Dayak
From Freepedia
The Dayak (also Dyak) are indigenous occupants of Borneo. The name, meaning 'upstream' or 'inland', was applied by the mainly Islamic coastal population as a blanket term for over 200 tribal groups, each with its own language and culture. Traditionally, each group lives in a communal longhouse. There are about 3 million Dayaks (est. 2003) on Borneo.
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History
It is believed that the indigenous peoples on Borneo, including the Dayaks, are descendants of Austronesian peoples from Asia who are believed to have arrived about 3000 years ago, displacing or augmenting the previous population. The immigrants spoke Austronesian languages from which the Dayak languages are descended. About 2400 years ago, the inhabitants learned metalworking skills from the Asian Dongson culture. In the 1950s, the Dayaks were still using metal and stone tools.
The Iban 'Sea-Dayaks' have a good record of their history, partly in writing. For more on the Iban history see Iban.
Economy
The Dayak practice slash and burn agriculture. The jungle is burnt down to produce rice paddies. Each farm plot is the property of a family-group (Iban: 'bilek') who live together in a longhouse. To be the first to cultivate a plot of primary jungle is the source of enormous prestige. After the jungle has been burnt down and the area cleared, the men dig holes and the women plant the seeds in them. In the morning, offerings are made to 'Simpualang Gana', the God of the land.
To prevent over-exploitation through slash and burn, a patch of land is only worked for a few years and then left fallow for preferably at least ten years. However, overpopulation in the Apo Kayan highlands has brought the Kenyah to break this rule, thus empoverishing the land to the extent that only a tall grass (alang alang) can grow there.
Religion
The Dayaks believe in a dragon goddess named Aso. They believe that Aso is guardian of the dead and that Aso would oversee all journeys of the dead from one world to the next.
The Dayak religion is called Kaharingan, which is a form of animism. However the Indonesian government considers their religion to be a form of Hinduism to fit the thinking of Pancasila. Some Dayaks have converted to Christianity and a tiny number of them have converted to Islam and Buddhism as well in the recent years.
Society
Kinship is traced in both the male and female line. The existence of famous ancestors increases prestige and can increase the bride-price asked for a woman. Teknonymy (calling the father or mother after the child) is common practice.
Headhunting was an important part of Dayak culture. In contrast with South American practices, not the shrunken head (the skin without the skull), but the skull was kept. The captured enemy heads were triumphally brought back to the settlement, received by the women, tied with rattan and hung in bundles from the ceiling of the longhouses. The skulls were placed over the hearths. Each community had a special warrior (Tau serang) who led the raids against the enemy. But besides such massive raids, there were also individual retaliation attacks or they could be the result of chance encounters in the forest. There has also been occasional cannibalism for spiritual reasons.
Dayaks like to party. Not only during festive occasions like weddings, but also impromptu, such as for the arrival of a guest (with the advent of tourism this is, however, either not done for every visitor or made into a tourist attraction). A very potent liquor is 'served' on such occasions and one is supposed to get severely inebrieted. Ceremonial dances are performed in very colourful dresses and feather headdresses with elaborate parangs.
Another popular drug beside alcohol is tobacco, which is grown locally and can be of high quality. The use of sirih (betelnut) is also fairly widespread.
Metal-working is quite elaborate and especially used for making parangs (machetes). The blade is made of a softer iron for strength with a narrow strip of a harder iron wedged into a slot in the cutting edge for sharpness (the rest of the blade is softer to avoid breakage). The headhunting necessitated being able to draw the parang quickly. For this purpose, the parang is fairly short (which also makes more sense for trailcutting in a dense forest). It is holstered with the cutting edge facing upwards and at that side there is an upward protrusion on the handle, so the parang can be drawn with the side of the hand without having to reach over and grasp the handle first. The combination of these three factors makes for an extremely fast drawing-action. The ceremonial parangs used for dances are as beautifully adorned with feathers as the dresses are.
"La-kia" is a name given to the Dayak by Sarawakian Chinese. This is however regarded as an insult by the Dayak themselves.
Politics
In 2001 the Indonesian government ended the colonisation of Kalimantan that began under Dutch rule in 1905. Under Indonesia's transmigration programme, settlers from densely-populated Java and Madura were encouraged to settle in Kalimantan, but their presence was, and still is, resented by the Dayaks. Economic development of the region, particularly logging, is also damaging the Dayaks' land and sacred sites. It can be argued that the Dutch colonisation has been replaced by an Indonesian one.
From 1996 to 2003 there were violent attacks on Madurese settlers, including a resurgence of the beheading practises and cannibalism, though not done in the traditional way (partly because the Madurese didn't play by the Dayak rules [1]; "there has not been one conflict out of many between the Dayak and the Madurese that did not involve the killing of a Dayak person by a Madurese, and then the refusal of the Madurese to submit to Dayak adat"), so this can not be seen as a resurgence of the practises.
Further reading
- Victor T King, Essays on Bornean Societies (Hull/Oxford, 1978).
- Benedict Sandin, The Sea-Dayaks of Borneo before White Rajah Rule (London 1967).
- Stranger in the Forest, Eric Hansen (penguin, 1988) - a thrilling travel log by an informed traveller.
