Abstract
This chapter discusses the restructuring process of the basin society of the Jelalong River in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with a particular focus on the history of trade in forest resources and recent forest development. The Jelalong basin has long been a source of forest resources. Since the nineteenth century, many different ethnic groups have settled in the basin to access forest resources, resulting in various interactions among the groups. The basin society created through this process is currently undergoing significant changes because of the recent expansion of oil palm plantations. People who previously lived in villages along the river (for example, in longhouses) and made their living through slash-and-burn rice cultivation as well as hunting and gathering now build huts along the roads constructed for the plantations and have begun planting their own oil palm crops. They have not necessarily abandoned the longhouses completely; rather, they regularly commute between the riverside and roadside. In addition, some of these people are also wage earners in the neighbouring town of Bintulu. By moving opportunistically between the three residential hubs, they are building a spatial infrastructure that allows them to thrive in all three economies: the natural economy along the river, the plantation economy along the road and the urban economy in Bintulu.
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Notes
- 1.
According to Rob Cramb and J. Dian (1979), the people of KT/JL village had lived in the area for 12 generations.
- 2.
Pengiran is a title for Brunei nobles, but in reality they are said to have fulfilled the role of a local bureaucrat or a tax collector.
- 3.
Figure 15.2 represents the names of the ethnic groups dwelling in each village but, as previously discussed, it is difficult to clearly differentiate villages and ethnic groups because of the complexity of the ethnic intermingling in Jelalong, which is extreme even compared with other areas in Sarawak.
- 4.
Rattan is cited as a particularly popular trade item. See Takeuchi et al. (Chap. 22) for an in-depth history of rattan trade in the region.
- 5.
Many of these low-lying areas are wetlands so it is difficult to bring in heavy machinery and logging by timber companies is nonexistent. As these places are frequently flooded during the rainy season and not suitable for rice cultivation, relatively abundant forests still remain.
- 6.
Simple huts are also called langkau jungap in Iban. Many use sago, lilik and biru leaves as roofing material.
- 7.
- 8.
After a fire in March 2011, AW/JRD village was separated into AW village (five households) and JRD village (20 households).
- 9.
MS village can be considered an exception as it is located along the Tubau River. This is discussed further in Sect. 15.6.
- 10.
Nungkun api is an Iban tradition that requires its followers to light a fire in the kitchen once a month, even if the longhouse is vacant. If the tradition is not followed, a penalty must be paid. Although TL/JS village is of Penan origin, Iban traditions have been incorporated into their customs.
- 11.
Locally, the small-scale fresh fruit bunches dealing sites dotting the region are called ‘ramps’. The fresh fruit bunches that small farmers bring to the ramps are later transported to plantation oil mills by lorry.
- 12.
In 2010 a perimeter survey conducted by the Sarawak state government represented a new way of surveying and registering land in the inland indigenous communities. However, details regarding the survey and registration process are still lacking. The state government has emphasised that this is a new concept developed to maintain the indigenous inland inhabitants’ land rights, but many within the inland indigenous community remain sceptical.
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Acknowledgments
This study was partly supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (issue numbers 18401008, 18720224 and 22221010).
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Soda, R., Ishikawa, N., Kato, Y. (2020). From River to Road? Changing Living Patterns and Land Use of Inland Indigenous Peoples in Sarawak. In: Ishikawa, N., Soda, R. (eds) Anthropogenic Tropical Forests. Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7513-2_15
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