawak. Kota Kinabalu: Natural History Publications, ISBN 963-812-091-X, 81 pp. Pitcher plants are of particular interest to naturalists as they have evolved a complex container-like...

R. A. Cramb, 2007, Land and Longhouse: Agrarian Transformation in the Uplands of Sarawak.(Book review)
January 1, 2008... R. A. Cramb, 2007, Land and Longhouse: Agrarian Transformation in the Uplands of Sarawak. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series, No. 110. Copenhagen, Denmark: NIAS Press, 422 pp. Over 20 years ago, in my first semester of...

Calvin R. Rensch, Carolyn M. Rensch, Jonas Noeb and Robert Sulis Ridu, 2006, The Bidayuh language: yesterday, today and tomorrow.(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Calvin R. Rensch, Carolyn M. Rensch, Jonas Noeb and Robert Sulis Ridu, 2006, The Bidayuh language: yesterday, today and tomorrow. Bidayuh Language Development Project. Kuching (Sarawak, Malaysia): Dayak Bidayuh National Association; xiv +449...

Ling How Kee, 2007, Indigenising Social Work: Research and Practice in Sarawak.(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Ling How Kee, 2007, Indigenising Social Work: Research and Practice in Sarawak. Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, 204 pp. Map, references, index. ISBN 978-983-3782-26-0. RM 27.50. The author...

Ramy Bulan (with Amy Locklear), Legal Perspectives on Native Customary Land Rights in Sarawak.(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Ramy Bulan (with Amy Locklear), Legal Perspectives on Native Customary Land Rights in Sarawak, 2008. Seri Kembangan, Selangor: Suruhanjaya Hak Asasi Manusia/Human Rights Commission of Malaysia. ISBN 978-983-2523-52-9, pp. viii + 171. Since...

Christopher Hugh Gallop, Man and Society in the Novels of Muslim Burmat: A Critical Analysis.(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Christopher Hugh Gallop, Man and Society in the Novels of Muslim Burmat: A Critical Analysis. Unpublished MA thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia, November 2000. 255pp. 'Muslim Burmat' is the pen-name used by Dato Paduka Awang Haji Muslim bin...

Wong, Danny Tze Ken, 2004, Historical Sabah: Community and Society.(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Wong, Danny Tze Ken, 2004, Historical Sabah: Community and Society. Kota Kinabalu: Natural History Publications (Borneo) Sdn. Bhd, viii + p. 179. ISBN 983-812-090-1. Historical Sabah: Community and Society by historian Danny Wong Tze Ken...

Desire for Progress: the Kelabit Experience with Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Rural Development in Sarawak, East Malaysia.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... Since the early 1990s anthropological analysis of"development" has cast a serious doubt on the feasibility and the desirability of "development" itself. Considered as a failed industry, it therefore needs to be rejected. The Kelabit...

Space, repetition anal collective interlocution: psychiatric interviews in a Borneo longhouse.(Author abstract)(Report)
January 1, 2008... An analysis is presented of psychiatric research interviews conducted among the Iban, a longhouse dwelling people of Sarawak, Malaysia. it draws on transcripts of interviews recorded in the course of carrying out research into schizophrenia in...

Assessing trade-offs in multiple-objective tropical forest management.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... While tropical forests continue to be cleared at alarming rates, the debate over how best to conserve them often proceeds without a clear understanding of the trade-offs that result from different management alternatives. Because timber is the...

Phylogenetics and phylogeography of the South Pacific alpine plant Oreomyrrhis: Insights into global alpine biogeography.(Author abstract)(Report)
January 1, 2008... Alpine vegetation worldwide constitutes the alpine ecosystem, the only terrestrial biome that is distributed across a large latitudinal gradient and reaches a global distribution. Plant groups distributed in multiple alpine systems thus present...

Burning issues: control of fire management in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.(Author abstract)(Report)
January 1, 2008... In 1997-1998 an estimated eight million hectares of forest and land went up inflames and caused a haze crisis that darkened skies across the region for three months. Local, national and international stakeholders were moved to improve fire...

Impacts of selective logging on tropical-forest butterflies of Borneo.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... Commercial, selective logging is a major cause of habitat disturbance in Southeast Asian rainforests, yet despite much research there is little consensus on the impacts of disturbance on biodiversity. I used fruit-baited traps to sample...

Impact of India-Asia collision on SE Asia: the record in Borneo.(Author abstract)(Report)
January 1, 2008... Borneo occupies a central position in the Sundaland promontory of SE Asia. It has a complex Cenozoic geological history of sedimentation and deformation which began at about the same time that India is commonly suggested to have started to...

Evolutionary history of Philippine birds.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... With some 7,000 islands lying adjacent to a continental shelf, a known geologic history, and high levels of endemism, the Philippine islands are of great interest to biogeography. Throughout history, the majority of the Philippines have...

