Head-hunters, black, white, and brown

by Alfred C. Haddon

The Punans represent the lowest grade of culture in Borneo. They are nomad hunters, who combine with the chase the simple exploitation of jungle produce. Without social organisation they are incapable of serious combination, and are alike incapable of any real endemic improvement or of seriously affecting other peoples.

The purely agricultural tribes that cultivate padi on the low hills or in the swamps form the next social stratum.

The Kalamantans were evidently a weak people, as they have been repressed and often subdued by other peoples. For example, the Kadayans and the Mĕlanaus have been very largely affected by the Malays, and the Iban have harassed the Land Dayaks, and the latter had previously been influenced by the Javano-Hindu colonisation of Borneo. It is also probable that some of the tribes of this group of peoples have been modified by contact with the Chinese. It is suggestive that all the stone implements Hose has collected have been obtained from Kalamantans, either the pure or mixed stock.

These indigenous tillers of the soil have been hard pressed by various swarms of foreigners. The Kenyah-Kayan migration was that of a people of a slightly higher grade of culture. It is true they also were agriculturists, but their social organisation was firmer, and they were probably superior in physique. Possibly they introduced iron weapons; if so, this would give them an enormous advantage. At any rate they were clever smiths. These immigrant agricultural artisans, who were directed by powerful chiefs, had no difficulty in taking possession of the most desirable land.

From an opposite point of the compass in early times came another agricultural people, who strangely enough have strong individualistic tendencies, the usually peaceable habits of tillers of the soil having been complicated by a lust for heads and other warlike propensities.

Although inclined to raid their neighbours, the Iban do not appear to have made much headway—certainly not against the Kayans and Kenyahs. Conquest implies a strong leader, obedience to authority and concerted action. So far as I can gather, the Iban only became formidable when led and organised by Europeans, and at the present time the individualistic temperament of the Iban manifests itself, even under the leadership of an English civil officer.

The Malay was a yet higher social type. His political organisation was well established; he had the advantage of religious enthusiasm, for Islamism had no small share in the expansion of the Malay. In Borneo he is not a cultivator of the soil, but is a keen trader, and this is another factor in the Malay expansion, especially when coupled with pluck and enterprise. Although a trader, the Malay is essentially a pirate; he seeks to exploit the people with whom he comes in contact, and there is a sporting element in his character, as I understand it, which is not compatible with steady trade. It seems that it was chiefly the Malay in his rôle of pirate who incited and led the Sea Dayak in his raids on other tribes. While the glory and heads fell to the Iban, the valuable spoils of war and the slaves were the booty of the Malay.

Then appeared on the scene the Anglo-Saxon overlord. The quality of firmness combined with justice made itself felt. At times the lower social types hurled themselves, but in vain, against the instrument that had been forged and tempered in a similar turmoil of Iberian, Celt, Roman, Teuton, and Viking in Northern Europe. Now they acknowledge that safety of life and property and almost complete liberty are fully worth the very small price they have to pay for them.

I do not know what were the conditions of the early Chinese trade with Sarawak, but at present the Chinaman is a legitimate trader. Owing to the settled state of the country under the white men’s rule, he is rapidly increasing his sphere of influence, and by his better business habits he is ousting the Malay. Even now the intrepid Malay trader will be found paddling his trading canoe in the upper waters of the rivers of Sarawak, where the Chinaman dare not venture; but wherever the Government builds a fort, Chinamen lose no time in erecting their stores, and proceed to absorb all the trade that previously was in the hands of the Malay.