Blood, timber, and the state in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... West Kalimantan (West Borneo) has a history of violent communal conflict. It also has extensive forests that have been looted for decades. The argument will be that these two are linked, but not by the grievances of the forest dwellers. Except...

Can oil palm plantations be made more hospitable for forest butterflies and birds?(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... Rising global demand for palm oil is likely to exacerbate deforestation rates in oil palm-producing countries. This will lead to a net reduction in biodiversity unless measures can be taken to improve the value of oil palm plantations. Here, I...

Social fabric: circulating pua kumbu textiles of the indigenous Dayak Iban people in Sarawak, Malaysia.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... Within Borneo, the indigenous Iban pua kumbu cloth, historically associated with headhunting, is steeped in spirituality and mythology. The cloth, the female counterpart of headhunting, was known as women's war (Linggi 1999). The process of...

Morphological analysis of the human burial series at Niah Cave: implications for late Pleistocene-Holocene Southeast Asian human evolution.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... It has been debated whether a human dispersal originating from southern mainland Asia replaced the original, late Pleistocene modern human populations inhabiting the islands of Southeast Asia or whether observed morphological changes (and...

Educational discourses and literacy in Brunei Darussalam.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... Over the last century, the small Malay Islamic Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam, on the northern coast of Borneo, has moved away from an oral tradition, to a print culture and towards mass literacy. Discovery of oil in the early part of the 20th...

Essays on health and labor supply in developing countries.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... This dissertation is comprised of two chapters that examine labor supply and health in the developing world. The first chapter focuses on the labor supply of older people in Indonesia. In developed countries, most workers depend on public and...

The persistence and conservation of Borneo's mammals in lowland rain forests managed for timber: observations, overviews and opportunities.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... Lowland rainforests on Borneo are being degraded and lost at an alarming rate. Studies on mammals report species responding in various ways to habitat changes that occur in commercial forestry concessions. Here we draw together information on...

A fresh look at shifting cultivation: fallow length an uncertain indicator of productivity.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... Shifting cultivation is practiced by millions of farmers in the tropics and has been accused of causing deforestation and keeping farmers in poverty. The assumed positive relationship between fallow length and crop yields has long shaped such...

A grammar of West Coast Bajau.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... This dissertation is a description of the grammar of West Coast (WC) Bajau, a western Austronesian language spoken in Sabah, Malaysia by some 60,000 people. Drawing extensively from elicited data as well as a corpus of compiled texts, I...

A social monogamy, extra-pair paternity, and dispersal in the large treeshrew (Tupaia tana).(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... Monogamy occurs in only 5% of mammalian species, but is significantly more common in the Euarchonta: primates, dermopterans, and treeshrews (15% spp.). However, many of these species do not breed monogamously, indicating the need to understand...

The state versus indigenous peoples: the impact of hydraulic projects on indigenous peoples of Asia.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... Asserts that many Asian nations, in their drive to industrialize, have chosen national identity and economic development over the survival of their indigenous peoples. Utilizes case studies in Malaysia, India, and China to examine the...

The demise of swidden in Southeast Asia? Local realities and regional ambiguities.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... Swidden farmers throughout Southeast Asia are rapidly abandoning traditional land use practices. While these changes have been quantified in numerous local areas, no reliable region-wide data have been produced. In this article we discuss three...

The fork once taken: from the British Crown Colony of North Borneo to the Federated State of Sabah, East Malaysia 1963-1965: a creative memoir.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... A collection of memories--vignettes--of an experience that took place forty-two years ago--between 1963 and 1965. It is about a place, its flora, fauna and peoples--their lives and customs; and a time of political change; the shedding of its...

Patterns of local mobility in an Iban community of West Kalimantan, Indonesia.(Author abstract)(Report)
January 1, 2008... This study examines the concept of mobility in relation to small-scale, subsistence-oriented societies, in which groups and individuals create complex resource networks in order to satisfy physical and social needs. Mobility is...

Is Iban hunting a costly signal? An evaluation of the scale and context of costly signal production.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... In the field of human behavioral ecology, Costly Signaling Theory (CST) is often employed to explain the existence of seemingly "wasteful" behaviors such as hunting and distributing game widely among non-kin. These behaviors are economically...

Brokering authority: translating knowledge, policy and practice in forestry institutions in Indonesia.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... This dissertation examines the nexus of research, policy and practice from village to global levels regarding forest management and local communities' control over forest resources and improved local livelihoods in Indonesia. I investigate how...

The labor brokering state: the Philippine state and the globalization of Philippine citizen-workers.(ABSTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... The Philippine state, as a labor broker produces, distributes and regulates Filipino migrants, as citizen-workers, globally. As a labor brokering state the Philippine government produces and distributes workers for various types of capital and...